A diamond's characteristics can be summarized by the four C's - Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat
The cut refers to the way the facets of a diamond are positioned. Cut is important because it determines the amount of light, fire and brilliance of a diamond. A diamond should be cut so that light is refracted internally from facet to facet and eventually reflected back out of the crown or top surfaces of the stone. If the facets' angles are not set properly the light will not follow the right path which means that less light is reflected to the eye. A well-cut diamond sparkles with brilliance and flashes with intense rainbow-colored fire. The Gemological Institute of America
(GIA) classifies cut as Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor.
Color
A diamond's color combined with its cut create the brilliant sparkle that is seen when light passing through the diamond is reflected back. No color is best as it allows the maximum amount of white light to pass through the diamond and be refracted by the facets before being reflected back. The Gemological Institute of America has a scale to categorize the color in a diamond. The less the color, the more valuable the diamond. The scale ranges from D (preferred) to Z.
| Colorless | D - F |
| Near Colorless | G - J |
| Faint Yellow | K - M |
| Very Light Yellow | N - R |
| Yellow Tint | S - Z |
Clarity
The clarity refers to the amount of flaws in the diamond. There are two types of naturally occurring flaws. The internal markings are called inclusions and the external markings are called blemishes. These markings interfere with the passage of light through a diamond, and affect the price, if not beauty of a diamond. Most diamonds contain some inclusions that can only be seen under magnification. The magnifying instrument that is used to examine and evaluate diamonds is called the jeweler's loupe.
| Flawless | FL | No flaws at all |
| Internally Flawless | IF | Has minor surface blemishes |
| Very, very slight inclusions (first and second degree) | VVS1 VVS2 | Very small inclusions that are very difficult to see at 10 times magnification |
| Very slight inclusions (first and second degree) | VS1 VS2 | Very small inclusions that are difficult to see at 10 times magnification |
| Slight inclusions (first degree) | SI1 | Inclusions are fairly easy to see at 10 times magnification |
| Slight inclusions (second degree) | SI2 | Inclusions are easy to see at 10 times magnification |
| Imperfect (first degree) | I1 | Inclusions are visible to naked eye when viewed through top of the stone |
| Imperfect (second degree) | I2 | Inclusions are easily visible to naked eye |
| Imperfect (third degree) | I3 | Inclusions are very visible to naked eye |
Carat
Carat is a measure of weight for diamonds. One carat represents 200 milligrams (0.2 grams or one fifth of a gram), and is divided into 100 points. One point is one 100th of a carat. For example, a 3/4 (0.75) carat diamond is a 75 point diamond.
How to examine a diamond
The first step is to understand the 4 major characteristics above that determine the quality of a diamond. Next, you should know what are the ideal conditions in which to examine a diamond.
- Diamonds should always be examined outside of a setting
- The setting can conceal flaws and yellow tints in the diamond.
- Use a magnifying glass
- You really need to have a magnified view of the diamond to identify small flaws and tints. Use a professional jeweler's magnifying glass (loupe) with 10 times magnification.
- View diamonds under fluorescent lighting only.
- Other types of lighting can give a diamond an artificially enhanced sparkle.
- Use a diamond boat.
- View diamonds placed upside down in a diamond boat. A diamond boat is a very white piece of paper folded into the shape of a trough. The whiteness of the paper allows you to see yellow tints in the diamond more easily. Do not view the diamond on dark velvet because the velvet will make the diamond look whiter and brighter.
Getting another opinion
Get the jeweler to give you a written guarantee of the diamond's grading. Then get the diamond analyzed and graded by an impartial third party gem laboratory such as the Gemological Institute of America or the International Gemmological Institute.
Some common rip-offs
Here are some common ways in which diamonds are misrepresented. Your best protection is to buy loose stones that are appraised by an impartial gem laboratory.
- Under-carating
- Diamonds that are mounted in a ring setting can have inflated weight ratings.
- Diamond treatment
- Fracture filling (sometimes called "Clarity Enhanced") is the technique for covering up flaws. Dyes and coats are also used to make the diamond look better than it really is. A blue dye can disguise the yellow color of a diamond.
Gold Ratings
Karats tell you how much of a metal is gold. The number of karats means how many parts out of 24 is gold. 24 karat means the metal is 100 percent gold. 14 karats means 14 parts out of 24 is gold. The other 10 parts is made up of other metal(s). Gold jewelry is marked with an imprint of the number of karats and a k, for example, 14k can usually be found on the inside of the ring band. Again go to a reputed jeweler when buying gold to have a better chance of getting what you pay for.
Different types of metals used for rings
Your ring can be made up of one of these metals or a combination of them. For example, one popular combination is yellow gold and platinum.
Gold
Gold does not always have to be yellow. By mixing in other metals a gold alloy can be produced with white, pink and green colors. Here's the composition of various gold alloys.
| Yellow gold | Gold, copper and silver |
| Green gold | Gold, silver, copper and zinc |
| Pink gold | Gold and copper |
| White gold | Gold, zinc, copper and either nickel or palladium |
Platinum
Platinum is a popular choice for wedding and engagement rings. This rare metal resembles white gold and silver, but is more durable than silver, and can cost much more than gold because of its scarcity.
Common types of settings
Prong
In this type of setting a set of metal claws hold the gem in place. The Tiffany setting is a six prong setting. Other styles of prong settings are four-prong, fishtail and belcher.
Channel
This setting is used for mounting a series of small gems of the same size in a row.
Pavé
With this type of setting a group of small gems are set together in a cluster so that no metal shows between them. This setting is also referred to as a cluster setting.
Ring Insurance
You should add the ring as a household possession to your homeowner's or renter's policy. Don't wait. Why risk it after you spent all that time and money?
No comments:
Post a Comment