Choose a diamond with good color and clarity

        Everyone wants to buy an engagement ring with the most exquisite diamond. What makes the perfect engagement ring is a matter of opinion, but what isn’t an opinion is having the best diamond that can be found in that magnificent setting. A diamonds ability to sparkle is what makes the difference between a great diamond and a mediocre diamond. There are many choices on what shapes, sizes, color and clarity are popular but the one thing that isn’t negotiable is having that glistens. In this article I will give you some tips to finding the diamond that shines brighter than all the rest.

How to choose a sparkly diamond?

      I’ve noticed in my years of being a jeweler that having an engagement ring that sparkles makes the special lady wearing it feel confident and loved. The sparkle of the diamond depends on the cut. If the cut of a diamond is perfect, any light that goes through the diamond bounces back directly to the eye from the front of the stone. You want to make sure that the facets are as perfect as possible to achieve that and a trained stone cutter will do just that to attain that perfect quality diamond. I want to give you a short answer for this question:  How to choose a sparkly diamond? Pay most of your budget to have a better cut quality. 

The Cut, Most Important Factor of the Diamond

       It is a jeweler’s job to notice the symmetry of the facets of a diamond. In an excellent cut diamond light will enter the stone, hit the facets and reflect directly back to the surface. That traveling of the light through the stone creates the sparkle you see. A great way I explain it to my clients is, think of the stone as a mirror. With a mirror we see our reflections when light hits it and shines back at us. Have you ever been to a fun house that had a room of crazy mirrors? Those mirrors showed your reflection but it is a skewed version of it. A diamond works identically, if you have a diamond with a poor cut that light won’t shine out in the same manner because the facets are distorted. A lot of people come to me dead set on having a specific color and/or clarity grading for their stone, I once again like to stress the importance of the cut. Let’s go back to our imagery of the diamond being a mirror, you can have a mirror with a yellow or green tint and if it’s a good mirror you still see your actual reflection perfectly. So even if you don’t have the highest grading on color and clarity you can still have a knock out diamond. Below are some pictures of the same size diamonds with different cut quality. You can see as the cut quality becomes better with each diamond; the reflection becomes better as well. You should always look at the cut grading before buying a stone. A cut grading can usually be found on the diamond certificate, but not always. Unfortunately, most of the time the only cut grading you will get is for a round shaped diamond. So if you’re looking for a different shape you will need the help of a professional and reliable jeweler to make sure you’re getting a quality stone. My company’s employees at Wedding Bands & Company sit beside you and not only guide you but teach you through the process. One way we do it here is we literally let customers compare diamonds side by side. We create a unique lighting environment to really educate our clients on what they are looking at. When they see the difference for themselves it makes them more confident in their choice and; therefore, happier with the end product.

How Can a Diamond Have High Performance in sparkle?

        Accuracy in cutting diamonds is the answer. Like I said earlier in my post, a diamond’s sparkle depends on the symmetry of its facets. I could talk all day about achieving perfectly symmetrical facets and the importance but, we will save that for another blog post.

Which Shape of the Diamond Sparkles the Most?

        Round shaped diamonds have most sparkle compared to all other shapes of the diamond. Assume you have 10 diamonds with exact same color, exact same clarity, and exact same size of 1 carat; but they are in 10 different shapes. If you compare all the shapes reflections, you'll see the round cut sparkle is best. This is because of the symmetry the round shape, but even within the shape there are different ways to cut it. With round diamonds you can get precision cuts that make it even more glitzy. These precision cuts are created with the newest latest technology, but unfortunately can only be used when creating round brilliant cut diamonds. The fancy cuts will, hopefully, one day follow suit but we just aren’t there yet.

What is the best precision cuts for round shape diamonds?

        Hearts and arrows are two types of diamond precision cut for round diamonds that gives you the most sparkle. Unfortunately, it takes special tools to identify if a diamonds has these precision cuts, which just adds to the reasons of why it’s so important to have a very knowledgeable jeweler helping you pick out your stone. OF course, we all know that no two diamonds are the same, but with the help of an expert you can guarantee that you are getting a stone that started out as a rough crystal and with special attention and care became a stunning diamond

Hearts and Arrows Identification

Arrows

You can see arrows if you look at diamond faces up with a special tool. We want to see a perfectly-formed arrowhead and shaft. The thickness of the arrows should not be too thin or too fat. Also, the arrowhead must adjust with the shaft well and be formed perfectly. In fact, what you see is the reflection of the other side of the diamond.

When you look top-down at arrows diamond, you will see small octagonal circle in the middle of the diamonds. It should not be too big or misshaped.

Hearts

For seeing hearts, you have to turn over the diamond the opposite way you would for seeing the arrow cuts. Once again you’d take your special tool and with it you can see eight little hearts. If the diamond cuts perfectly, the proportion of the hearts should be even.

Wrong Believes About Diamond

        Investing your money in a diamond is a huge deal, and one thing that I think is very important for customer’s to know is that there are a lot of myths about diamonds. When you are buying your diamond engagement ring, you need to know what you can expect from your diamond and what is a stretch from reality.

I know it’s hard to believe, but diamonds may chip. Yes, it is true diamonds are the hardest gem on the earth, but you do have to realize they aren’t invincible. Breaking does happen; therefore, you have to make sure the company that you’re working with to set the diamond on your engagement ring are going to take responsibility if that does unfortunately happen. There are certain shapes that are more prone to breakage. This shouldn’t make you shy away from them, just know that because the shape is fancier there is more room for error to occur. The shapes that are more prone to breakage are princess-cut, marquise, and pear-shaped diamonds.

There’s also this saying that you can know if a stone is a real diamond if it can scratch glass. While yes, diamonds can scratch glass, it is ill-advised to try it out for yourself. There are many stones that can also scratch glass so doing that doesn’t do anything but put the diamond at risk for getting scratched, chipped, or broken. If you want to know about a stone, take it to a specialized jeweler who knows their diamonds

I hope this post better helps you understand the importance of cut when picking out diamonds. As always, my jewelers and I are here to help however we can. Because knowing your facts is the best way for you to go in prepared to find the most perfect stone.

Why should we come to you to design my ring?

        We involve you in every step of the process. We will first sit down with you and go over any concerns you have and any specific design elements you want the ring to have. Once we have established exactly what you want the ring to look like, we will proceed with the design process. Once you see this design, if you want to make any changes, or if you have any questions or concerns we will be happy to address them for you. Our role is to help you create the perfect ring and that means we will listen to you and make sure that your ring is truly one of a kind. 

We'll help you to design your dream engagement ring without stress and spending countless hours searching for your perfect ring. All you need to do is click on "Free Consultation" to get started.

By: Koorosh Daneshgar CEO/Design Chief