The Three Main Parts of a Fashioned Diamond Are the Crown the Pavilion and the
Diamond Quality Factors
One of the first things nearly people larn about diamonds is that not all diamonds are created equal. In fact, every diamond is unique. Diamonds come in many sizes, shapes, colors, and with various internal characteristics.
All polished diamonds are valuable. That value is based on a combination of factors. Rarity is one of those factors. Diamonds with sure qualities are more rare—and more than valuable—than diamonds that lack them.
Jewelry professionals apply a systematic way to evaluate and discuss these factors. Otherwise, there would exist no style to compare ane diamond to another. And in that location would exist no way to evaluate and discuss the qualities of an individual diamond. Diamond professionals apply the grading organization developed by GIA in the 1950s, which established the utilize of 4 important factors to describe and classify diamonds: Clarity, Color, Cutting, and Carat Weight.
Diamonds can exist fashioned into a variety of shapes and still be beautiful.
These are known as the 4Cs. When used together, they describe the quality of a finished diamond. The value of a finished diamond is based on this combination.
A diamond's value is often affected by the rarity of one or more of the 4Cs. Colorless diamonds are deficient—nigh diamonds have tints of yellow or chocolate-brown. Then a colorless diamond rates higher on the color grading scale than a diamond that is light xanthous. Value and rarity are related: In this case a colorless diamond is more than rare and more than valuable than one with a slight yellowish color. The same relationship betwixt rarity and value exists for clarity, cut, and carat weight.
The 4Cs describe the individual qualities of a diamond, and the value of an individual diamond is based on these qualities. The terms that people employ to discuss the 4Cs have become part of an international linguistic communication that jewelry professionals can use to depict and evaluate individual diamonds.
Today, the descriptions of each of the 4Cs are more than precise than those applied to almost any other consumer production. And they have a long history. Three of them—color, clarity, and carat weight—were the footing for the first diamond grading system established in India over two,000 years ago.
Color
Subtle differences in colour can dramatically affect diamond value. Two diamonds of the aforementioned clarity, weight, and cut tin can differ in value based on color alone. Fifty-fifty the slightest hint of color can brand a dramatic deviation in value.
This emerald cut diamond is colorless and is a D colour class. – Courtesy Lazare Kaplan Diamonds
In the normal color range, the closer a diamond gets to colorless, the higher its per-carat price. There'due south an especially large spring in the cost of a colorless diamond, which is extremely rare.
Diamonds come in many colors. Diamonds that range from colorless to light yellow and chocolate-brown autumn within the normal color range. Within that range, colorless diamonds are the most rare, so they're the most valuable. They set the standard for grading and pricing other diamonds in the normal color range.
These diamonds—graded E, K, and Z—represent diamond colors well-nigh the top, center, and bottom of the GIA Colour Scale. - © GIA & Tino Hammid
At the GIA Laboratory, diamonds are color graded under controlled conditions by comparing them to round bright diamonds of known color, called masterstones.
To eliminate the guesswork from grading a diamond'southward color, graders compare information technology to masterstones that stand for known colors in the GIA D-to-Z scale. - © GIA & Tino Hammid
The GIA D-to-Z scale is the industry standard for colour-grading diamonds. Each letter represents a range of colour based on a diamond's tone and saturation.
Many diamonds emit a visible light called fluorescence when they're exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Although invisible to the human being eye, UV radiations is everywhere. Sunlight contains it. Fluorescent lights emit it, too. Under the right conditions, you can see fluorescence in about 35 percent of gem diamonds.
Blue is the nearly mutual fluorescent color in jewel-quality diamonds. In rare instances, fluorescence can be white, yellow, orange, or many other colors.
Strong blueish fluorescence can make a light yellow diamond await closer to colorless in sunlight. Blueish and yellowish are color opposites and tend to cancel each other out, then bluish fluorescence masks the yellow color. If the fluorescence is too strong it can make the rock look cloudy or "oily," which can lower the value of the diamond.
Clarity
Few things in nature are absolutely perfect. This is as true of diamonds as anything else. Diamonds have internal features, called inclusions, and surface irregularities, called blemishes. Together, they're called clarity characteristics. Clarity is the relative absenteeism of inclusions and blemishes.
Amidst other things, blemishes include scratches and nicks on a diamond's surface. Inclusions are more often than not on the inside, and some might break the surface of the stone. Sometimes, tiny diamond or other mineral crystals are trapped within a diamond when it forms. Depending on where they're located, they might remain afterwards the stone has been cut and polished, and they can affect a diamond's advent.
Clarity characteristics might have a negative influence on a diamond'south value, but they tin have positive effects as well. For one thing, they help gemologists separate diamond from imitations. (This is easier with included diamonds than with flawless ones.) And because no two diamonds take exactly the aforementioned inclusions, they can help identify individual stones. They can also provide scientists with valuable data about how diamonds form.
No ii diamonds have exactly the same clarity characteristics in exactly the same locations. This fact helps gemologists identify individual diamonds.
Like the rest of the 4Cs, clarity'south influence on value is straight related to the concept of rarity. Flawless is the top form in the GIA Clarity Grading System. Diamonds graded Flawless don't take visible inclusions or blemishes when examined under 10-power (10X) magnification by a skilled and experienced grader.
As clarity increases, and if all other value factors are equal, diamond price per carat too increases.
Flawless diamonds are very rare—and so rare, in fact, that it's possible to spend a lifetime in the jewelry industry without e'er seeing i, and they command top prices.
At the other stop of the scale are diamonds with inclusions that tin be hands seen by the unaided eye. Betwixt the two extremes are diamonds with inclusions visible only nether 10X magnification. Stones in the heart range make up the majority of the retail market place.
At that place are xi clarity grades in the GIA clarity grading system. They are Flawless, Internally Flawless, ii categories of Very, Very Slightly Included, ii categories of Slightly Included, and three categories of Included.
The consequence of a clarity characteristic on the clarity grade is based on its size, number, position, nature, and colour or relief.
The GIA clarity scale includes eleven diamond clarity grades. The calibration narrows at the acme considering at that place are very few diamonds in the higher clarity grades.
Sometimes, one factor makes more difference to the clarity grade than the others. But it's not ever the same one. The relative importance of each factor varies from diamond to diamond. For example, an inclusion off to the side of a stone would have less touch on on clarity than the same size inclusion located straight under the table. In this case, the position is probably the determining factor.
A clarity feature'south effect on a diamond'south clarity class is adamant by 5 factors: size, number, position, nature, and color or relief. - Gary Roskin GG, FGA
Occasionally, if an inclusion has the potential to crusade damage to a stone, it can affect the grade. But this is rare, and usually applies only to Included ("I") diamonds.
Diamond professionals use a set of terms that originally included very very slightly imperfect, very slightly imperfect, slightly imperfect, and imperfect. In recent years, the term imperfect has been replaced with included. (GIA uses included in its clarity grading system.)
These terms were shortened to the initials VVS, VS, SI, and I. The abbreviations eventually gained acceptance throughout the international diamond customs. Their use is now widespread regardless of how the words they correspond translate into diverse languages. Very may interpret to tres in French, for instance, simply in France a very slightly included diamond is still a VS. Even a country like Russia, with a completely dissimilar alphabet, uses the aforementioned abbreviations.
Cutting
A beautifully finished diamond is dazzling, with every facet displaying the craftsman's skill and care. When a diamond interacts with lite, every angle and every facet affects the amount of light returned to the eye. This is what gives it its face up-up appearance.
In efforts to differentiate themselves, and considering of increasing demand for precision in cutting, many manufacturers fashioned diamonds to exacting standards throughout the decade. Annotation the precise pointer pattern in this 1.54 ct diamond.
A diamond's proportions make up one's mind how lite performs when information technology enters the diamond. If light enters through the crown and goes out through the pavilion, the diamond volition look dark and unattractive. Diamonds with different proportions and practiced smooth make amend utilise of the low-cal, and will be brilliant, colorful, and scintillating.
A well-cutting diamond displays the beauty consumers look to run across in a diamond.
A beautiful diamond looks the way it does because of three optical furnishings: white calorie-free reflections called effulgence, flashes of color called fire, and areas of light and dark chosen scintillation. Pattern is the relative size, organisation, and contrast of vivid and dark areas that result from a diamond'due south internal and external reflections. There must be enough contrast between the vivid and dark areas to give the design a crisp, precipitous await.
The diamond manufacture has long known that some proportion combinations make light perform better than others. In recent years, even so, scientists and researchers in GIA'due south Enquiry Department and the GIA Laboratory accept shown that there are many variations and combinations of proportions that will maximize brilliance and burn in round brilliant cut diamonds.
Equally a general dominion, the higher the cut grade, the brighter the diamond. Under fluorescent lighting, these diamonds (left to correct) brandish loftier, moderate, and low effulgence.
The term "cutting" also can depict a fashioned diamond's shape. Shapes other than the standard round bright are called fancy cuts. They're sometimes called fancy shapes or fancies. Fancy shapes also have names of their own, based on their shapes. The best known are the marquise, princess, pear, oval, center, and emerald cut.
Fancy-shape diamonds, along with the classic round diamonds, are pop choices for today'south jewelry consumer. Courtesy Lazare Kaplan Diamonds
Carat Weight
Many goods are sold past weight—by the kilogram, ounce, pound, or ton. Fifty-fifty people who accept never bought a diamond are used to the idea that weight and price are related. They empathize that a larger diamond is probably more than valuable than a smaller one. But there are ii things that ofttimes surprise people when they start learning nigh diamonds and carat weight.
The first is the precision with which diamonds are weighed. Diamond weights are stated in metric carats, abbreviated "ct." One metric carat is two-tenths (0.2) of a gram—just over seven thousandths (0.007) of an ounce. One ounce contains almost 142 carats. A small paper clip weighs about a carat.
The metric carat is divided into 100 points. A signal is one hundredth of a carat.
Diamonds are weighed to a thousandth (0.001) of a carat and and then rounded to the nearest hundredth, or point. Fractions of a carat tin can hateful cost differences of hundreds—even thousands—of dollars, depending on diamond quality.
Over a carat, diamond weights are usually expressed in carats and decimals. A 1.03-carat stone, for case, would be described as "i point oh three carats," or "one oh 3." Weights for diamonds that weigh nether a carat are commonly stated in points. A diamond that weighs 0.83 carat is said to weigh "eighty-3 points," or called an "eighty-three pointer."
Big high quality diamonds are rare and valuable gems. This diamond weighs a remarkable 100.twenty carats and is internally flawless. - © GIA and Harold & Erica Van Pelt, courtesy The Steinmetz Group
The relationship betwixt rarity, weight, and value can be surprising. People know that a pound of carbohydrate costs twice as much every bit a half-pound of saccharide. Simply diamonds aren't a commodity like saccharide. Their price depends on a number of variables—weight is only one of them. So information technology'southward not ever piece of cake to understand, or explain, why a 1-carat diamond is worth, say, $6,000, while a two-carat diamond of like quality might be worth $15,000.
It'due south really a uncomplicated concept: Large diamonds are more rare than small diamonds. The more scarce something is, the more it is worth. And so a larger stone doesn't just toll more than. Information technology also costs more than per carat. A 1-carat diamond weighs the same as 4 0.25-carat diamonds. But even if all the other quality factors are equal, the larger diamond is worth much more the sum of the four smaller diamonds.
Carat weight can also be symbolic. While the visual deviation between a 0.98-carat diamond and a 1.01-carat diamond is negligible, many people will opt for the larger stone—even at a much higher price. Some weights are considered "magic sizes": one-half carat, three-quarter carat, ane carat, etc. At that place's non much divergence in their weights, but if both are D-color round brilliants with identical clarity and cut, the size makes all the difference. They actually don't look much different, only if a consumer'due south heart is set up on the one-carat size, the deviation is enormous. The fact that the second stone is slightly over the "magic" one-carat size can give it equally much equally a 20 percentage difference in price with only a 6-indicate difference in weight.
This oval shape diamond weighs 1.01 carats and fabricated the one.00 carat magic size range. When diamonds reach the so called magic sizes the value per carat increases. – Courtesy Lazare Kaplan Diamonds
Don't confuse the term carat with karat. Karat is a unit of measure used to describe how much pure gold there is in an alloy.
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