What is the most important ‘C’ when choosing your perfect Diamond
No doubt that you have been inundated with massive amounts of information about Diamonds. Most jewellers would have emphasised the importance of Colour and Clarity. They would then talk about the rarity of the Diamond and about how hundreds of tons of earth was mined to find that one perfect Diamond that they are now offering you. They would, most importantly, be correct. If you have the resources to purchase such a beautiful diamond, by all means you should! But if you are a smart and astute buyer, the most important ‘C’ for you to consider would have to be the Cut.
The cut of the Diamond is undoubtedly its most important feature. The cut of the Diamond has the greatest possible impact on the overall look and beauty of the Diamond. In simple terms the Cut basically refers to the sparkle and the life of a Diamond. If a compromise was required and one or more of the 3 other ‘C’s had to be sacrificed, the Carat (size) should be the first, followed by the Clarity and then the Colour but the Cut should never be compromised.
The cut grade refers to the play of light within the Diamond and is the objective scope of the light performance of a Diamond. In an ideal cut diamond an equal amount of light is returned out of the table (top) of the Diamond. Both shallow and deep cut Diamonds do not return an equal amount of light due to light leakage from the bottom and the Diamonds end up looking dull and lifeless. Shallow and deep Diamonds are available in the highest colour (D) and the highest clarity (FL) but these will never be Diamonds of the highest value as they are poorly cut.
All Diamonds are cut to precise mathematical standards. This is what makes the cut so important. The Diamond cutter has a choice when cutting the Diamond to sacrifice the weight of a Diamond (Carat) to improve its overall Brilliance, Fire and Scintillation. Although the 3 features are very hard to quantify, the Brilliance refers to the reflection of the light, the Fire refers to the dispersion of light into all the colours of the spectrum and the Scintillation refers to the overall sparkle when the Diamond is moved.
So how does one find out about the cut of a Diamond? This is where the 5th ‘C’ comes into play. Certification is the process of getting an independent third party (a Diamond laboratory) to analyse the Diamond for the Carat (100 points make a carat. 50pointer is the same as 0.50ct), the Colour ( D-Z on the GIA scale), the Clarity (FL to I3) and Cut.
The most popular Diamond laboratory is the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) and their grading certificates are generally regarded as the benchmark for all the other certificates. In 2005 the GIA unveiled a Diamond cut Grading system for the Round Brilliant cut Diamonds in the D-Z colour range. While the new grading system concluded that there was no single set of proportions that defined a well cut Round Brilliant cut Diamond, it also stated that there were many different proportions that produced attractive Diamonds.
The GIA certificate grades Round brilliant cut Diamonds for cut in the following order :
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Fair
- Poor
Whether you’re in the market for an engagement ring or simply want to spoil yourself, you should always select a cut within the good to excellent range.
