Evaluating the quality of a diamond in an engagement ring can be quite a task. If you are not accustomed to inspecting diamond rings closely, you may have a hard time differentiating high-quality diamonds from low-quality ones – just by looking at them. That is why all diamonds, sold by high-end retailers have stringent grading systems that ensure high-quality diamond production. You can invest in these diamonds by increasing your knowledge about the way they’re graded. Here is a concise overview, of how most diamonds are graded:
The Four Cs
A typical grading standard comprises of the four C’s – cut, clarity, color, and carat weight. The four Cs are a mnemonic for one to recall them better. Based on an individual evaluation of the four Cs, a final report is created that helps accurately assess the quality of a diamond.
The Cut
The type of cut a diamond has impacted the quality as well as significant changes in the look of a diamond.
Modern cuts are believed to have a typical, stunning brilliant look – this is evident through the blinding, fire, and light flashes. These cuts are made through impeccable craftsmanship to achieve the symmetry, facets, and table lengths to provide numerous reflecting surfaces. All of this is achieved by keeping in mind that there aren’t any blind spots in the diamond ring. These blindspots are called bow tie-effects or shadows. Thus, an expert can easily identify them in a diamond ring as black areas that are non-reflecting surfaces. These are a manufacturing error due to reckless placement of reflecting surfaces – deeming one or more surfaces devoid of light, thus creating a shadow.
This assessment is different for every diamond cut. Cuts are divided into two main types – brilliant cuts and lustrous diamond cuts.
Brilliant cuts give the typical fiery scintillations. They include the classic round cut, oval, pear, cushion, princess, radiant, etc. check more designs here at Solitaire Jewels
Whereas the lustrous cuts have a subtler more ethereal look – without the blinding fire and light flashes. These include vintage cutting techniques and comprise of emerald, Asscher rose and heart-shaped diamond rings. They tend to have greater shadows because of the lack of facets and reflecting surfaces as compared to brilliant-cut diamond rings.
The Clarity
Similar to the cut, the clarity is depended on the level of skill of the cutter. Diamonds may get damaged during the processing period. This causes variable inclusions of the main interface. These inclusions are at times inevitable, thus diamond retailers sell these diamonds with various grading sales – based on the assessment of these inclusions.
The scale comprises levels of defects and is expressed through alphabets and numbers. I, SI, VSI, VVSI are mostly seen – they are interpreted as inclusions, small inclusions, very small inclusions, and very small inclusions respectively with the latter accounting for a high-quality diamond with higher price points.
The Color
Similarly, the color of a diamond is evaluated on a grading scale. Ideally, scales between K J I H G F E D. The higher the color grade, the lesser the color is going to be. Generally, diamonds belonging to the two extremes of the grading scale are considered as fairly low-quality diamonds. One that lacks tint or those with a blinding amount of color, one that day absorbs the prismatic effect of light on the diamond. Although, white diamonds are preferred colorless since color variation can give a tiny if yellow – thus disrupting the quality of the diamond.
Synthetically made diamonds have a variable color spectrum and can be chemically changed to achieve the desired grade of a higher grade.
The Carat Weight
According to this Diamond buying guide, the carat weight has an impact on the quality of a diamond ring. This is because higher carat weight diamond rings, with a bigger interface, tend to show inclusions, shadows, and subsequently scintillations better than smaller carat weight diamond rings. Since the latter does not have as big an interface, their quality grading is not as strict when it comes to analyzing inclusions. Thus, bigger carat weight diamonds warrant stricter inspection.
Bottom Line
You must invest in higher quality diamond rings based on the four parameters discussed for quality assurance. But these can be adjusted quite conveniently based in your budget – thus, you may invest in a fairly high-quality diamond while saving some extra cash.
