advt 120x600

advt 120x600

BUYING a diamond is a new experience for a layman. www. RingofDiamond.com website provides you all the information that you require before buying any diamond jewelry. It explains various characteristics of a diamond and how these characteristics affect appearance, beauty and price of a diamond jewelry.

There are 4 basic characteristics of diamond that must be noticed while buying a diamond. These 4 characteristics are called "4 Cs". These "4 Cs" are cut, clarity, carat and color.

In this article, we will discuss color and cut of a diamond.

Color of Diamond

Diamond color is one of the 4 basic characteristics of a diamond which determines the cost of a diamond. A color grade means colorlessness of a diamond. In other words, diamonds that are low in color or are colorless have higher color grade and hence more price. Colorless diamonds are sometimes also called white color diamonds. The less the color of a diamond, the more is its color grade. This is because a pure diamond has no color. It is simply transparent. There are chemical impurities in the diamond crystal that make it appear colored. The most common colors among diamonds are yellow and brown.

When diamond is formed in earth crust, the pure carbon atoms forming a diamond crystal may contain some impurities like nitrogen and boron. Nitrogen is responsible for yellow or brown color, whereas boron imparts gray color to diamond.

We rarely find pure white color diamonds in nature. This is because carbon crystals of diamond are mostly contaminated with impurities. Most of the diamonds with faint yellow color or faint brown color are considered as near colorless diamonds as faint color is mostly unnoticeable by unaided human eye. Another most important factor to be kept in mind while buying diamonds is that for diamonds of small size, color is hardly noticeable. Color of diamond becomes more prominent when we are buying a diamond with larger carat size.

Color of only a loose diamond stone is noted. If a diamond stone is mounted on a metal, color of the metal will affect appearance of color of the diamond. For example, a diamond mounted in yellow gold will have yellowish tint. A diamond stone mounted in silver, platinum or white gold will appear color less. Most of the gemological laboratories such as GIA and AGS do color grading for diamonds which are not mounted.

Sometimes we call diamond color as a relative phenomenon. What it means is that since small difference in color is undetectable, experts use master color grading chart to find the exact color. They compare color of a diamond with master color grading chart and note down the exact color of the diamond. No one can assess the color of a diamond by simply looking at it.

Most of the people prefer to buy diamonds which appear nearly colorless instead of buying completely colorless diamonds. While faint color hardly affects beauty of a  diamond, it sharply reduces its price. The only buyers of pure diamonds with no color are a class of people enjoying superior economic status, who want to show off their wealth and social status.

Cut of a diamond is responsible for its brilliance. It is observed that human eye detects brilliance before color. Hence some experts consider cut of a diamond more important than its color. Many other experts laugh at such considerations. I opine that most of the human beings can not tell minor difference in colors of diamonds. But cost does matter to them. So go for a cheap diamond that looks nice to your eyes instead of looking for a higher color grade. Wise people look for higher carat weight instead of wasting time and money on petty issue like small difference color.

Please don't misinterpret our opinion. We are ridiculing only those people who look for purest highest color grade diamonds. Colors upto J grade are considered as near colorless. If we go for still lower color grades, they are more easily noticeable by human eye and hence do lower the beauty of diamonds. "J" color diamonds are the cheapest and still nearly color less diamonds. "D" color diamonds are extremely colorless and hence costliest. But their cost is also extremely high. Do remember, only color is not the factor that determines the beauty of a diamond. Cut, clarity and carat also play big role.

Cut of Diamond

As we earlier said, cut of a diamond is responsible for its brilliance. The angles and symmetry of a diamond cut determine its ability to manage light, which leads to brilliance. In an ideal cut diamond, light enters the diamond through table facet, passes to the pavilion, reflects from one side of pavilion to other side, reflects out of the diamond through the table to viewers eye. This is illustrated in the diagram. Arrows show the path followed by the light in the ideal cut diamond. Ideal cut diamonds are those which follow a set of formulae devised to maximize the brilliance. These formulae determine angles of cuts, proportions of diameter and depth of crown as well as pavilion.

In a poorly cut diamond, light enters the diamond through table, then most of the light escapes out of either side of the pavilion. Only small portion of the light may reflect back to the viewer's eyes. Hence poor cut leads to poor brilliance in the diamond stone. Diamond cut is the whole procedure followed to turn a raw diamond into a finished diamond stone ready to be part of a jewelry.

The real beauty of a diamond is determined by the cut. Whereas all the other 3 C's are determined by the nature, diamond cut is a "man-made" feature. Diamond cut expresses scientific and artistic skills of a diamond cutter. Diamond cut also requires highly sophisticated tools and saws, blades and polishing tools.

"Ideal diamond cut can increase price of a diamond by as much as 30 percent," said Balbir, a gemologist and owner of a diamonds showroom at Mumbai. "Big brands are spending millions of dollars to train diamond cutters so that they can produce the best diamond cuts. Unfortunately, diamond cut is the least understood factor for most of the consumers in India. Just think, why does a diamond look pleasant to your eyes? Simply because of its brilliance. Diamond cut, proportions and finish are what determine its brilliance. A diamond is beautiful if it is well cut, otherwise it is not," Balbir added.

In fact, there are two objectives that a gemologist keeps in mind when he decides a cut procedure for a raw diamond. Firstly, the cut brings out maximum brilliance. Secondly, there is a minimum loss of carat weight in the cut process. However, both these goals are in contrast with each other. To achieve maximum brilliance, we have to cut diamond in such a way that more and more carat weight is lost. On the other hand, to retain maximum weight, we have to proceed with such a cut that produces less brilliance. The cutters try to evolve such a procedure that compromises both the factors to an optimal result. Since most of the consumers are more aware of carat weight than ideal diamond cut, the gemologists prefer to compromise brilliance, and produce a stone with higher carat weight. Adopt any procedure, you can never prevent loss of atleast 50 percent of carat weight.

"We try to achieve maximum carat weight for which we have to sacrifice the concept of an ideal cut. This is because we have to loose very high carat weight of a rough diamond. But general consumers don't pay premium for a good cut. So we go with ideal cut only when we have diamonds with high grade in clarity, color and carat. Such diamonds are very rare and are specially produced for elite consumers only," said Franklin Obort, a diamond cutter from the USA.

A diamond can be beautiful even when it is not ideally cut. To cut a diamond ideally, a diamond merchant needs help of a highly skilled cutter. Since there is extreme shortage of skilled cutters, ideal cut is rarely achieved. Besides, ideal cut diamonds are sold at premium price. Also, an ideal cut diamond is hardly visibly better than a bit lowly cut diamond. So, don't insist to buy only ideal cut diamond.

Cut grade is mentioned in the diamond certificate. Diamond cut determines the beauty of diamond by affecting not only brilliance but also fire and scintillation. Brilliance is the reflection of all the light from all surfaces and inside of the diamond. Fire is dispersion of light into seven colors of visible light. Scintillation is the sparkle or flash of light emitted by the diamond when it is moved with respect to source of light.

Cut Grade Scale

Excellent Diamond Cut (Ideal Cut): A diamond is said to be ideally cut when it produces the maximum possible brilliance, scintillation and fire. It reflects reflects almost all the light that enters into it resulting into exceptional beauty. Only three percent of the total diamonds belong to this grade.

Very Good Diamond Cut: The diamond reflects most of the light that enters into it and produces great fire and brilliance. To a common man, it appears as good as excellent cut diamond. However, it has less price than excellent cut diamond.

Good Diamond Cut: The diamond reflects most of the light that enters into it to produce a good fire and brilliance that most of the people desire. This cut is even more cheaper and offers best value of money invested.

Fair Diamond Cut: Most of the light entering the diamond escapes from both the sides of pavilion or bottom part of the diamond. This cut is preferred when size of diamond is very small so that small difference in brilliance is hardly noticeable. Most of the diamonds in the world belong to this category. Though, it is not as good as good diamond cut, it is acceptable by most of the general consumers.

Poor Diamond Cut: These diamonds are too deep or too narrow that most of the light entering them leaks out. They apparently appear dull to naked eye. Most of the good brands do not sell these diamonds.

* * * * * *

For most of the first-time-buyers, a diamond is a diamond. Cut, color, clarity and carat does not matter much. Even they are not aware of these fuzzy words. What matters to them is that they want to buy a genuine piece of jewelry and avoid buying the fake one. Cut, color, clarity and carat matters to those who are going to buy expensive jewelry. A certified jewelry, though a bit expansive, will serve their purpose well.