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Excellent question! As a vendor when I talk about eye clean I always mean through the table eye clean as often even VS inclusions can be seen from the pavilion, I regard the eye clean through the pavilion test to be patently unfair to the grading system as it was devised, but of course will always be happy to say what I can or can not see when asked. Once the stone is mounted it will be viewed table up, and that is how the diamond is graded for clarity, unlike color where it is graded through the side of the stone so that maximum color can be observed.Date: 7/4/2005 3:24:16 PM
Author: rickyrockranger
That hasn''t been my experience with GIA/AGS Si1''s. Are we talking table down eye clean, or through the pavillion?
Maybe I need better glasses!
However, within the context of the conversation, using typical jeweler''s definition, when viewed from the table it will sometimes be possible to see SI! and SI2 inclusions. This will be rarely, thankfully, and will also depend on the visual accuity of the viewer. I have a client who can see VS2''s almost always. These are tiny inclusions that I can not see, but he can point them out to me from accross the desk. I can see things that many can not, so I am impressed with his ability.
Once while attending a continuing education seminar being put on by GIA just prior to the Tucson Gem show I was given a three carat stone with a clearly eye visible inclusion graded by GIA that was graded as a VS1. I was not alone among the participants who were sure that this was at best an SI1 stone, even the instructor was amazed at the grade when asked privatley at lunch. Granted, it was small, black, and the only inclusion in the entire stone, but it was too prominently visible for my tastes to ever be called a VS1, but there it was from the "masters" themselves. This is why I recommend always to look at the stone, not just the paper, no matter who''s paper.
Please do not misunderstand me though, those stones are indeed rare and normally your statement will be correct. The public however depends on us vendors to be at least slightly anal about these things so I wanted to throw my opinion into the ring. What you said is generally true, just not always...
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