secret decoder ring
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2004
- Messages
- 4
Hello all, this is my first post and thanks to all who posted earlier regarding asschers and color/clarity issues as it really helped me to find my own preferences within our price range ($8,500 top end). FYI, I''ve spent pretty much my entire week and a half holiday vacation reading through the price scope posts, so glad I found this forum.
So, I came to the following conclusions on my personal Asscher preferences:
- like more octagonal shapes (deeper cut corners), similar in character to the Royal Asscher''s (don''t think we can afford a real R.A. for the size diamond I want, but then never checked) - Thanks to all who posted pictures of the original asscher, generic asscher (square emerald cut) and new Royal Asschers. These helped me tremendously.
- like smaller table size since the majority of the light return & scintillation appears to be at the outer edges of the diamond (outside of table) when seen face up.
- am tolerant of lower colors, I actually like the warmer light return, more reminiscent of sun light I guess. But I totally understand other people’s preferences for that cool “icy” look. But of course the biggee, lower color is much easier on the pocket book.
- prefer length x width ratio to be as near 1.00 as possible (as near square as possible).
Next I searched under the following criteria:
- total depth 66% or less
- table size 59% or less
- excellent symmetry / excellent polish
- color J or better
- length & width near equal
I came up with two possibilities (actually much less than our top end price limit) and I checked several online retailers. After correspondence with Diamond.com; Abazia''s; Abazia''s gave me the best customer service. Abazia''s sent me the GIA and sarin reports for both prospects, I confirmed my continued interest and they ordered both diamonds to their location so that they could send me actual pictures (incl. idealscopes).
Diamond A
1.30 carat VS1 G dimensions: 6.33x6.32x4.10
depth 64.9%, table 56%, crown height 13.1%, pavilion depth 48.9%
polish excellent / symmetry excellent
$6,996
Diamond B:
2.11 carat VS2 J dimensions: 7.24x7.24x4.76 (notice perfect 1.00 ratio)
depth 65.7%, table 58%, crown height 13.7%, pavilion depth 50.1%
polish excellent / symmetry excellent
$7,986I attached a picture of them side by side.
I like them both very much, I like that the corners are nipped in rather deeply. After staring at them for quite a while I feel the larger one shows the pavilion step facets showing through the table look to be more evenly spaced. I can see the smaller one is definitely whiter and has that icy light return, and the larger one has the warmer light return.
Little sidenote: My hubby can’t understand my fascination over the asscher style cut, he says it looks like a secret decoder ring, but I love the geometry and elegant balance of it.
By the way, this is my “we’ve been married 15 years now and I would love to have a bigger diamond” diamond. (My original engagement ring is a sweet 0.48 carat heart shape, but we were practically kids when we married so I never thought of any of the technicalities back then.)
So that being said, I''ve decided on the 2.11 carat VS2 J diamond. We''ve placed the order and should arrive Wednesday or Thursday!!!
Regarding the setting, I felt it best to go to a local jeweler to custom make the setting. Part two of my diamond journey is to figure out the ring setting.
I’ll post the pictures of it when it is done.
Happy New Year to all!
Agnes
Agnes