About to make purchase - please help!

[nextstepjohnny]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I''m staring down the barrel of my engagement deadline, and have to make a purchase in the next 2 weeks or so. I think I''ve found a good diamond, but am slightly concerned about a few things.

It is a GIA 1.25ct VS2 round, I color, excellent cut with strong blue fluor. It meets my budgetary requirements. However, the HCA score is 2.7, which is kind of high from what I''ve been reading. I have an idealscope image that I will attach when able - I keep getting an error message currently. I''m a little worried that the I with strong blue flour may just be a J that the flour masked. I really would like more of an H color (but at an I price) which is why I went for the I with the fluor. I''ve been told the stone has no milkiness.

Specs:
Depth: 62.5%
Table: 54%
Crown: 35.5 deg
Pav: 40.8 deg
no cutlet
thin-med faceted
lower half has 75% on the cert

Is this still a good diamond?

Otherwise,

I have seen one other virutal stone that I like that has the following specs, and an HCA of 1.1!! But the cut is only very good! Are the crown angles too shallow, or could this be an even better stone? I''m going to try and obtain an idealscope on this one too, but it may be more difficult:
Depth: 60%
Table: 59%
Crown: 33%
Pav: 40.8 deg
no cutlet
med girdle
star length 50%
lower half is 80%

Thanks everyone. I''m sweating bullets as the time approaches!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 10:26:07 AM
Author:nextstepjohnny
Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm staring down the barrel of my engagement deadline, and have to make a purchase in the next 2 weeks or so. I think I've found a good diamond, but am slightly concerned about a few things.

It is a GIA 1.25ct VS2 round, I color, excellent cut with strong blue fluor. It meets my budgetary requirements. However, the HCA score is 2.7, which is kind of high from what I've been reading. I have an idealscope image that I will attach when able - I keep getting an error message currently. I'm a little worried that the I with strong blue flour may just be a J that the flour masked. I really would like more of an H color (but at an I price) which is why I went for the I with the fluor. I've been told the stone has no milkiness.

Specs:
Depth: 62.5%
Table: 54%
Crown: 35.5 deg
Pav: 40.8 deg
no cutlet
thin-med faceted
lower half has 75% on the cert

Is this still a good diamond?

Otherwise,

I have seen one other virutal stone that I like that has the following specs, and an HCA of 1.1!! But the cut is only very good! Are the crown angles too shallow, or could this be an even better stone? I'm going to try and obtain an idealscope on this one too, but it may be more difficult:
Depth: 60%
Table: 59%
Crown: 33%
Pav: 40.8 deg
no cutlet
med girdle
star length 50%
lower half is 80%

Thanks everyone. I'm sweating bullets as the time approaches!

Hi Johnny and welcome!

With the first diamond, if the overall cut precision is good it might be worth consideration, an Idealscope image will tell us more. If you are having trouble posting the image, rename the file something unique with no unusual characters, if that doesn't help email the image to admin and they will post it for you. Some have been having trouble with posting images recently.

Same with the second, if you could get an image for that it would be helpful. When you say the cut is Very Good on the second diamond, is this the GIA report cut grade? Can you also post the diameters for each diamond and the polish and symmetry grades please and the weight of the second stone? The crown angle isn't actually that shallow, it is very slightly shallow so it could be a great stone, more of a 60 60 type with the table size, some like these types of diamond.

 

[nextstepjohnny]

More info as requested:

Both stones have ex/ex polish/symm

Stone 1: 1.25ct 6.89 x 6.93 x 4.32 - idealscope attached

Stone 2: 1.36ct 7.22 x 7.21 x 4.33 - no images yet

Thanks again!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 11:13:09 AM
Author: nextstepjohnny
More info as requested:

Both stones have ex/ex polish/symm

Stone 1: 1.25ct 6.89 x 6.93 x 4.32 - idealscope attached

Stone 2: 1.36ct 7.2 x 7.2 x 4.3 - no images yet

Thanks again!

Thanks Johnny!

The Idealscope image looks good actually.

 

[nextstepjohnny]

So I should not worry about the HCA score of 2.7 for that stone? What do you think about the fluoro and the I color?

I''ve been to B&M stores and seen I stones that look good, but I could definitely tell the color difference between H and I, between G and H was much less apparent (still there, but ok by me). I''m hoping the fluoro will cool off any color of an I. Is that reasonable?

 

[tonyc2387]

Date: 2/23/2010 11:38:13 AM
Author: nextstepjohnny
So I should not worry about the HCA score of 2.7 for that stone? What do you think about the fluoro and the I color?


I''ve been to B&M stores and seen I stones that look good, but I could definitely tell the color difference between H and I, between G and H was much less apparent (still there, but ok by me). I''m hoping the fluoro will cool off any color of an I. Is that reasonable?

1) HCA is a rejection tool to help you screen out many diamonds. Once you have images (and they look good, which it does) the HCA score is no longer relevant.
2) I color is really only where diamonds can usually *start* to show color... it''s still very faint. If it''s cut well, it''ll still be hard to notice the color and should face up very white. The fluor can help, but keep in mind fluorescence is a result of the diamond interacting with UV light, which is much less common indoors...

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 11:51:57 AM
Author: tonyc2387

Date: 2/23/2010 11:38:13 AM
Author: nextstepjohnny
So I should not worry about the HCA score of 2.7 for that stone? What do you think about the fluoro and the I color?


I''ve been to B&M stores and seen I stones that look good, but I could definitely tell the color difference between H and I, between G and H was much less apparent (still there, but ok by me). I''m hoping the fluoro will cool off any color of an I. Is that reasonable?

1) HCA is a rejection tool to help you screen out many diamonds. Once you have images (and they look good, which it does) the HCA score is no longer relevant.
2) I color is really only where diamonds can usually *start* to show color... it''s still very faint. If it''s cut well, it''ll still be hard to notice the color and should face up very white. The fluor can help, but keep in mind fluorescence is a result of the diamond interacting with UV light, which is much less common indoors...

Great post Tony!!

Johnny, Tony explained things beautifully so I don''t have anything to add!

 

[stone-cold11]

The IS image looks like it is place too much into the scope. I would request a correctly taken image.

EDT:
Can you post the GIA report number for the second stone? I would want to see why it is graded GIA VG cut by GIA.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 12:20:49 PM
Author: Stone-cold11
The IS image looks like it is place too much into the scope. I would request a correctly taken image.

EDT:
Can you post the GIA report number for the second stone? I would want to see why it is graded GIA VG cut by GIA.

It looks ok to me, we can see what we need to.

Also again is the Very Good cut grade GIA given or is it a description the vendor is using please Johnny?

 

[stone-cold11]

With the control leakage almost red, I am not sure if the red under the table is leakage or reflection.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 12:36:32 PM
Author: Stone-cold11
With the control leakage almost red, I am not sure if the red under the table is leakage or reflection.

I see what you are saying, also there looks to be a small area of leakage under the table but its probably one of those that might not be visible in reality, Johnny I would ask the vendor concerning this, if it is convenient they could try another image so we can compare if it isn't difficult for them but I think it looks like a well cut stone. Which vendor has it please?

 

[nextstepjohnny]

Thanks for all the great replies!

The vendor is UnionDiamond - I''d purposely not mentioned it before to keep things completely neutral. They have been very helpful in dealing with, but for some reason have had difficulty making good photos of this stone.

As far as the cut, it is actually a GIA Excellent cut. The other, virtual stone, is a very good cut.

I understand most of the info regarding fluoro, but what about in an office or other environment with fluorescent white lights, lights that do actually give off some UV light, would it improve the stone in that setting?

Thanks again, this is a real nerve-wracking experience, and I want to make the right decision.

Does anything think that second stone is even worth a look?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/23/2010 1:17:31 PM
Author: nextstepjohnny
Thanks for all the great replies!

The vendor is UnionDiamond - I'd purposely not mentioned it before to keep things completely neutral. They have been very helpful in dealing with, but for some reason have had difficulty making good photos of this stone.

As far as the cut, it is actually a GIA Excellent cut. The other, virtual stone, is a very good cut.

I understand most of the info regarding fluoro, but what about in an office or other environment with fluorescent white lights, lights that do actually give off some UV light, would it improve the stone in that setting?

Thanks again, this is a real nerve-wracking experience, and I want to make the right decision.

Does anything think that second stone is even worth a look?

No problem Johnny.

I do think the second stone could be worth a look, this is no guarantee of course from the basic info that it will be a great stone or that you will even like it, but the basic proportions suggest it could be worth further evaluation.

As the stone is a GIA Very Good cut could you post the report number please so we can look it up? There isn't any obvious reason right now for the VG cut grade but the report would tell us more and if there are any comments which could affect the cut grade etc.

The SB fluorescence might improve the colour grade slightly in some lighting conditions but it doesn't make much difference, it might help a stone face up perhaps a little whiter than its colour grade but the effect is subtle and not dramatic. Some strongly fluorescent stones can show a bluish glow in some lighting which I and some others think is very attractive, it adds interest to the diamond and reminds me of the stone's gemological origins.

 

[stone-cold11]

yes, it is worth a look. Can you post the GIA report number?

Actually, fluorescent light do not give off much UV light, if any, because it has been captured by the fluorescent coating on the bulb and change it to white visible light.

 

[nextstepjohnny]

The first stone''s GIA report is: 2111611041

For the second stone I do not have the GIA report, but I do have basically all the info that is on the report. The only other info that I have that I had not included follows for the second stone, so add this info to the info from the 1st post.

Girdle: Medium, faceted (3%)
Pav Depth: 43.0%
Crown height: 13.5%
polish/sym: Ex/EX
Fluro: Strong Blue
Star Length: 50%

Comments: Pinpoints are not shown