clouds in my diamond!

[elmo65]

Looking at a stone to purchase and it is an SI1. I have a faxed copy of the AGS cert and it is hard to tell with the quality of reception, but I think there is only one inclusion and one natural on the stone! The comments section states that clouds are not shown. There must be enough to give an SI1 rating and it is a plural CLOUDS. How much of a red flag is this and how much can it affect the performance of the stone? There was not alot of cloud information when I did a search on this subject...
The stone otherwise is very promising. I will have to have it sent here for inspection, but want to know if I should not even have it sent to me to look at. Thanks for your input!!

 

[Todd07]

I've been going through the same question myself. I was thinking VS2 or SI1. Below is a quote from the tutorial which has been repeated by every reputable jewler I spoke with:


"SI (Slightly Included) and VS (Very Slight) diamonds are just as brilliant as Flawless gems and even experts cannot tell the difference between Flawless and SI diamonds without a loupe."




From my research, the below will make buying an SI1 acceptable.


- A good cert: GIA or AGS. Other certs may be equally stringent but my reading says these certs are a good way to filter out the bad ones when looking at SI clarity.


- A good cut makes it difficult to see inclusions. This is my top priority.I used the "seach by cut quality" or HCA rating link on the PS home page as a filter here.


- Have the supplier confirm that it's eye clean before bothering to send for your inspection. They may even send you a photo.




Cheers

 

[yowahking]

AGS is pretty strict on clarity. I doubt whether your clouds can be visible unless it is over 2ct, but as someone else said, ask if it is eye visible. Sometimes location and high color makes things easier to see. I would rather have clouds than carbon.

 

[elmo65]

It is a 2.03 RB

 

[elmo65]

check that, 2.30!!

 

[moremoremore]

your stone is probably fine! Where are the inclusions? Unfortunately, it is not true that an IF and si1 can only be differentiated by a loupe. The GIA grades have nothing to do with eye visibility and it is a common misconception perpetuated by some vendors (not ps vendors!) that you can can't see vs2 inclusions without a loupe. A lot depends on the size and type and location of the inclusion...Each stone needs to be looked at individually!

And remember...clarity is only face up...

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 8/19/2004 8:22:30 PM elmo65 wrote:

How much of a red flag is this and how much can it affect the performance of the stone? ----------------

Can we see the inclusion plot? Even if the respective clouds are not there...

Given the clarity grade, I would not expect trouble ("expect" is not = "know for sure" of course). And the plural "clouds" is good news - if there are more small ones, than the chance that each is too small to see are better. Actually, if it was just one large "cloud" it would have been plotted along with the other inclusions most likely.

This is one stone worth seeing, as far as I know. It would be better to have pictures (you know, those very magnified pics with darkfield illumination) but otherwise, the odds seem sufficiently in favor of the stone to be worth ordering it to take a look. This is what return policies are for

Just my 0.2, of course.

 

[elmo65]

I am not good with the computer, plus the faxed copy is difficult to read. The plot is in a section that would come up blue if I had it in person. It seems to me that there are hardly any inclusions in it. It must be mostly clouds.....