I wanted to start by saying thank you to all of the posters (past and present) who make this such a great site. I spent a lot of time here reading and learning about this crazy (but fascinating) industry and as some of you know, recently purchased a lovely Brian Gavin Signature H&A. Seen here http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamond/diamond-detail/?product_id=AGS-1040375560005
I received the diamond yesterday and viewed it in many different lighting environments (no under the tree in the sun yet, still waiting for the leaves!) and I have to say, I was extremely happy with the stone! Everything you read about Brian and Lesley is true, they were wonderfully patient and I spoke with both of the a few different times with random questions, which they answered thoroughly. I was apprehensive about the color, but never got around to asking about it and all I can say is the I am definitely not "color sensitive" that stone is WHITE! I checked it out against a white piece of paper in a couple of environments and it looked good! So, I have to say thanks to everyone for helping me with my selection! I am very confident my girl will be blown away!
Now, for the funny story....I could tell that my stone was beautiful but I wanted to compare it to the "WORLDS MOST PERFECTLY CUT DIAMOND" or whatever. So I took the diamond into the HOF dealer that I originally visited way back when because frankly, I was curious how my new diamond stacked up. I had been very perturbed when I first left that vendor and I wanted to prove that I could find a beautiful stone for half of his price. I was very nice and asked if they would mind letting me compare and they obliged. They pulled out a .883 G SI1 and he held them side by side. I didn''t see a difference and he kept checking his papers because he obviously expected his to face up much larger than my .817 but it didnt! First thing he says is "well, ours is rounder than yours", so I look at his paper, it was 6.19x6.24 so WRONG! Next he says, "well what kind of cert do you have?" I gave him the AGS Ideal Cert. and he looked it over. He said, "Obviously, the main difference is ours is cut under 100x magnification." So I smiled. He then put it under the hearts and arrows viewer and said "Oh, it''s choppy at the top, that means there are extra facets." He then flipped it to look at the arrows and said "Yep, they definitely cheated, there are extra facets. Ours only have 57 and our arrows are crisper." I said that mine should as well and he said, nope yours has 58, at least, maybe 59. My first thought was, how could it grade Ideal (0) for symmetry, if it had so many extra facets? But I kept my mouth shut. So I asked to look at each for myself and after spending 15 secs looking at each stone, I for the life of me could not see any difference in either the hearts or the arrows. So I just smiled and said "Well, I just wanted to be close, because your diamonds are so beautiful." His reply? "Well close only counts in Horseshoes and handgrenades. You do have a nice diamond though, its just not a HOF."
I was very curtious, and thanked him again for letting me compare but I couldn''t help but smile. I am really happy with my purchase and am glad that I used a different jeweler (C Sterling in Perrysburg, big shout out!) for my setting purchase. The wonder staff there told me I had a gorgeous diamond and that the final ring would look amazing. Thought you guys might get a kick out of that!
I received the diamond yesterday and viewed it in many different lighting environments (no under the tree in the sun yet, still waiting for the leaves!) and I have to say, I was extremely happy with the stone! Everything you read about Brian and Lesley is true, they were wonderfully patient and I spoke with both of the a few different times with random questions, which they answered thoroughly. I was apprehensive about the color, but never got around to asking about it and all I can say is the I am definitely not "color sensitive" that stone is WHITE! I checked it out against a white piece of paper in a couple of environments and it looked good! So, I have to say thanks to everyone for helping me with my selection! I am very confident my girl will be blown away!
Now, for the funny story....I could tell that my stone was beautiful but I wanted to compare it to the "WORLDS MOST PERFECTLY CUT DIAMOND" or whatever. So I took the diamond into the HOF dealer that I originally visited way back when because frankly, I was curious how my new diamond stacked up. I had been very perturbed when I first left that vendor and I wanted to prove that I could find a beautiful stone for half of his price. I was very nice and asked if they would mind letting me compare and they obliged. They pulled out a .883 G SI1 and he held them side by side. I didn''t see a difference and he kept checking his papers because he obviously expected his to face up much larger than my .817 but it didnt! First thing he says is "well, ours is rounder than yours", so I look at his paper, it was 6.19x6.24 so WRONG! Next he says, "well what kind of cert do you have?" I gave him the AGS Ideal Cert. and he looked it over. He said, "Obviously, the main difference is ours is cut under 100x magnification." So I smiled. He then put it under the hearts and arrows viewer and said "Oh, it''s choppy at the top, that means there are extra facets." He then flipped it to look at the arrows and said "Yep, they definitely cheated, there are extra facets. Ours only have 57 and our arrows are crisper." I said that mine should as well and he said, nope yours has 58, at least, maybe 59. My first thought was, how could it grade Ideal (0) for symmetry, if it had so many extra facets? But I kept my mouth shut. So I asked to look at each for myself and after spending 15 secs looking at each stone, I for the life of me could not see any difference in either the hearts or the arrows. So I just smiled and said "Well, I just wanted to be close, because your diamonds are so beautiful." His reply? "Well close only counts in Horseshoes and handgrenades. You do have a nice diamond though, its just not a HOF."
I was very curtious, and thanked him again for letting me compare but I couldn''t help but smile. I am really happy with my purchase and am glad that I used a different jeweler (C Sterling in Perrysburg, big shout out!) for my setting purchase. The wonder staff there told me I had a gorgeous diamond and that the final ring would look amazing. Thought you guys might get a kick out of that!