Post by alkaloids » April 23rd, 2009, 6:54 am
So I''ve decided it''s time to actually put a ring on my lucky girl''s finger and so decided to do what I do best, which is research thoroughly on the internet. Naturally, I found you guys, and would appreciate very much your advice. I also look forward to showing off the ring here sometime soon, and can''t wait to photograph it.

We were at Costco and went looking at rings there so that I could get a feel for what she likes. We share very similar tastes on about everything, and so I was happy to have her point out and be excited about the emerald cut diamond rings, and the thing she seemed to be most concerned with is that it has lots of sparkles from a large area - ie. solitaire is no good. I''m a huge fan of the beautiful EC stones I''ve soon and so that''s great. I prefer the more ''elegant'' three-stone (emerald+baguettes) settings, but she seemed to be excited about a halo.

My budget is about $4k. $4300 or so would be fine, but under is good, too.

I have a cousin who is a jeweler but is now in gemology school in California somewhere. He has offered to help but is very flaky and the family has lots of horror stories about rings disappearing for 2 years to get re-sized. He has offered to find me a great EC stone within "a day" but that was about 4 days ago so I''m kind of ruling that out.

My mom removed some small diamonds from a ring that she''d gotten from her mother (and my sister scavenged some rounds from it for her e-ring), as the center diamond was too big for her to want on a ring (a high quality problem, I think...) and she''ll just turn it into a pendant. Those are 10 tapered baguettes that I don''t know anything else about. I should be getting them in the mail today or tomorrow though. I want to do a custom setting using at least some of those stones and I think that getting it done locally is the only feasible way to do that. And it should be awesome.

I have gone to two B&M jewelers in Austin - Kruger''s Diamonds (been around since 1906, very well-regarded), where the woman was super-helpful and said that if I found anything online they''d be glad to try to get it for me for cheaper or if not, that''s fine, they didn''t mind. Also they would be very happy to, if I get my mom''s stones and I don''t love them, trade them in for what I do want. They said they will also then take a return (for trade-up) of a stone that''s not theirs - just in general very accommodating and eager to help, which I really appreciated. Their stones seemed good, but expensive.

I also went to Americus Diamond where they claim to have the largest diamond inventory in Austin, and are very well-reviewed. They didn''t have one single loose EC in any size/grade/anything, but she had a couple ~1ct in rings. Though the woman assured me that she would find me the diamond I wanted, if I get it elsewhere they will charge an extra 1$/point for labor if I don''t get the diamond through them. Seems reasonable, but less overtly accommodating. They also had a big "40% off" banner outside the store which was a turn-off, but like I said, they''re well-reviewed.

At the second store I went to I looked at the EC''s they had set in rings and could tell that one had a "dead" step and I couldn''t get it to flash at me from any angle, and the others also seemed mediocre and discolored in general. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to look at a diamond and tell it''s sub-par and it''s not just *zomgsomethingsparkly* (this is obviously my first diamond purchase). The woman also didn''t have the (EGL) certs on either stone and would have to look into tracking them down - as she couldn''t find them in about 5 minutes in the back. I wasn''t excited about this, either.

I told both of them that I was looking for a G-VS2 or better, and my cousin told me that I should be able to get about 1ct for the ~$3k that I''m planning on spending on the center stone, though I haven''t heard back yet from either (it''s not been long, though). I also told them that I''m looking for Table/Depth %''s in the 60-66 range (though I guess I am willing to let the depth go a little if the crown height is still good).

I have also been in contact with both Whiteflash and GOG as I heard from the forums here that those are excellent for finding good fancy cuts. Both seem willing/eager to help and I''m happy with the correspondence with both, though Whiteflash a bit better. In any case, here are the diamonds I have narrowed it down to:

Whiteflash 0.85 D VS2 - $2800
http://www.whiteflash.com/diamonds/Diamond_Details.aspx?idno=2081724 - This one is pretty good. I am considering having WF pull the diamond in to get IS/ASET/Sarin on it.

Good Old Gold 0.92 F VS2 - $2500
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/5392/ - That stone seems to have a typo on the page, but looking at the cert the table % is 64, not the 86.--. It also is my favorite I think, and already has the ASET/IS images. Let me know what your eyes think of them.

Solomon Bros 1.00 G VS2 - $2850
Sku: 3YH77488Y - I can''t figure out how to link directly to a diamond''s page, which seems pretty remarkable...

Solomon Bros 1.01 G VS2 - $3262
Sku: 3YF39HF7

Abazias 1.01 G VS2 - $3080
http://www.abazias.com/database/NewDiamondInfo.asp?stock=58619899&src=builder
- This diamond seems to be listed as two different prices depending on how you find it. Either 3080, which seems pretty good, or 3436, which seems less good.

And I had some ring designs in my head but am now thinknig that perhaps the best thing to do would be to get her the stone, set it in something very simple (like a solitaire) and then design one with her that we have the jeweler incorporate the other diamonds into. It seems like a good choice and sounds like something that the local store I am more excited about would be happy to do.

So what do you think? Am I doing this the right way? Am I missing anything? TIA.