help me with pears!

[Rose-E]

Thanks everyone for helping me with my last post about timelessness of a ring.  Seems everyone was for the three stone oval, which I still love and will likely get as an anniversary gift someday.  But my BF and I have chosen the pear with halo.....99.9% sure.  
It was just gorgeous and the most stunning thing I have ever seen.  

Now, can everyone help me with choosing s pear stone?  

I know it's hard to tell by numbers itself, I have seen the diamond.  It has the shape that I like.  Here are the stats
GIA certified
1.51 F VS1 
9.4 x 6.29 x 4.21 
Depth: 66.9%
Table: 56%
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Very Good
strong blue fluoro 
very thick to extremely thick, faceted

What do you all think?

I can see the bowtie, which I understand is normal, but the entire rounded part of the diamond seems kinda dark too, like how a perfect round seems dark in some lights????  Is this normal?  Not many stores seem to have pears for me to see in person, which is very important to the BF.  He won't buy form online (no matter how many reviews I've shown him here).  
Also, should I worry about the Fluoro??  What makes a diamond milky???  Will a shiny diamond in a store eventually look milky in 
certain lights?  Does fluoro have anything to do with that?  

What about the "very thick to extremely thick" part????


I feel so clueless, and just drawn to the shiny diamonds in the store that I am mesmorized and am so unsure that I know what I'm looking at.  Please helP!!!!

Thank you!

 

[Stone-cold11]

Ya, the thick, very thick girdle is a concern as it is hiding weight.

Regarding the fluor, it is activated in the presence of UV light, just bring it out into the sun, under a tree or near a window exposed to the sky. If it becomes too milky for your taste then it is too milky for you.

The bowtie, how far are you looking at it from? When you rock the stone from side to side, edge to edge, is it still there? Don't judge the performance of a stone under jewelry store lighting, those are usually set up to make even badly cut stone looks good. Go into a dark corner, under the table, etc, basically look at it in any lighting conditions you can think of.

 

[vbnet]

re: bf being reluctant to buy online. My husband & I were nervous about doing so for my 5 stone cushion. So we shopped online, compared to B&M stores. We decided the savings and quality difference were Significant, so we used a little budget to fly to NY to see the stones we were interested in. Maybe that is an option. Maybe work it in as an early bday gift or something like that. You do have to do your hw in the B&M stores 1st though if you are buying your 1st diamond to get that comfy feeling (I think). Then make contact by email then phone to talk to a vendor or two to see if they have something you are interested in, then go see.

If not, maybe if you post your town, other psrs might have a recommendation there. I'd do a seperate post so you might get hits from people who have a good jeweler but maybe not experience with pears. Good LUCK, I know you'll find a fabulous diamond! Just take your time.

 

[yssie]

re: bf being reluctant to buy online. My husband & I were nervous about doing so for my 5 stone cushion. So we shopped online, compared to B&M stores. We decided the savings and quality difference were Significant, so we used a little budget to fly to NY to see the stones we were interested in. Maybe that is an option. Maybe work it in as an early bday gift or something like that. You do have to do your hw in the B&M stores 1st though if you are buying your 1st diamond to get that comfy feeling (I think). Then make contact by email then phone to talk to a vendor or two to see if they have something you are interested in, then go see.

If not, maybe if you post your town, other psrs might have a recommendation there. I'd do a seperate post so you might get hits from people who have a good jeweler but maybe not experience with pears. Good LUCK, I know you'll find a fabulous diamond! Just take your time.

PS is a fishbowl.. should one of the popular vendors be found to be engaging in deliberate deception I can just imagine the hit that business/reputation would take. From a consumer's perspective it's safer than buying from many smaller independent outfits, IMO.

 

[Amethyste]

Hey There

I am so happy you decided to go with a pear!!! I sure love mine and will certainly for the rest of my life!
Although I bought mine online, I can see why your BF is not inclined to. It's a bit of a risk - but from reputable vendors, things are somewhat just as safe as if you went to the BM store.

I am not a great knowledgeable person when it comes to numbers... My pear has a "thick" part towards the tip, which to me is an added safety with the prongs hugging the tip just there. And my pear doesn't display a bowtie at all. I don't know why not - it doesn't have the greatest cut/symmetry either... But I just love the way it looks and relied mostly on what my eyes were telling me. They loved it! I have a strong blue fluor as well in mine - but since the color is in the low scale, the fluor is not a factor in my pear.

I would say to look at the pear in every lighting possible... If I were in your shoes, I'd look at that first before being too concerned with the faceted girdle etc... Cause if you don't like the way it looks in certain situations, the fact that it has no bowtie or perfect numbers will not matter...

 

[Circe]

Hey, Rose-E! I'm excited to hear you're going with a pear - I think they're such elegant stones.

When I was shopping around, this chart was really helpful: https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/diamond-grading-chart-marquis-pear-oval-heart The pear you're looking at is a little on the deep side at 66.9, which makes sense because of the extremely thick girdle. Some of the experts say deeper stones are less likely to have a bow-tie, which is a nice benefit ... or a potential trade-off, depending on how you look at it.

I think the strong fluor is a huge plus (when I was shopping, it was one of my top priorities - I wanted a good old-fashioned "blue-white," which is what they called colorless stones with strong blue in the 30s, until unscrupulous dealers started abusing the term and it was banned). The definition of "strong" varies from grader to grader, however: with my E, it's only visible under a blacklight, whereas some people's medium fluor stones can turn a pretty violet color to the naked eye on a sunny day. Try taking the stone into the sunlight, and see if it has any eye-visible effects.

P.S. - If you tell us your budget, we'll be happy to look for and with you, just to give you a sense of what you could get online ... just for the purpose of comparison, of course.

 

[KikiD]

Yes! Pears are awesome! I just received my pear that I put in a halo as well. If you look up my threads you can see all the information. The halo is soo great for size and looks so unusual with a pear. I bought my stone from Excel Diamonds which is an online dealer but I went to their offices and looked at like ten pears. They were awesome to work with and very, very reasonable. I would never use a B&M after becoming a Pricescoper. As someone said, Pricescope is definately like a fish bowl and I can't imagine a vendor risking such a big loss of business by being shady with someone who posts on here. Good luck and keep us posted! I LOVE pears and every day I am happy that's what I chose.

 

[Rose-E]

Thanks everyone!!!! I would love to shop on line. I have been trying to convince BF about GOG since they do really nice videos. BF won't tell me a budget, but I am guessing around 10-12K for the entire ring. We love the style of the B&M ring and very likely go with that one. That ring is about 2K so the diamond budget is 10K max. We are looking for one that is about 1.5 ct, very high color (D,E,F), VS2 and higher clarity, minimal bowtie.


Any suggestion would be helpful. Does anyone else do video's?

I'm in the phoenix area.

 

[Tanzigrrl]

Just chiming in to say that I really hope that someday in the future I will be looking for my pear upgrade. My original e-ring was a .68 E/color, but I1/clarity pear shaped diamond. I love that stone, but now it is a solitaire pendant. I have upgraded my wedding ring already, now it is a 5 stone diamond ring .75 ctw, E/color, VS diamonds, set in platinum. I hope that for our 10th anniversary (2014) I can get a nice, 1.5-ish carat pear to make into a solitaire ring. There is no diamond shape more beautiful and elegant than the pear, in my book, at least! Good luck with your pear search and definitely keep us posted!!!!

 

[MarkBroumand]

I love it when people opt for different shapes other than the popular round and princess cuts!! The Pear shape is gorgeous and right between a round and a marquise, which when cut properly, has amazing sparkle and looks way bigger than its carat weight = great value for you!

 

[Rose-E]

Thanks Mark! Questions is, what makes a good cut! What should I be looking for????

 

[MustangGal]

I'm in Phoenix, and haven't really found any great jewelers here yet... Shane Co. in Scottsdale would probably at least have some for you to look at and get an idea of what you like.

For online, several of the vendors will ship the stones to an appraiser and you can them see them in person before you buy.

 

[starryeyed]

Hi Rose-E.

I bought a pear diamond a while back myself and took an idealscope with me to look at it. I also felt suspicious of the jewelry store lights, so this really helped me. Here is a link to what a good pear IS image might look like:
http://ideal-scope.com/1.using_fancy.asp

It might help to put your mind at ease to get an IS (or ask the jeweler if he has one) and think about the cut quality in terms of light performance, in addition to stats.

 

[MarkBroumand]

Thanks Mark! Questions is, what makes a good cut! What should I be looking for????

Haha! That is the question When it comes to pears things can become very personal. A lot is to do with the proportion ratio:

For a pear shape, the broad length to width ratio should be between 1.40 and 1.75. The table percentage should measure 53 - 60% and depth percentage 50 - 65%. Here's a pic so you have an idea:




But then it depends, I know people who like the chunkier pear while I also know people who like the more elongated pear.

Light performance is key, where poorly cut stones have lots of leakage, allowing the light to go right through the stone instead of right back at ya. This can be checked through an ideal-scope as mentioned above.

This is very broad information, and since your BF is hesitant to buy online, it would be good to check out a local store and look at these different ratios in person and under different light conditions as Stone mentioned as well, so you get a feel as to what YOU like, as opposed to just relying on numbers!

PS: my name is Mariana - for some reason my signature is not showing up and I don't see anyone else's either - anyone know what's up or is it a setting on my computer?

 

[Stone-cold11]

PS: my name is Mariana - for some reason my signature is not showing up and I don't see anyone else's either - anyone know what's up or is it a setting on my computer?

I see you name just fine.

 

[AnneinGA]

Mariana,
You have a setting in your account profile to show signatures or not. Took me almost two months to figure out why others kept commenting on signatures and I didn't see them! Hope this helps.

 

[MarkBroumand]

Mariana,
You have a setting in your account profile to show signatures or not. Took me almost two months to figure out why others kept commenting on signatures and I didn't see them! Hope this helps.

Oh wow I would've never known! Now I see them! Thanks Anne