I'm looking at the standard round brilliant cut and there are tons of choices out there with various names for these "ideal cuts".
Looks like Tolkowsky started the cut based on certain proportions for ideal performance. I'm not sure if Lazare Kaplan was one of the first to implement the cut guidelines. However looking for Tolkowsky cuts these days it seem a lot are EGL graded.
Hearts and Arrows diamonds. This has a certain facet patterning of which leads to better performance. I'm not sure if Lazare Kaplan diamonds are H&A or not. Hearts on Fire certainly seems to be patterned after H&A.
I've been looking at diamonds for the past 6 months and there is a dizzying array of cuts and brands. Of particular note there are a couple brands that stand out to me. First is the Solasfera which has 97 facets. Quite a bit more than the standard 57 facets. I do notice that in the ASET the edge of the diamond is red. To me they appear brighter around the edge/girdle of the diamond. This actually helps the diamond look bigger than say an H&A cut. Unfortunately the extra facets results in a splintery look in diamonds in the 1ct range. So at this/my desired size the patterning looks too busy.
My search led me to the Eightstar diamond. It seems to be a H&A diamond or at least the arrows part. It has a similar ASET to the Solasfera where the girdle is nearly completely red. I guess they achieve this by painting the crown which is apparently frowned upon. But I like the look it produces. It seems to increase the brightness in the girdle making the stone look bigger much like the solasfera cut. but it isn't as busy as the latter. Another thing is it seems to have more fire. A conventional H&A might have say 10 areas of fire at any given angle but the Eightstar seems to have 15 or 20. There seems to be more fire in the girdle than with H&A cuts. Also the scintillation is different as a result. It kinda reminds me of light reflecting off a body of water. There's a shimmering effect where the fire change color and intensity. H&A cuts seem to be more on/off with their fire. Very intense fire but move it a little bit and it's gone.
I've only seen 2 Eightstars so I don't know if that is indicative of the cut. I've viewed a lot of H&A and they seemed to lack these traits. A few HoF diamonds had it but most didn't.
So, I'm looking for a diamond that has great brilliance in the girdle area while also having lots of fire and scintillation. It seems the 8star has this. Are there other cuts that also exhibit this and is it solely due to crown only painting? I've been reading around and it appears that painting is bad as are these attempts at brillianteering. But what's so bad about it? I like the look of the two EightStars I've seen but they seem rather difficult to find so I'm looking for alternatives with similar performance or should I just avoid painted diamonds altogether?
Looks like Tolkowsky started the cut based on certain proportions for ideal performance. I'm not sure if Lazare Kaplan was one of the first to implement the cut guidelines. However looking for Tolkowsky cuts these days it seem a lot are EGL graded.
Hearts and Arrows diamonds. This has a certain facet patterning of which leads to better performance. I'm not sure if Lazare Kaplan diamonds are H&A or not. Hearts on Fire certainly seems to be patterned after H&A.
I've been looking at diamonds for the past 6 months and there is a dizzying array of cuts and brands. Of particular note there are a couple brands that stand out to me. First is the Solasfera which has 97 facets. Quite a bit more than the standard 57 facets. I do notice that in the ASET the edge of the diamond is red. To me they appear brighter around the edge/girdle of the diamond. This actually helps the diamond look bigger than say an H&A cut. Unfortunately the extra facets results in a splintery look in diamonds in the 1ct range. So at this/my desired size the patterning looks too busy.
My search led me to the Eightstar diamond. It seems to be a H&A diamond or at least the arrows part. It has a similar ASET to the Solasfera where the girdle is nearly completely red. I guess they achieve this by painting the crown which is apparently frowned upon. But I like the look it produces. It seems to increase the brightness in the girdle making the stone look bigger much like the solasfera cut. but it isn't as busy as the latter. Another thing is it seems to have more fire. A conventional H&A might have say 10 areas of fire at any given angle but the Eightstar seems to have 15 or 20. There seems to be more fire in the girdle than with H&A cuts. Also the scintillation is different as a result. It kinda reminds me of light reflecting off a body of water. There's a shimmering effect where the fire change color and intensity. H&A cuts seem to be more on/off with their fire. Very intense fire but move it a little bit and it's gone.
I've only seen 2 Eightstars so I don't know if that is indicative of the cut. I've viewed a lot of H&A and they seemed to lack these traits. A few HoF diamonds had it but most didn't.
So, I'm looking for a diamond that has great brilliance in the girdle area while also having lots of fire and scintillation. It seems the 8star has this. Are there other cuts that also exhibit this and is it solely due to crown only painting? I've been reading around and it appears that painting is bad as are these attempts at brillianteering. But what's so bad about it? I like the look of the two EightStars I've seen but they seem rather difficult to find so I'm looking for alternatives with similar performance or should I just avoid painted diamonds altogether?
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