Which of these BGD blues is the better value?

these are not sold as H&A diamonds. also, the links took me to a 1.50 and a 1.53 carat?

Written by slg47 » March 1st, 2011, 11:35 am:these are not sold as H&A diamonds. also, the links took me to a 1.50 and a 1.53 carat?

Oops, I have fixed the link. I realize they aren't sold as H&A, but is that to say they won't display the same qualities?

it depends on what you mean by the same qualities. you probably would not see a perfect hearts image (although I'm not sure...the only way to find out is to, well, look at the hearts image. some posters have said that in their branded H&A diamonds they see crisper scintillation vs non H&A. the BGD blue definitely have good ASET/IS images and will be beautiful diamonds, and will show arrow patterning.

ETA looked at your fixed links...I would ask BGD if they are eye-clean to your requirements and if clouds have any effect on brilliance.

I think they appear to be a great value! I am wondering if the I color stone has twining wisps as the primary inclusion, and if so, it could be a great stone in that twining wisps sometimes are very hard to see. I'd definitely prefer the I color over J, too. It'll be interesting to see what BGD says about the clarity of the two stones.

Written by slg47 » March 1st, 2011, 11:44 am:it depends on what you mean by the same qualities. you probably would not see a perfect hearts image (although I'm not sure...the only way to find out is to, well, look at the hearts image. some posters have said that in their branded H&A diamonds they see crisper scintillation vs non H&A. the BGD blue definitely have good ASET/IS images and will be beautiful diamonds, and will show arrow patterning.

ETA looked at your fixed links...I would ask BGD if they are eye-clean to your requirements and if clouds have any effect on brilliance.

Yes I wouldn't expect a perfect H&A image, I guess I mean just similar light performance and brilliance. And really I'm just comparing them to one another, so my "H&A" reference is misleading. Those are good questions, I will ask them. I will also see if they have any opinion of the hearts images. Thanks!

Written by diamondseeker2006 » March 1st, 2011, 11:54 am:I think they appear to be a great value! I am wondering if the I color stone has twining wisps as the primary inclusion, and if so, it could be a great stone in that twining wisps sometimes are very hard to see. I'd definitely prefer the I color over J, too. It'll be interesting to see what BGD says about the clarity of the two stones.

That's interesting, I didn't really know what twining wisps were. I'm curious about your comment on the I color, do you feel there is that much of a difference between I and J?

Written by kemilyon » March 1st, 2011, 11:57 am:

Written by slg47 » March 1st, 2011, 11:44 am:it depends on what you mean by the same qualities. you probably would not see a perfect hearts image (although I'm not sure...the only way to find out is to, well, look at the hearts image. some posters have said that in their branded H&A diamonds they see crisper scintillation vs non H&A. the BGD blue definitely have good ASET/IS images and will be beautiful diamonds, and will show arrow patterning.

ETA looked at your fixed links...I would ask BGD if they are eye-clean to your requirements and if clouds have any effect on brilliance.

Yes I wouldn't expect a perfect H&A image, I guess I mean just similar light performance and brilliance. And really I'm just comparing them to one another, so my "H&A" reference is misleading. Those are good questions, I will ask them. I will also see if they have any opinion of the hearts images. Thanks!

It is proportions - crown, pavilion, lower halves, upper girdles, etc, not the presence or absence of a perfect hearts and arrows pattern as seen under the H&A scope, that dictates the vast majority of performance nuances - two stones w/ different proportions will have different looks, whether the differences are visible to you depends on how different they are and your own vision and perception.

Both those stones look really nice, would definitely inquire into eyeclean to your specifications, whatever they are, and go from there.

Colour, again, will depend on your visual acuity - you may see the difference between an I and a J of those sizes and not mind, or not feel it worth paying to go up in colour, you may see the difference and strongly prefer one over the other, you may not see the difference at all. If you can and look at some well-cut stones of these colours in this size range in-person that is the best way to find out what your eyes prefer.

I agree with Yssie that color is very personal. My personal preference is G-H but I can go with I color and do recommend I stones at times. I never usually recommend J stones to people who haven't purposely decided they prefer that color because I do think most people can see the color in a J stone. But in general, if the choice is I or J, it would just seem natural to me to choose the better color! On the other hand, I would ordinarily not go with SI2, yet, this one has the potential to be a good SI2...you just have to ask about that. Each stone has to be considered individually when it comes to clarity.