Articles

I get questions about this often and thought I would present something of an answer. Simulants are a different thing, and most of them ARE pretty cheap, but colorless and near-colorless lab-grown diamonds are pretty close to the prices of their natural counterparts. This often comes as a surprise, because people have seen or read things to the contrary, and because the whole synthetic gemstone business has precedents.

Fancy Vivid Yellow - "The King of Yellow Diamonds." This article will delve into the world of these most highly prized yellow diamonds.

A diamond’s color (or lack thereof) is a critical aspect in determining its market value. Grading the color is therefore a crucial part of the laboratory certification process. The following article will illuminate the various steps and considerations in performing color grading at the AGSL.

"The Art of Diamond Cutting” is an in-depth video describing the various stages involved in the transformation of a rough diamond crystal to a finely-cut gem.

Over the past few years there has been a marked increase in the purchase of old cut style diamonds. We more and more often deal with questions from consumers who are considering both newly minted old style cuts and authentic old cut diamonds. Of course, the diamond material is hundreds of thousands of years old anyway, but there are those who wish to go “new” or “old” and those who just want the old look. A further layer of unknowns crop up when a client wants to differentiate from an unrestored old cut from an old looking stone that may have been more recently repaired or lightly modified for one of several reasons. Then, there are those people looking for all the best look of an old cut in a newly minted old looking diamond, which has the high light return features available utilizing more recent diamond cutting knowledge and techniques that did not exist a 100 years ago.