First time poster, so apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Wanted to leave a review for Jon Weingarten at Distinctive Gem, aka Rhino. This might have been the best ~$100k I've ever spent. Wow. Not something I say lightly, as I've always been very careful with my hard-earned money.
With a very large budget, I understandably wanted to get the perfect engagement ring for my fiancée. She only gave me a few loose parameters, and I was responsible for picking the final stone: 3-4 carat, mined diamond, elongated cushion cut, with no "crushed ice" (i.e. she wanted a diamond that flashes chunky facets similar to how a round diamond performs), simple setting. Easy enough, I thought.
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Over the course of a few months, I saw over 70+ diamonds in-person in the NYC diamond district - not counting the 100s more I saw on online direct-to-consumer retailers like James Allen, Blue Nile etc - in addition to asking over 10 individual jewelers' concierges to personally source me what I was looking.
It turns out, finding an excellent-cut rectangular cushion without "crushed ice" is very difficult. Apparently, it's a physics problem - there are tradeoffs between quality of cut and length/width ratio in rectangular cushions: as you stretch the shape, light performance suffers. Also, 99% of diamond cutters will cut to retain carat weight, and not necessarily light performance. This desire to save weight results in nearly all elongated cushions cut with the "crushed ice" effect, to varying degrees: the tiny, muddled facets visible through the table of the diamond, caused by a perimeter of weigh-saving extra facets around the pavilion. Most diamond cutters would rather cut a larger/heavier but uglier diamond - it makes them more money. Because most consumers care about having a bigger stone, not light performance. I was trying to find someone willing to do something crazy: cut a diamond strictly for beauty, even it meant shaving off more than half a carat in weight.
I'd estimate I spent over 100+ hours trying to find the perfect diamond, on the phone with famous/well-known jewelers, poring over ASETs. This process almost drove me crazy! See the attached spreadsheet of the 70+ diamonds I saw, stack-ranked.I saw some gorgeous 8-main pavilion elongated Cushion Brilliants (without the crushed ice, given the clean pavilion plots), but they were very rare (I found maybe only 4 total within spec), and all of them weren't colorless. I wasn't satisfied with anything on the market after 2 months of searching. Eventually, I realized I had to go custom.
Deep in these forums, I found Jon from August Vintage/Distinctive Gem, who had made a name for himself cutting diamonds strictly for light performance, specifically Antique Cushions (large chunky facets, no "crushed ice") and Elyque Ovals with no "crushed ice".
Over the course of the next 2 months, I was blown away. Jon sourced a 4+ carat colorless diamond, and re-cut it down to 3.5 carats. Zero crushed ice. Beautiful, perfectly symmetrical facets in the ASET. If you look closely, you can see "arrows" along the center and diagonals of the diamond - which are normally only available in square cushions or round diamonds. Truly remarkable. I think in my whole search, I only found a couple jewelers in the world who have cut diamonds like this - Jon is one of them. He broke the laws the physics!
I won't mention how above and beyond Jon went on customer service, delivering to me a "first of its kind" diamond in record time with a personalized setting. Without exaggeration, I think I saw every single 3.5+ carat rectangular cushion in the diamond market over those 2 months. It was an exhaustive, purely meritocratic process - and Jon came out on top. My fiancée marvels at her ring every day. It'll be an heirloom piece.
The cherry on top: I took the diamond to an independent appraiser (Gemological Appraisal Laboratory of America in NYC) to get an insurance quote. The appraiser hadn't seen anything like it, and appraised it for $10k MORE than what Jon charged me for it. I only told her what I paid after she gave me an appraisal. She said I was "crazy for shaving 50 points of weight" to get a better cut!
Not only is Jon just a great guy, top to bottom, but more importantly: he delivered the #1 diamond in the market for an incredible value. This is what pure excellence looks like. I cannot recommend Jon highly enough.
With a very large budget, I understandably wanted to get the perfect engagement ring for my fiancée. She only gave me a few loose parameters, and I was responsible for picking the final stone: 3-4 carat, mined diamond, elongated cushion cut, with no "crushed ice" (i.e. she wanted a diamond that flashes chunky facets similar to how a round diamond performs), simple setting. Easy enough, I thought.
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Over the course of a few months, I saw over 70+ diamonds in-person in the NYC diamond district - not counting the 100s more I saw on online direct-to-consumer retailers like James Allen, Blue Nile etc - in addition to asking over 10 individual jewelers' concierges to personally source me what I was looking.
It turns out, finding an excellent-cut rectangular cushion without "crushed ice" is very difficult. Apparently, it's a physics problem - there are tradeoffs between quality of cut and length/width ratio in rectangular cushions: as you stretch the shape, light performance suffers. Also, 99% of diamond cutters will cut to retain carat weight, and not necessarily light performance. This desire to save weight results in nearly all elongated cushions cut with the "crushed ice" effect, to varying degrees: the tiny, muddled facets visible through the table of the diamond, caused by a perimeter of weigh-saving extra facets around the pavilion. Most diamond cutters would rather cut a larger/heavier but uglier diamond - it makes them more money. Because most consumers care about having a bigger stone, not light performance. I was trying to find someone willing to do something crazy: cut a diamond strictly for beauty, even it meant shaving off more than half a carat in weight.
I'd estimate I spent over 100+ hours trying to find the perfect diamond, on the phone with famous/well-known jewelers, poring over ASETs. This process almost drove me crazy! See the attached spreadsheet of the 70+ diamonds I saw, stack-ranked.I saw some gorgeous 8-main pavilion elongated Cushion Brilliants (without the crushed ice, given the clean pavilion plots), but they were very rare (I found maybe only 4 total within spec), and all of them weren't colorless. I wasn't satisfied with anything on the market after 2 months of searching. Eventually, I realized I had to go custom.
Deep in these forums, I found Jon from August Vintage/Distinctive Gem, who had made a name for himself cutting diamonds strictly for light performance, specifically Antique Cushions (large chunky facets, no "crushed ice") and Elyque Ovals with no "crushed ice".
Over the course of the next 2 months, I was blown away. Jon sourced a 4+ carat colorless diamond, and re-cut it down to 3.5 carats. Zero crushed ice. Beautiful, perfectly symmetrical facets in the ASET. If you look closely, you can see "arrows" along the center and diagonals of the diamond - which are normally only available in square cushions or round diamonds. Truly remarkable. I think in my whole search, I only found a couple jewelers in the world who have cut diamonds like this - Jon is one of them. He broke the laws the physics!
I won't mention how above and beyond Jon went on customer service, delivering to me a "first of its kind" diamond in record time with a personalized setting. Without exaggeration, I think I saw every single 3.5+ carat rectangular cushion in the diamond market over those 2 months. It was an exhaustive, purely meritocratic process - and Jon came out on top. My fiancée marvels at her ring every day. It'll be an heirloom piece.
The cherry on top: I took the diamond to an independent appraiser (Gemological Appraisal Laboratory of America in NYC) to get an insurance quote. The appraiser hadn't seen anything like it, and appraised it for $10k MORE than what Jon charged me for it. I only told her what I paid after she gave me an appraisal. She said I was "crazy for shaving 50 points of weight" to get a better cut!
Not only is Jon just a great guy, top to bottom, but more importantly: he delivered the #1 diamond in the market for an incredible value. This is what pure excellence looks like. I cannot recommend Jon highly enough.
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