4Cs and Sparkle

[sparkling rock]

A jeweler once told me that the 4Cs does not always correlate with an ultra sparkling diamond. But, an ultra sparkling diamond does command top dollar for the diamond''s 4Cs price range. Is this correct? When my boyfriend went diamond shopping, he asked me what I wanted. I told him an ultra sparkly, round diamond and do not worry about the rest. I love my diamond...it sparkles in the shade, it reflects the blue sky, it makes rainbow prisms, it gets tons of compliments, it sparkles so much it looks bigger than what it is...yet, it is only graded as an SI1, with very good and good for symmetry and polish...and color F. Was the jeweler correct or am I naive when I look at the ring?

 

[Boulder]

The cut of the diamond is extremely important for a sparkly diamond. I'd highly recommend reading the section on cut on the Good Old Gold website: http://www.goodoldgold.com/cut.htm
It's very informative!

 

[Boulder]

Do you have any of the specs for the diamond? If you have the Depth %, Table %, Crown Angle (or %), Pavilion Angle (or %) and Culet %. These number can be put into the Holloway Cut Advisor at http://www.pricescope.com/cutadviser.asp to give you an idea of how well your diamond is cut.
That said, it sounds like you have a beautiful diamond. You can get an IF clarity, D color diamond that is positively lifeless, but a well cut diamond that's much lower on the clarity and the color scales can be absolutely stunning! I'm fairly new to this forum, but if you look through the various threads you'll see that most focus on the cut of the diamond which provides the stone with its brilliance, fire and scintillation.

 

[whirled]

Hi! My diamond is a G and SI2, but it can outsparkle many rocks that have better clarity and whiter color. That is because the cut is gorgeous! And SI1, SI2 doesn't necessarily mean the inclusions can be eye visible, though I think most SI2s would have some eye-visible inclusions. I've got a tiny speck on mine that no one has noticed unless I point it out and they examine it carefully for about a minute.

 

[sparkling rock]

Thanks! The sight showed how light is distributed in diamonds...I am still not clear why each diamond reacts differently to light--it looks like the reason goes beyond the cut, though. I actually found a jeweler in NYCs diamond district a number of years ago who answered my question on why there were different percentage discounts advertised on diamonds sold at each booth. He explained that a bad cut = 40-60% off retail. Good paperwork but a lifeless diamond=25% off retail and good paperwork+a sparkling diamond=10-12% off retail. That is what he told me...I don't know if it is true...I wasn't shopping for a ring, I was escorting a friend that was making a smaller purchase.
By the way, I have to put the proportions into the website to find out about the cut--but, it is suppose to be an ideal cut...

 

[Meraj]

You said "...it sparkles in the shade, it reflects the blue sky, it makes rainbow prisms, it gets tons of compliments, it sparkles so much it looks bigger than what it is...yet, it is only graded as an SI1, with very good and good for symmetry and polish...and color F. "

Do you have an 8* or Hearts & Arrow diamond?

 

[niceice]

Generally speaking, the first of the 4C's to consider is "Cut" which is really used to refer to the "Proportions" of a diamond... Since a diamond is essentially a prism, the degree of light return can be controlled by the angles and degrees that the diamond is cut to... Facet alignment and finish also play a part.

We consider Cut to be the most important of the 4C's. If we had to put the importance into a percentage formula, we would say that "Cut controls 98% of a diamonds light return"... Clarity plays a small part because the presence and location of inclusions can have an effect on how the light travels through a diamond. However, we would not focus on clarity before color once you move past the clarity grade of "eye clean" SI-1 because you are more apt to see a difference in color than you are a difference in clarity without a loupe.