Advice on HCA 0.8 diamond? Plus some other questions.

[angrycat]

Before I start I just want to say that this site has been extremely helpful and really built confidence when looking for a diamond!

Here are the details according to the GIA report:

Type: Round
Cut: Excellent
Colour: I
Clarity: SI1 (Crystal, Cloud)
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Fluorescence: None
Depth: 60.1%
Table: 56%
Crown Angle: 33.5
Pavilion Angle: 41.0
Girdle: Thin to Medium, Faceted
Culet: None

When inputting the details into the HCA tool I get a score of 0.8 and the following plot:


Now, I lightly discussed diamonds with my wife-to-be and she mentioned that color or clarity doesn't concern her too much, but she really wants it to be sparkly. And reading the wiki on this site (very useful!) I realized how important a diamonds cut is to its "sparkliness".

I have some concerns with the above diamond:

The girdle is "faceted" which is something I haven't seen very often in other diamonds I was shopping for. Will this affect the light return and durability of the diamond? (chipping, etc.) Are faceted girdles seen as a plus or minus to the value of a diamond?

It is an SI1 diamond. Now while I said clarity isn't the most important to me, I still want the diamond to be eye clear. I talked to the seller and they took a look at it and said that it is eye clear (looking at it from roughly 12" for 10 seconds) and that the crystal inclusion mentioned in the report is a white crystal, not black. Can anyone comment on the size of such a crystal when being rated at SI1? And potentially the impact it would have on light return?

Finally, the HCA tool does say that some people prefer a score above 1.5. Does this mean there's a sweet spot between 1.5-2.0? What is the difference between a 2.0 scored diamond and a 0.8?

Are there any other things I should be concerned about with the diamond above?

 

[stone-cold11]

Looks promising from the numbers. Any idealscope image?

Nothing to worry about the girdle, girdle treatment is either faceted or bruted, faceted is a more recent method, polishing the bruted/frosted girdle to a faceted face.

No way to tell if the inclusions is visible or will it impact the performance from a clarity grade or even map, it needs to be seen, although at SI1 level, most are safe, there is always the outlier.

 

[yssie]

How big is the stone? Have you seen it in-person, and if so what did you think? Numbers are fine, do you have more info/scan/photos? And how old is the report?

1. Faceted girdle is fine - neither a plus nor a minus, doesn't affect value.

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/faceted-girdle.30099/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/faceted-girdle.30099/[/URL]
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/difference-between-a-girdle-thats-faceted-or-not.32247/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/difference-between-a-girdle-thats-faceted-or-not.32247/[/URL]
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-advantage-in-light-return-for-a-stone-with-faceted-girdle-vs.30406/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-advantage-in-light-return-for-a-stone-with-faceted-girdle-vs.30406/[/URL]

2. Crystal no visible impact on light return in a reputably graded SI1, no worries. As for whether it's clean enough to your specifications - decide what you need to be happy with it, clean from 6" face-up? 12" okay? and have them check if the stone meets your requirements.

Clarity is graded w/ a 10x loupe only, not a visible inspection, so no, we can't tell you anything about the size or visibility from the grade or the knowledge that it's a white crystal. The labs grade clarity on five factors - type, size, location, number, relief (a white crystal on top of a black background is more visible than a black crystal on top of a black background, for example). More on clarity grading here [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clarity-grading-question.154174/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clarity-grading-question.154174/[/URL]

3. Stones with different proportions will be nuanced in appearance and light return. Typically, shallower crown + larger table (=low crown height) + steeper pavilion yields a "nice" stone that is very bright, and that excels in white light return; steeper crown + smaller table (=large crown height) + shallower pavilion yields a "nice" stone that shows more coloured light in a variety of lighting types, but that is less bright w/ less white light return.

Unless we're talking about extremes (which we are not with your stone) these are small differences you really oughtn't try to make an academic decision on without going out and actually looking at lots of stones of the size you're considering to find out what differences your eyes see, if any, and what they prefer...