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Advice on Radiant stone

R

RossyJr22

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9
Hello everyone,

I am looking for a stone for my girlfriend. She is a diamond grader, so I want to make sure I do a good job. We've discussed most of what she values most. She is okay with a worse color as I am trying to get gold and white gold in the ring. I've settled on a 1.5ct stone color J. Using this site and a couple others I am considering a few stones.

My stone requirements (Price Range for stone: up to $7,000) :
vv2 or better, J or better, 1.5 ct or larger, Radiant, Excellent Symmetry.

2 of the stones are as follows:
Radiant 1 $6,409
J
1.56ct
VVS2
D:68.6%
T:70%
Sym:Exc
Polish:Exc
l/w:1.0096
https://www.pricescope.com/diamond/d9a6bec85d297175ecbd3dda661beabc

Radiant 2 $5,757
Radiant
J
1.5ct
VVS2
D:68.5%
T:65%
Sym:Exc
Polish:Exc
l/w1.0078
https://www.pricescope.com/diamond/fbfca8cb4ed5391cdec014674dfba63f
(ASET image is included, but I am not very good at reading them)

Any advice as appreciated, there is free shipping both ways using B2C Jewels. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to see the stone ahead of time.

Thanks,
Craig
 
Radiants are very hard to buy without images. Like cushions, they can have leakage or "mush" under the table making the stone look more dull than sparkly. The asset image shows leakage in the white spaces, so it would appear that the second diamond has light leakage. I highly recommend that you contact the vendor and ask for them to send you pictures (and asset images) of diamonds that meet your criteria. You might want to go down a tad on the clarity to vs2 to get the size (and more importantly) cut of the diamond you want.

This post has examples of different radiant cuts and might be helpful to you.

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/another-radiant-question-sorry.202558/#post-3683818#p3683818']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/another-radiant-question-sorry.202558/#post-3683818#p3683818[/URL]
 
Wait, let me get this straight...your GF grades diamonds and you have to pick a radiant for her???

This just sounds crazy to me. Why don't you tell her your budget for the stone and let her go to town. That way
she can find exactly what she wants. There is no way I would want to pick a stone for someone that stares at
diamonds all day. Just sayin'.

Ok, now that I have that off my chest...I'll recommend some stones for you :bigsmile: ...
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.50-carat-i-color-vs1-clarity-sku-283952 my fav!
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.51-carat-j-color-vs2-clarity-sku-217834 more crushed ice look
You would need to order aset images of these if you are interested. They will do up to 3 for you no charge.

Thats about all I found at JA.

Edit - I see you are looking for a high clarity. IMO, you don't just order up a fancy with all the specs you want. You have to
look around and see what is available that has a nice faceting pattern and good light return and then decide if the specs on a
stone you find will work. Like is it eye-clean? Is the color good enough? You might find a beautiful radiant that is an eye-clean
G/Si1. Will that work for you/her? Really, the most important things you should be looking for are
-nice faceting pattern
-good light return
-good shape (like if you want more square or more rectangular)

You look at other things like color and clarity as "are they good enough"? This is all my opinion. You are limited yourself
too much by saying I want a J/VVS.
 
Thanks for the responses!

I agree that i don't want to buy one without seeing it, but if they have free return shipping in the first 30 days it may be worth it.

My girlfriend goes with me to see stones, she wants me to go cheaper actually. The only real requirements from her are that it is a Radiant and it has excellent symmetry. She said that from her experience excellent symmetry results in better 'fire'. She said going as low as J in color is ok as we want yellow and white gold in the ring, better color is definately an option.

I am not limiting myself to vvs or J, it just so happens that all of the stones at 1.5ct with excellent symmetry anywhere near my price range fall in that category. I'm looking into the stones listed, any other advice is greatly appreciated. I work in Finance and do not pretend to know that much about diamonds. :?

There was a typo in the first post, clarity does not have to be vvs2, I would be fine with a vs2, or an eyeclean si
 
She also said she would be perfectly happy with a 1.3ct, but I think the 1.5ct would be more impressive to her family (they would really only look at size). I know I shouldn't be trying to impress her family, but it does play a part.
 
RossyJr22|1402439505|3690392 said:
Thanks for the responses!

I agree that i don't want to buy one without seeing it, but if they have free return shipping in the first 30 days it may be worth it.

My girlfriend goes with me to see stones, she wants me to go cheaper actually. The only real requirements from her are that it is a Radiant and it has excellent symmetry. She said that from her experience excellent symmetry results in better 'fire'. She said going as low as J in color is ok as we want yellow and white gold in the ring, better color is definately an option.

I am not limiting myself to vvs or J, it just so happens that all of the stones at 1.5ct with excellent symmetry anywhere near my price range fall in that category. I'm looking into the stones listed, any other advice is greatly appreciated. I work in Finance and do not pretend to know that much about diamonds. :?

There was a typo in the first post, clarity does not have to be vvs2, I would be fine with a vs2, or an eyeclean si
Click to expand...


Hmmm, symmetry...
From the Pricescope Knowledge section...

"The diamond images we have used in this tutorial are mostly symmetrical. But in the real world very few diamonds are perfectly symmetrical, but symmetry is less important to the overall beauty of a diamond than the critical facet proportions. You may never notice any difference between diamonds with Ideal, Excellent Very Good or even some Good symmetry diamonds."

IMO, symmetry is another one of those things that falls into "is it good enough" category. I understand you wanting to please your
GF (and the in-laws) but again, I think you are limiting yourself too much with the excellent symmetry.
 
BTW, I think radiant 2 has some promise. It does have some light loss under the corners of the table but the middle
section is all red and I think the faceting pattern is pretty nice.

You can call BC2 and see what they have to say about the stone.
 
The second one looks good.

I looked around, but anything with pictures isn't really looking better. 1.5 cts for $7000 maybe isn't that much, even for a J radiant shape.
 
I spoke to B2C about both stones. I got pretty much what seemed to be a generic line. "I spoke to the dealer and they said this is a beautiful stone, eyeclean, and just recently in". Of course it's eyeclean as a vvs2, the other comments seem like something they say about every stone.

Also, the fact that they have free shipping BOTH WAYS means that even if when I see it I am not satisfied I should be able to return it (If the process is as simple as it sounds of course).

Thank you for the help, I am looking at a couple other stones but keep coming back to these two. I am waiting to see the ASET image on the first stone because I love the pattern on it. I prefer the star look to the x look that is shown on the gia cert.

A third I am looking at is at the following link but includes no images so it's hard to judge, it is more rectangular that the other two which doesn't matter to us.

https://www.pricescope.com/diamond/8a9c0b4926c648d0a760e02658f34c48

I also find it interesting that after speaking to a dealer, he said he may be able to save me a few hundred bucks off of the pricescope price but overall they are incredibly fair.
 
I actually prefer the "star" pattern over the "X" pattern but without images its hard to tell if that first one is any good. Post
pictures when you get them. Post asets if you get them too.

Here are some "star" patterned radiants...(not your specs though)
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/2.20-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-sku-243420
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.76-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-201848 not a good stone due to leakage

FYI, Here is a different kind of "X" that you dont see very often. Its cut more like a princess to me. I think this kind
of radiant might have a name but cant think of it at the moment.
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.08-carat-h-color-vs1-clarity-sku-289895

I sort of consider this an H&A radiant (which I dont think really exist). Not sure what the faceting diagram looks like on this but
its obvious more like a star and may in fact be a really well cut star.
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/0.76-carat-h-color-vvs1-clarity-sku-256155
 
Wow, thanks for the information. You have been really helpful. How do you know there is leakage in the second one? I don't see an ASET report or anything on the site. Do you know just by the rotating image? Is that also how a bow tie looks in a stone, I've been told about them but haven't seen one in person?

I really like all of them, but the 4th stone is amazing. Maybe I can convince her to go smaller with something that nice!!! I'll also have to show her the third one as I don't think I've seen anything like that before.

Thanks,
Craig
 
RossyJr22|1402497500|3690847 said:
Wow, thanks for the information. You have been really helpful. How do you know there is leakage in the second one? I don't see an ASET report or anything on the site. Do you know just by the rotating image? Is that also how a bow tie looks in a stone, I've been told about them but haven't seen one in person?
The star pattern and the facets next to them are very clearly defined but all the other facets under the table look like mush and are
not clearly defined. This is what leakage usually looks like. An aset image would tell us for sure.

I really like all of them, but the 4th stone is amazing. Maybe I can convince her to go smaller with something that nice!!! I'll also have to show her the third one as I don't think I've seen anything like that before.
Looks like GOG is calling this a Jubilee but I'm wondering if that's a mistake. Need to ask GOG.
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/11960/
Here is the biggest I can find in your budget but you might call them and ask what they have.
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/10835/

Thanks,
Craig
Click to expand...

As you can see, radiants come in a lot of different flavors. That's why I would think your GF would either be more specific or
want to pick her own. I guess it doesnt matter as long as you are showing her the different faceting patterns and finding out
what she likes.
 
Maybe she just wants to see how I perform under pressure :). I believe she would be happy with any which is why the requirements are vague. I will post more pictures if I can get them.

Thanks again.

Craig
 
Lowered the size spec...going to post some more stones that *I* think are pretty radiants just FYI. Perhaps you could go smaller
(pay less) and use the money to put the stone in a halo setting (if your GF likes those). They give great finger coverage and
really give a wow factor. Now this is a really big halo but I love this ring. You wouldnt have to go this big to get nice finger
coverage.
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/its-here-art-deco-bev-k-ring-princess-of-hearts-from-gog.175328/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/its-here-art-deco-bev-k-ring-princess-of-hearts-from-gog.175328/[/URL]

More stones
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.10-carat-e-color-vs2-clarity-sku-215689
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/radiant-cut/1.41-carat-h-color-si2-clarity-sku-249730

Can you tell us what kind of setting your GF is looking for or what kind of look she likes?
 
Hey for a setting we were thinking of a twist band with a halo setting. We want to get a little yellow gold in the bottom of the halo area or in the twist. Not many people have the two tone look available to see. Please see attached pictures for a few of the ideas so far (Regardless of stone shape in the image).

artcarved_31-v507erw-e_420x420_white_large.jpg


verragio-d-106cu-parisian-twisted-halo-diamond-engagement-ring-in-14k-white-gold_gi_31592_f.jpg

verragio-twist-shank-diamond-engagement-ring-afn-5027-1-c.jpg
 
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