srke
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- May 10, 2017
- Messages
- 111
Hi all,
I was hoping to get some advice about whether it would be worth exchanging my current diamond.
My partner and I decided to get an engagement ring pretty much on impulse. I wanted something understated and initially we thought we would just go for the cheapest diamond we could find. After a tiny bit of research we ended up getting a .34 carat from Blue Nile, H IF, GIA triple ex. for abut $600 USD. (I was looking in the g-j range, VS2 to IF and although the clarity and colour of what we finally picked were a bit higher than what I thought we'd get, this seemed to be the best of the options we came across in terms of price - which now sort of makes me wonder if the reason for the lower price is because it was a lesser cut than the other options)
The proportions are:
4.49 - 4.51 x 2.81 mm
Depth 62.4 %
Table 54 %
Crown Angle 35.0°
Crown Height 16.0%
Pavilion Angle 40.8°
Pavilion Depth 43.0%
Star Length 55%
Lower Half 80%
Girdle Medium, Faceted, 3.5%
Culet None
I wanted a stone with as good a cut as possible but, at the time, I didn't want to go above $500ish (even though in the end we did go a bit over). We'd had a look on a few other websites (brian gavin, white flash and we looked at a few James Allen true hearts), but for a similar size they were all $100-$200 more expensive and so we took a risk on the blue nile one, even though we only had the GIA certification available and didn't have any scope or any other information on this stone to tell how it performed.
Having received the stone it does look bright and sparkly under particular lighting, however under a lot of indoor lighting it tends to have a lot of patches of gray (usually in the office or indoors at home). And I noticed that when I hold it with a slight tilt, there tends to be a very obvious dark patch in the middle. I have no experience with diamonds and haven't gone around to look at different stones in jewelry stores (since this was completely an impulse purchase and originally we'd planned on not getting any ring at all) so I have no idea how diamonds are usually meant to look and how bright a well performing diamond should look, and under what conditions.
I had thought the diamond was a bit on the deeper end of most recommended proportion ranges I looked at, although it was within most of the limits. But I'm now wondering whether the dark patch in the middle would be because the ring is too deep or due to some problem with the cut? Or whether I should just consider that it is normal and that it would look like this no matter what cut I get?
So right now I am faced with a bit of a dilemma. I don't know whether I should return this stone for something where I would have more information and would confidently know it is a great cut. I don't really know how good the cut is on my current stone apart from what's on the GIA certificate, and from what I have read that is highly variable and not something i'd want to rely on. And I have no idea how to judge the stone's performance visually. I don't know whether the gray patches and occasional dullness I'm seeing is pretty much what you'd expect even from the best cut stone, or whether something with a better cut would end up looking a lot better in even bad lighting. I'm also wondering how much of a noticeable visual difference a better cut would be expected make to my ring in terms of brightness and fire given its size.
I'm not really too fussed about the price or the exact size, although I'd want to keep the it under .5 carats as I think something bigger would just look a bit too oversized for my finger. Originally I wanted to spend as little as possible as we'd initially thought we weren't going to get a ring at all, but having now adjusted to the idea that I'm going to have a ring, which I will hopefully wear forever, I want to feel like I have something that is as good as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect but I want to know that I not settling on something that is going to look noticeably less brilliant than a similar, better cut stone.
I would be grateful for any advice anyone can give me.
I have attached a few pictures.. The quality is not great as all I had was the camera on my phone, but I've tried to make it as focused as possible and indifferent lighting.
I was hoping to get some advice about whether it would be worth exchanging my current diamond.
My partner and I decided to get an engagement ring pretty much on impulse. I wanted something understated and initially we thought we would just go for the cheapest diamond we could find. After a tiny bit of research we ended up getting a .34 carat from Blue Nile, H IF, GIA triple ex. for abut $600 USD. (I was looking in the g-j range, VS2 to IF and although the clarity and colour of what we finally picked were a bit higher than what I thought we'd get, this seemed to be the best of the options we came across in terms of price - which now sort of makes me wonder if the reason for the lower price is because it was a lesser cut than the other options)
The proportions are:
4.49 - 4.51 x 2.81 mm
Depth 62.4 %
Table 54 %
Crown Angle 35.0°
Crown Height 16.0%
Pavilion Angle 40.8°
Pavilion Depth 43.0%
Star Length 55%
Lower Half 80%
Girdle Medium, Faceted, 3.5%
Culet None
I wanted a stone with as good a cut as possible but, at the time, I didn't want to go above $500ish (even though in the end we did go a bit over). We'd had a look on a few other websites (brian gavin, white flash and we looked at a few James Allen true hearts), but for a similar size they were all $100-$200 more expensive and so we took a risk on the blue nile one, even though we only had the GIA certification available and didn't have any scope or any other information on this stone to tell how it performed.
Having received the stone it does look bright and sparkly under particular lighting, however under a lot of indoor lighting it tends to have a lot of patches of gray (usually in the office or indoors at home). And I noticed that when I hold it with a slight tilt, there tends to be a very obvious dark patch in the middle. I have no experience with diamonds and haven't gone around to look at different stones in jewelry stores (since this was completely an impulse purchase and originally we'd planned on not getting any ring at all) so I have no idea how diamonds are usually meant to look and how bright a well performing diamond should look, and under what conditions.
I had thought the diamond was a bit on the deeper end of most recommended proportion ranges I looked at, although it was within most of the limits. But I'm now wondering whether the dark patch in the middle would be because the ring is too deep or due to some problem with the cut? Or whether I should just consider that it is normal and that it would look like this no matter what cut I get?
So right now I am faced with a bit of a dilemma. I don't know whether I should return this stone for something where I would have more information and would confidently know it is a great cut. I don't really know how good the cut is on my current stone apart from what's on the GIA certificate, and from what I have read that is highly variable and not something i'd want to rely on. And I have no idea how to judge the stone's performance visually. I don't know whether the gray patches and occasional dullness I'm seeing is pretty much what you'd expect even from the best cut stone, or whether something with a better cut would end up looking a lot better in even bad lighting. I'm also wondering how much of a noticeable visual difference a better cut would be expected make to my ring in terms of brightness and fire given its size.
I'm not really too fussed about the price or the exact size, although I'd want to keep the it under .5 carats as I think something bigger would just look a bit too oversized for my finger. Originally I wanted to spend as little as possible as we'd initially thought we weren't going to get a ring at all, but having now adjusted to the idea that I'm going to have a ring, which I will hopefully wear forever, I want to feel like I have something that is as good as possible. It doesn't have to be perfect but I want to know that I not settling on something that is going to look noticeably less brilliant than a similar, better cut stone.
I would be grateful for any advice anyone can give me.
I have attached a few pictures.. The quality is not great as all I had was the camera on my phone, but I've tried to make it as focused as possible and indifferent lighting.
I love the blue fluoro - super jealous as I wish my stone glowed like that! I think you nailed it first time with that, it's really lovely.
. Although it seems to attract smudges again almost immediately, I borrowed a friend's biology loupe and can see all these little smudges on it after only a little while. oh well..
300x240.png)