Band Preventing Fire and Sparkle?

[honeyhaze]

My fiance and I recently purchased a lovely sounding .71ct stone from James Allen. It's an H&A AGS 000 round-brilliant E/VS1. We don't have the pavilion or crown angles so we can't run it through the HCA and there was no GemEx report. I didn't see it loose before it was placed into the setting, so I'm uncertain what it looked like when it arrived. My fiance did have it checked out and was happy with it..

He had it placed in an eight-prong Tacori band, which I selected awhile ago and I absolutely adore. However, I'm not seeing a whole lot of fire or sparkle with the stone. The white light return looks good and our little Idealscope shows no leakage, so this stone definitely appears as advertised. So why isn't it dazzling us? I was wondering if perhaps the band, which completely covers all but the face of the stone, is preventing light from entering into the sides/bottom and showing off the sparkle/fire that it might if it was mounted into something more airy like the classic Tiffany solitaire band.

This is the stone:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamond.asp?find=1&cid=130&item=1101397

This is the band:
http://www.tacori.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/2503RD75_alt.jpg

I love our ring, but I am a little surprised that I'm seeing almost no fire and little sparkle. Maybe looking at all those GemEx reports for other stones biased me unrealistically about what a diamond is supposed to look like. Could it be the full coverage setting blocking light from entering or did we perhaps land ourselves a perfect sounding stone that's just not delivering? I should add that the stone looks way larger to me than a .71, which seems strange considering the proportions. I'm not sure if the eight prongs are making it look larger or if it was cut to be very wide and shallow, but I'm bewildered by how much larger it looks than the loose .8 - 1.0 caret stones I've seen in person previous to this.

Thanks for any insight. This is the first diamond we've purchased and it's been an exciting process, so I'm always interested in learning more.

 

[strmrdr]

on the AGS report you got with the stone the numbers are in the lower right corner.
I cant read them on the scanned report online.
What are they?

edit: also set stones looks a lot bigger than unset stones.
Seeing a 3mm stone which looks like a little dot unset then set is an eye opener.

 

[honeyhaze]

Ah, yes. I'm a little uncertain how to describe this properly, but I'll give it a shot. Okay, so here's what we have:

Top: 53.7%

Left: 62.1%, with 34.4° at the crown and 40.7° pavilion.

Right: 15.9% crown, 42.9% pavilion. Then it says Faceted 1.6% to 3.9% on the farthest right.

There's also a 47 on the very top left of the inside of the crown and a 75 near the middle of the inside of the pavilion.

So the HCA looks good. Maybe the lighting on the other stones in the jewelery store convinced me that I'm supposed to be seeing a brilliant rainbow flash... lol. Considering that the stone is probably quite good, my question at this point is: Would a more open setting make it more dazzling?

 

[kcoursolle]

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with this stone and I don''t think that the setting is preventing sparkle since light is mostly reflected out of the top of a diamond.

Have you tried cleaning it??? Maybe you touched it and got some grime on it. This will drastically prevent a diamond from performing well. Another thing you should try is bringing it into some great lighting. Diamonds sparkle like crazy in grocery store spot lighting. You should see a ton of sparkle in the grocery store after cleaning your ring. A great place to see fire is lowly lit restaurants.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 9/30/2007 3:05:07 PM
Author: kcoursolle
Honestly, there is nothing wrong with this stone and I don''t think that the setting is preventing sparkle since light is mostly reflected out of the top of a diamond.

Have you tried cleaning it??? Maybe you touched it and got some grime on it. This will drastically prevent a diamond from performing well. Another thing you should try is bringing it into some great lighting. Diamonds sparkle like crazy in grocery store spot lighting. You should see a ton of sparkle in the grocery store after cleaning your ring. A great place to see fire is lowly lit restaurants.

saved me some typing...
With those angles and the 75% lgf% it should have more fire over white light return.

 

[honeyhaze]

I think you might be on to something with the cleaning. I have fairly grubby fingers and have
probably been overly handling it since the proposal

Thanks for the tips and the reassurance that the setting is likely not the issue

 

[honeyhaze]

One more thing about the setting... if I hold the ring upside down and look at the diamond that way I see way more colors than when I hold it facing up!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Post photo''s of the rooms and lighting etc.
Look outside in shaded daylight, and go to big box shops etc

 

[ericad]

First of all the Tacori setting is TO DIE FOR. I adore it.

Second, even though mine is a different cut (old OMC) I also have a very closed up setting and the diamond still sparkles like fireworks. I don''t think it''s the setting. Give it a good deep clean with a toothbrush. Personally I love Gemcare - I soak my rings in it every morning while I''m in the shower, give it a quick scrub with a baby toothbrush (between the prongs, underneath the stones, etc.) and it always looks amazing.

Third, my diamond loves Target lighting best of all

Fourth - PICS, PICS, PICS!!!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Yeah, it''s all in the lighting. I think it is overhead halogen lighting that is the very best. Flourescent lighting shows the white but not the fire. Diamonds appear different depending on the environment. Unfortunately they are not giving off fireworks all the time!