Buying Crunch - Please Help!

[tefaber]

Hi! Im getting engaged in less than a month and am in a buying crunch. Here''s the deal, she has indicated that she wants at least a 1.4 carat diamond but hasnt specified on the other things. From everyone Ive talked to, I have decided to go with at least Color: G Clarity: VS2.

I found a 1.50 carat diamond with the following specifics and was about to buy when I learned about the importance of Cut on this website (thank God). This diamond is listed at about $5400 which was the best price by far for this type of diamond. Is this a great deal or is it perhaps a bad cut and that''s why they are selling it cheap???

Princess Cut

Measurements: 7.02-6.33-4.03
Weight: 1.50 Carats
Depth: 63.70%
Table: 72.00%
Girdle: Extremely Thin to Medium
Polish: Very Good
Symmetry: Good
Clarity: VS2
Color: G

I want to get the cheapest, of course, but have her happy with it too. Thanks,

Any Suggestions???
Tim

 

[strmrdr]

I would pass on any princess with an Extremely Thin girdle.

Princess diamonds are known for cracking and chipping why tempt fate with an extremely thin girdle.
Some insurance companies are talking about not insuring princesses with anything thinner than med. girdles for this reason.

Also "Symmetry: Good" does not bode well for the cut being decent.
Id stick with vg as the min.


also 7.02-6.33 is going to be noticeably not square.

 

[fuffi]

The price is indeed very suspicious. I would personally never buy a princess with an extremely thin girdle. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Have you actually seen this stone? I would expect it has a lot of light leakage being that shallow, but your eyes are the best judge of that.

 

[Nicrez]

Tim, not an expert here, but it falls under approximately the 2B cut of the AGA Fancy cut charts (http://diamonds.pricescope.com/fnc1.asp)




That's good, and i suppose the table being cut to such a high percentage gives you a "larger" stone in appearance, which is good on saving money and getting a bigger rock. My only worry is that a princess cut should be more square, and this one (by the dimensions) is off by .69. Not great, but not terrible.




My thing with shaped stones is to look for 2 things. 1) light leakage and 2) bowties and fisheyes




1) light leakage is the amount of light that does not return to the eye (as it should when properly cut) and just falls through the facets, out the back. This can be seen with a Ideal Scope (and if you don't have one, there are tests that some gemologist and jewelers can do to produce these images.




2) If you look into the center of the stone, you should see sparkles and not dark spots on either side of the culet from reflection of your head on the inner facet(shaped like a bowtie), or even glassy spots in a ring around the culet. I saw this in a few princess stones that had big tables and small depths. Like a non-reflective pool of clear glass in a circle in the center. NOT the best cut stone.




Also slightly worried about the extremely thin to medium girdle...not such precision there...Thin to med is OK, extremely thin to med...ehh....




In regards to this stone, maybe keep it as a back up... GOOD LUCK and let us know what you decide!!!

 

[tefaber]

Thanks so much for the info! This is such a great help!
Tim

 

[pqcollectibles]

Extremely thin girdle is worrisome. Also, the L to W ratio is out of spec.