Cloudy Diamonds, Clarity?!?!?!

[Googleman]

My boyfriend and I are considering purchasing a diamond online, as the pricing and choices seem to be much better. To get a feel for the size, color, clarity etc. that I was interested in, we did pay a visit to the diamond district in our area. While there we saw one cloudy diamond. To our untrained eyes it looked a little off but once you put it next to some better diamonds, you could really see the difference. Not compared to better diamonds, I think it would still look okay. (Not that I am pining away for this diamond or have any inkling to purchase it.)

This "cloudy" diamond was an H SI1. The saleslady told us that it had medium flourescence which was probably making it cloudy. I was surprised because from my research, I thought medium flo. wouldn't have too much of an impact on a stone, especially one in the H color range where I thought the flo. could enhance the beauty. I don't know if the flo. was truely the reason for the cloudiness or not. I can only take her word.

Now I am a little scared of buying online because I have seen this cloudy diamond. I know to get my purchase appraised and I, of course, wouldn't buy anything without a return policy. However, I don't want to go though the hassle of several appraisals and returning diamonds. Is it common for a diamond to exhibit cloudiness? (We are looking to purchase something that is an H SI1.)

Also, I am a little concerned about the SI1 grading. From what the diamonds I was shown in person, I could not detect the inclusions without the loop. (After looking through the loop I was able to detect some with my naked eye, though, once I knew where and what to look for--but that doesn't really bother me.) However, I have read that in larger diamonds (such as the ones we are looking at--around 3 carats) it does sometimes become easy to spot the inclusions unaided in SI1 diamonds. So why not just go up in clarity, you ask me? Well, since I do want a larger stone (women!!! ) and my main consideration is not to be able to see these inclusions, and I have seen a number of SI1's that look quite good to me, I don't know that it merits the expense of going up in clarity rating when I do believe there are SI1's out there that meet my needs. I am just scared that I won't end up with one of those! Right now we are requesting copies of the certificates to at least get a good idea of where/what kind of inclusions our potential purchases have and ones that look as though they have large/potentially problematic inclusions. We are excluding those from our list of possibilites. I don't know if this is a good way to go or not!

Thanks for listening! Sorry so long!

 

[sylvesterii]

i think a common mistake MANY people in the diamond industry is that innacurate discussion of flourescence. Many say that flourescence causes a "milky" or cloud appearance. That is backwords. Diamonds that are "milky" or have lots of white inclusions are GOING to flouresce. just like white t-shirts do. Not all diamonds with flourescence are cloudy. however, (though i am not a diamond expert, just using human reason) any milky looking or cloudy diamond will have pretty strong fluourescence. A good discussion of this is in a book that i bought "diamond ring buying" by Renee Newman. It in she sites a GIA examiner who had only seen 12 diamonds with flourescence that were milky or cloudy in all of his 25 years as a grader. Therefore this proves that flourescence does not correlate to a milky appearance. now the latter statement i made cannot be proven, since most diamonds that are cloudy are not bothered to be sent in to the GIA or AGS for grading. however, i have a feeling that the number would greatly increase...

With any good online dealer, they are going to be more that happy to send you photos, reports etc...talk to them on the phone, ask "can you see this inclusion with your plain eye?" however, know that "eye clean" means different things to different people, and yes as you go up in size, it is going to be tougher to find an eye clean Sl1.

 

[pricescope]

Hi Googleman

Everything you wrote shows you made very good homework and makes perfect sense to me.

Cloudy diamonds do exist and usually cost less. You still can buy online from reputable vendor though. You just have to point out that you don't want a diamond to be cloudy.

Good internet vendors don't want diamond to be returned even more than you do () because of the cost of shipment (especially those who offer free shipment) and extra time. So if you will make your requirements clear they will try to make sure diamond is not cloudy.

There are two types of internet vendors. First are bringing diamond in house for inspection and then ship it to the clients. Second arrange drop shipping from wholesalers without looking at the stones themselves.

If you deal with the first type, they should make sure diamond is not cloudy themselves. Second type should at least talk to the wholesaler or cutter.

You also can arrange diamond to be shipped to David Atlas, Accredited Gem Appraiser, for inspection before you even pay for the stone. Most of the vendors who advertise on Pricescope will agree to do it for their clients.

Same apply to SI1 clarity. You should make it clear that you don't want to have visible inclusions in your stone. However, as you might know, inclusion in SI1 diamond of this size can be invisible from the top but still be visible from the side. You should decide whether it will still bother you.

Hope this helps

 

[pricescope]

Sylvesterii, you're right on fluorescence.

People used to think if it is noted in the grading report it is a bad thing. O the contrary, diamonds with strong fluoro are discounted in the trade and might be a good deal.

Left diamond in this picture has strong blue fluoro (I made the picture myself) but doesn't look cloudy our milky at all.

 

[golfer]

I am receiving my 1.43 E VS1 with strong blue fluor today -- hoping that myself and appraiser agree that it is not at all cloudy. Will let you know, but from what I've read, a stone with fluor is generally a good buy.