confused over cuts

[tweists]

hi there,

i''m buying my first diamond and have been doing some reading. Am confused over the different types - the ideal cut, the lazare, the hearts & arrows, the destinee... how are they different from the diamonds that are not classified under any of these?

can anyone help?

and does the prong setting make a difference? other than the look of it, what''s the difference between choosing a three, four or six prong setting?

thks to any one who can help!

 

[LadyluvsLuxury]

Hi TW, welcome

, I will try to answer as many of your questions as I can without lying to you! lol First off, some diamonds are "branded" which would be the equivalent between buying say gap jeans, express jeans, abercrombie and fitch vs. joe schmoes jeans from KMART. Some of these brands are marketed as stones cut to perfection, they are supposed to be the best of the best, everything done with exacting proportions. Some brands offer this in addition to say extra facets on the stone which is supposed to increase the diamonds fire and brilliancy. Some people prefer to pay the premium for these stones to ensure they are getting the best cut possible, others prefer to buy non-branded ideal stones (you would determine this by using depth, table, crown, height, angle information etc.). It is truly a personal choice which you prefer. You may find that for you some of the branded stones may not be too your liking, or it may be the best thing since sliced bread!

As for the prongs, personally the only two reasons I see which cause people to purchase one over the other is aesthetics and safety. Again it is a personal preference. Sometimes 4 prongs can make a round stone look more square depending upon where the prongs are placed, and some people do not like this. On the flip side people who purchase 4-pronged settings prefer the look of having less metal, and more stone showing. Again personal preference. Hope I helped some, goodluck!

 

[tweists]

Hi! thanks for replying me!

mind if i ask another question? when buying a diamond, do you sacrifice colour or clarity?

ie, if I have a D colour VS2, but a E colour VVS1... which is better?

thks again!

 

[sjz]

Ooooooo, that question opens up a lot of debate! It really depends on each individual and what their priorities are when buying a diamond. Most everyone will agree that the cut and budget are the two most important factors to consider. You definetely want to get the best cut for the price. The color and clarity is really dependent on you. Best advice if you don''t know a lot about clarity and color is to read as much as you can, and go out and look at diamonds. Both in and out of the setting. Size is also going to factor into the equation, as well. Some people rank size above both color and clarity and are willing to compromise on one or both of them to get the size they want within their budget. There are a lot of combinations to consider. But first you need to be educated about what the different grades of color and clarity really mean.

 

[Lorelei]

Hi and welcome

They are probably both good diamonds, but you need to carefully check out the cuts. The first diamond has the highest colour grade D colourless and slightly lower clarity - the second has E colour one down from D still colourless and better clarity. Both diamonds should be eyeclean and colourless. You can go down to an S11 - S12 clarity if your priority is size. Many on PS have lovely S1 stones and have compromised on clarity to get more size. You can afford to go down to lower colour grades and clarity for example FGH and or S11 or 2 clarity and get a larger diamond for the money. However this is purely personal. Some prefer to stick with the higher colours and clarities and don''t want to compromise. Cut should really be VERY high on your priorites, as without it, to quote many PS ers even a D IF stone would look like glass, so do not compromise here. Some believe that a VVS clarity is unnecessary and would rather put the money on more colour or size. Colour is more noticable from around H upwards, anything before that should look colourless - but it a very personal thing. Probably the best thing for you to do is to study the tutorial, so you can learn what is important to you. If you can, get out and see different stones to compare - remember to compare " apples to apples" when doing this. To answer your question though, of the two diamonds you mention it is hard to tell which is better than the other as we would really need more info on each stone and it''s proportions. Remember never sacrifice on cut - it is essential to any diamond''s beauty and without that you will have a dull and unattractive stone. Study up as much as you can on the diamond basics and armed with your new info and the help you can get here, you should find a lovely diamond, carry on getting some basic knowledge first, start with the colour and clarity grades, cut parameters - then when it starts to make sense you will be better able to make an informed purchase.

 

[LadyluvsLuxury]

Hey tweists! You got some really good answers above but I wanted to add that the terminology "sacrifice" is subjective. For instance many buyers do not consider it a sacrifice buying an "eye clean" SI1 stone vs. say an IF, their mentality is why pay for something I can''t see? Some people like the idea of having what they consider a truly "perfect" (another subjective term) stone and so they shoot for D/IF. Same thing with color, personally I prefer D-H in platinum but because I am a yellow gold girl, I prefer H-J in my setting because to me it just looks better. So for someone who may have wanted a ''G'' colored stone but choose to buy an ''I'' or ''J'' to meet a certain size or budget criteria then that is a sacrifice or what I truly consider a compromise. But someone like myself will actually seek out H-J colored stones because that is my preference, so it is not a sacrifice to me. You have to decide what works for you and what your goals are. Also, out of anything do not sacrifice cut for a larger stone, in your case if you needed to "give something up", I would drop the color and clarity down some b/c for the most part it will look same to the eye especially in an ideal cut stone. Goodluck!