(sorry if this becomes a bit long)
My soon to be fiance and I had been shopping for rings for a while, and I finally bought one on Saturday, but luckily I found your forum that changed my decision a little bit.
We were never really into the scientific part of shopping for rings, we just went to the different stores in the mall to try some on. We found the brick & mortar store we felt most comfortable with and after a couple trips she finally tried on a 1.1 carat diamond that she loved because it was big, and I decided to break down and get it the next day because it was a 1 carat I could actually afford.
I knew it was an F in color which was good, and I knew it was an I2, which I knew wasn''t so good, but didn''t pay too much attention since she''d already put it on and didn''t notice anything. After coming home with the GIA report I started to research all these strange new terms, unfortunately I wasn''t too pleased with what I found...
After finding your board, I found out about things like how important the cut is, and what makes the diamond actually sparkle and come to life. The diamond I had bought only had a GIA estimated cut grade of: Fair, the table % was in a good range, but the depth was at 69.4% which I quickly found out was not a good thing. I plugged everything into the Cut Adviser tool and it didn''t even want to register with it, and when I told it the depth was 68% it said the visual appeal was a 6.1 (groan).
I decided to go back to Riddle''s Jewelry today and actually do some real comparison shopping. I looked at the ring I had picked and could see a big black inclusion in the middle I didn''t even notice before. There''s no doubt in my mind after a couple weeks she would have probably been unhappy with the diamond, so I was glad I came back. I told them I was willing to go down in size if it meant a better looking diamond, and they pulled out some better brilliant cut rounds and their own "Noveske" 90 facet rounds.
The regular rounds were eye clean, (SI2), and the Noveske was an I1. I could see the little inclusion in the Noveske, but it was really small, and with the cut you really couldn''t see it very well even after staring at it for a while. I then had her do some tests like putting the two in different kinds of lighting, and it was clear the Noveske just popped in almost any sort of light. When I had her compare the Noveske and my 1 carat I originally purchased, it wasn''t even close. I had to go pretty far down in size, it''s a 0.71, and it even added about $150 to the total, but I really do think this will be the better decision.
If you want to take a look at the report for my diamond you can go to:
www.Gemex.com and my diamond # is: BT-0804001
Sorry for the long post, I hope you guys like my story
Josh
My soon to be fiance and I had been shopping for rings for a while, and I finally bought one on Saturday, but luckily I found your forum that changed my decision a little bit.
We were never really into the scientific part of shopping for rings, we just went to the different stores in the mall to try some on. We found the brick & mortar store we felt most comfortable with and after a couple trips she finally tried on a 1.1 carat diamond that she loved because it was big, and I decided to break down and get it the next day because it was a 1 carat I could actually afford.
I knew it was an F in color which was good, and I knew it was an I2, which I knew wasn''t so good, but didn''t pay too much attention since she''d already put it on and didn''t notice anything. After coming home with the GIA report I started to research all these strange new terms, unfortunately I wasn''t too pleased with what I found...
After finding your board, I found out about things like how important the cut is, and what makes the diamond actually sparkle and come to life. The diamond I had bought only had a GIA estimated cut grade of: Fair, the table % was in a good range, but the depth was at 69.4% which I quickly found out was not a good thing. I plugged everything into the Cut Adviser tool and it didn''t even want to register with it, and when I told it the depth was 68% it said the visual appeal was a 6.1 (groan).
I decided to go back to Riddle''s Jewelry today and actually do some real comparison shopping. I looked at the ring I had picked and could see a big black inclusion in the middle I didn''t even notice before. There''s no doubt in my mind after a couple weeks she would have probably been unhappy with the diamond, so I was glad I came back. I told them I was willing to go down in size if it meant a better looking diamond, and they pulled out some better brilliant cut rounds and their own "Noveske" 90 facet rounds.
The regular rounds were eye clean, (SI2), and the Noveske was an I1. I could see the little inclusion in the Noveske, but it was really small, and with the cut you really couldn''t see it very well even after staring at it for a while. I then had her do some tests like putting the two in different kinds of lighting, and it was clear the Noveske just popped in almost any sort of light. When I had her compare the Noveske and my 1 carat I originally purchased, it wasn''t even close. I had to go pretty far down in size, it''s a 0.71, and it even added about $150 to the total, but I really do think this will be the better decision.
If you want to take a look at the report for my diamond you can go to:
www.Gemex.com and my diamond # is: BT-0804001
Sorry for the long post, I hope you guys like my story
Josh
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