Culet?

[Rook]

I have read a lot of info on culet including Gary''s tutorial and I thought the culet issue was pretty well settled. Then I was given this opinion and now I am not as sure.

"I would worry about because they have no culet and if it gets just a little chip will fall under one carat in size which will decrease the value quite a bit, but the culet issue is the larger consideration."

I thought that once the diamond was set there really was no need to worry about the culet?

Any thoughts?

 

[optimized]

Hi Rook,

I agree with your initial impression about the culet issue. To my understanding, the lack of a culet is really only a problem during cutting and polishing of the diamond, when there is a far greater chance of the pointed culet being damaged by the cutter. I believe the "correct" proportions of a RB diamond is for there to be no culet "facet" at all, but that culet facets are often placed by the cutters to help prevent damage. Everything I've ever heard on the subject indicates to me that, once set in jewelry, the culet is well protected and is unlikely to ever be damaged.

As concerns the statement, "if it gets just a little chip will fall under one carat in size which will decrease the value quite a bit," this may be true, but this would apply to a chip anywhere on the stone, and overall the girdle is by far the most likely area to suffer damage on any set diamond (due to it's relation to the cleavage planes, the stress of being set in claws, and the likelihood of being struck along the girdle).

During my search I barely looked at culet size beyond making sure it wasn't so big as to impact the optics of the stone, but in all honesty I thought it would be nice to have a diamond with no culet at all (it just seemed more "perfect" to me). In the end I purchased a diamond with the "none" GIA rating for culet (.2%, 0.01mm, according to OGI) and have not regretted it at all.

-Tim