diamond flourescence and grocery store flourescent lighting......

[abbey]

It seems to be the general opinion on the boards that anything from negligible to med flourescence really doesn''t effect the "look" of the higher color say D-G color diamond. What happens in regular flourescent lighting-wouldn''t you see the prescence of the flourescence in the diamond. Say at the grocery store, retail shop or school.... I have a GIA D color diamond that is not supposed to have any flourescence, but I really notice that it is much "brighter" (not blue or glowing) under flourescent lighting and have always suspected it to have a touch of flourescence. Could I be right? Also, what about diamonds with med blue flourescence-would they look at all blue under such lighting conditions? Thanks for your opinions! I''m looking at upgrading and have found a diamond that has med blue and just curious if it''s worth taking a look.

 

[Nicrez]

Abby, I have noticed that under florescent lighting the D will always look blueish and brighter, because it seems to have an absence of yellow. This is normal. I saw a D under a jeweler's florescent and even with my frightening accurate eye for color, I thought there was florescence in that stone. Well, I was wrong.

The absence of yellow = D color, the whitest possible. It's normal, you maybe should have gotten an E!

As for the florescent stones being visible in that lighting, they should not. The light they use to check florescence is a purplish light that shows the florescence and unless you are under blacklights often, I can't imagine it being a problem.

 

[diamondlil]

Abby,


I have an E color diamond with medium blue flourescence. It does not cause my stone to be milky or oily at all. When I go to the grocery store with their high ceilings and flourescent lights, my diamond is seriously blinding! It has a "plugged-in" look that I love. I don't think the flourescence in my diamond has anything to do with it actually. I think it has to do with there being so many flourescent lights and that they are so high in the ceiling, it causes even an average diamond with more color to be bright. I wonder what the experts have to say about this phenomenon?




Diamondlil

 

[valeria101]

It takes allot of fluorescence in the diamond and little light in the visible spectrum around the stone to see "blue" fluorescence as, well blue. If the stone is not in the dark, fluorescence would just look "milky", like a white mist. What you have seen is more likely another effect. Diamonds tend to pick up the color in the light source very well; so they would actually demonstrate quite well how "yellow" the usual incandescent bulbs are, for example. Those store lights not only are much stronger than anything in a usual home, but they are also much whiter - so the diamond would look substantially different under them than their "home' look. Every decent jewelry store know this

, it seems. It would be interesting to experiment at home with some white light...

All in all, unless the fluorescence in the stone is labeled "strong", the chance to notice it under strong light (regardless of how much UW component it has) are not great, if any.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

There is more fluorescne emittted from a halogen spot than there is from a fluoro strip light- and in each case it is a tiny fraction of what is in shaded netural day light.

It is daylight that helps the color the most via fluoro.

So many jewellers you talk to will tell you they choose to buy fluoro diamonds for personal use - not because they are cheaper, but because they look better.

This chart is from the data in the 1997 GIA G&G article / survey
Face up perceived color differences by expert graders were noted in 58 of 90 observations. Clearly most strongly fluoro diamonds got the tumbs up in this 'blind' test.
The same gradres were unable to consistantly observe any milky or hazy appearance face up in a variaty of lighting conditions (but they could slightly face down). Infact in daylight some observers actually thought the very strong fluoro diamonds were most transperent!

Would anyone like me to summarise the article and post it on PS? along with the counter Marty haske type agruments?

 

[Daniela]

Cut Nut,

Personally, I would be really interested in reading the article. I have always wondered how fluorescent diamonds perform in different sorts of lighting conditions, and just when they look whiter than their colour.

Daniela

 

[abbey]

Thanks for all the information-it is very interesting!
Cut Nut- I would love for you to summarize the article on flourescence.