Does the pattern on a princess also determining quality of cut? Or, is it all in the sparkle?

[decodelighted]

Lady!

I''m gonna cut to the chase ... are you 2nd guessing that lovely stone of yours? I ask this as a (fellow?) relatively obsessive person myself. I''ve done plenty of "but is it IDEAL" or "is it close enough to IDEAL?" ... "What would something IDEAL have looked/felt/been like" ... Is this what''s *really* going on here? Feel free to tell me if I''m way off base. If I''m not I have futher comment/advice/hugs if desired....

 

[squarediamondlove]

Decodelighted,

Not exacly. I already know the rough quality of my cut and I know it is not "ideal" (76% table). However, just b/c I have my e-ring already, it does not prevent me form doing more research on diamonds. I am interested in learning about princess cuts, partly b/c they are not as simply defined as round cuts. I know that experts agree that sometimes a non "ideal" stone by sepcs can result in greater beauty than some stones that are "ideal." Most experts agree that you cannot determine the quality of cut simply by looking at princess' specs. So then the question becomes what other things do you look at, especially for us consumers who may not have access to a briliantscope or a lightscope? It cannot be true that the only real way to tell the beauty of the stone is by looking through these two tools. That would mean that true beauties could not be recognized by the naked eye from the standard good cuts and I know that this is not true (experts also say that the brilliantscope and lightscope are consistent with visual tests).

I would like to learn how to simply look at a stone and be able to tell what quality of cut it is. I can definately spot bad cuts but how do you spot the exeptional form the good?

But yes, knowing about princess cuts in general of course would allow me to determine what contrast, optical symmetry and etc my stone has as well. But this is not to second guess my stone, but to understand all the factors that come into play to make my stone look the way it does.

P.S. decodelighted, I love your e-ring. That is a beautiful assher! (asshers (and square emralds) are my second favorite to princess cuts)

 

[Mara]

Date: 11/22/2005 12:07:05 PM
Author: Kaleidoscopic
Not exacly. I already know the rough quality of my cut and I know it is not 'ideal.' However, just b/c I have me e-ring already that does not prevent me form doing any more research on diamonds. I am interested in learning about princess cuts, partly b/c they are not as simply defined as round cuts. I know that experts agree that sometimes a non 'ideal' stone by sepcs can result in greater beauty than some stones that are 'ideal.' Most experts agree that you cannot determine the quality of cut simply by looking at princess' specs. So then the question becomes what other things do you look at, especially for us consumers who may not have access to a briliantscope or a lightscope. It cannot be true that the only real way to tell the beauty of the stone is by looking through these two tools. That would mean that the beauties would could not be recognized by the naked eye from the standard good cuts and I know that this is not true (experts also say that the brilliantscope and lightscope are consistent with visual tests).

I would like to learn how to simply look at a stone and be able to tell what quality of cut it is. I can definately spot bad cuts but how do you spot the exeptional form the good?

I don't think that YOU can simply look at a stone and be able to tell quality of cut. That comes with practice...and unless you've seen thousands of stones, I'd say it's pretty difficult. I've seen my share and then some and I don't know that I could spot and identify cut quality of any stone right away. Sure if I see arrows I know what those mean and if I see light return I know what that means. But for example my stepmother in law has a big 2.5c stone that looks sparkly and pretty but appears to be somewhat deep in the pavilion...I haven't louped it but off the top of my head I wouldnt say it was exceptional or bad...so somewhere in between is where you have that gray area where I think most consumers are unable to give a definitive answer one way or the other. Now if you are one of the experts having seen thousands of stones, you could probably pinpoint it as having XYZ problem or positives.

Secondly, you mention not having access to a BS or LS to help with stone cut identification/clarification...well you CAN buy an IdealScope for $30 from Garry's US site, so there is no excuse to not have one if you are really interested in seeing cuts and comparisons in person. I have one, it's great fun to experiment with. Buy an IS and take it into the store. I think that when it comes to princess stones you CAN use the IS pretty reliably in terms of weeding out the chaff. I'd much rather use an IS than my own tricky eyes to gauge cut and light return of a round OR most fancies. If you have the chance, use both the IS and your eyes and hopefully they both tell you the same thing.

 

[squarediamondlove]

Mara,

I realize that you need a lot of practice to this and be able to see a large range of quality stones to really get it. I guess I was just looking for some guidelines for things to look at.

For example - Perhaps pics of comparisons of what is good contrast and what is not, under what lighting should you examine sparkle of the stone, is comparing sparkle side by side with another stone a good indication of its capacity to sparkle (since some say that even a bad cut stone will sparkle comparibly when surrounded by halogens), how to tell if a stone is too dark (for e.g. sometimes if a stone is too deep it wil appear darker at the table (when looking table up), what type of sparkle is expected from stones with less facets and those with more, what shoud you look for to see if the stone has good optical symmetry, and etc?

I''m not looking for steadfast rules or to be able to say XYZ but just to say that this stone looks like a very good cut because it has beautifully faceting, good contrast and optical symetry.

And I will definately be getting the idealscope.

Mara, you made me think of another question allong similar lines, which I deceded to make a seperate post for. LOOK AND SEE, I''d love to know what you think. The post is called:

"For all the cut lovers! Question?"