EGL USA Will Provide Brilliancescope Results

[pricescope]

GemEx Systems and EGL USA have teamed up to provide a combined diamond grading report to customers, including jewelry consumers, wholesalers and retailers.

The new service will be available starting next month.

Full Article: GemEx Systems, EGL USA to Provide New Grading Service:

 

[chrono]

Super! Maybe we'll see other labs come up with other ways to help measure the quality of their cuts soon. This is definitely the first step. Will this also raise the prices of EGL USA diamonds vs AGS & GIA? I would prefer an Idealscope picture but hey, one step at a time.

 

[strmrdr]

kewl

 

[wonka27]

Wow! I think this will really bolster EGL's place in the certification market. You go to the mall or jeweler now and they show you an EGL cert, the educated customer probably cringes a bit. Adding BScope to it will give customers something concrete to let them know that their diamond performs a certain way. I think it is a great thing, coupled with the fact that the diamond grading survey conducted by pricescope shows EGL USA can hang with AGS & GIA.

GIA is really going to need to get moving. They can't afford to sit around while the other labs move toward grading components that correlate to optical symmetry and not get involved. Who is going to want a cert with a color & clarity grade, when there are others on the market that help you determine performance.

 

[Superidealist]

I have to say that this comes as quite a surprise. I never thought any major lab would use BrillianceScope reports. Though others may disagree, this gives me even less confidence in the EGL than I had before.

 

[wonka27]

May I ask why superidealist?

 

[Superidealist]

I don't believe in the BrillianceScope.

 

[wonka27]

Gotcha

 

[denverappraiser]

This looks to me like a joint marketting effort between the two companies and not EGL-USA adding a brilliancescope image as an element in one of their own products. If anything, it looks to me like GemEx is planning to offer EGL-USA reports as an upsell to go with the purchase of one of their reports.

It will be interesting to see who is actually selling what to whom.

Neil Beaty, GG ISA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

It is possible a big EGL USA customer / manufacturer has worked out how to produce economically diamonds that get good BS scores and asked EGL USA to provide the service while grading the diamonds to legitimise the process.

One would hope that EGL will publish the results of an analysis?

It does however also mean that the Brillianscope will be able to come under proper peer review for the first time. The Master Stone Set project to be co-ordianted by HRD is to be only made available to major labs to validate their cut quality grading systems and methods. Now Gemex will qualify.

 

[Upgradable]

Superidealist, why the disbelief in brilliancescope?

I'm just a newbie, and I'm devouring all the great info I've found here, and I have been happy that brilliancescope gives me a "visual" to go along with all the numeric data.

If I'm putting my eggs in the wrong basket, I'd rather reorient myself now, rather than putting a preference upon a stone given data that is not very reliable/descriptive.

 

[Superidealist]

I've seen no evidence that convinces me that the BrillianceScope measures brilliance, fire, and scintillation. As with the Isee2, I distrust any device that tries to pin a number to anything as subjective as beauty.

That's not to say that I believe these devices to be useless, though. There may be a correlation between the scores they generate and the diamond's appearance, but I think it's a mistake to say a "higher scoring" diamond will look better than a "lower scoring" diamond. Unlike the Holloway Cut Advisor and qualitative devices such as the Firescope and its derivatives, they don't account for personal preferences.

Similarly, I would warn against taking EightStar's word that what it calls a "perfect" Firescope image is better than all others or Jonathan's word that diamonds with "hotspots" are better than those without. Diamonds with these properties may look best to EightStar or Jonathan, but there is no guarantee they will look best to you.

Likewise, I place no importance on Whiteflash's "true" hearts and arrows or on hearts and arrows at all, for that matter. Diamonds displaying these patterns may or may not appeal to you more than those lacking them.

So where does that leave you? I think the best way to choose a great diamond is to see as many diamonds as you can with your own eyes and choose the one that looks best to you. That's not much help to online shoppers, but that's the price you pay to save a buck.

 

[mdx]

----------------
On 8/30/2004 3:24:24 PM chrono wrote:

Super! Maybe we'll see other labs come up with other ways to help measure the quality of their cuts soon. This is definitely the first step. Will this also raise the prices of EGL USA diamonds vs AGS & GIA? I would prefer an Idealscope picture but hey, one step at a time.----------------

Hi Chrono
I cannot see how a brilliant scope could measure cut quality. I also cannot believe that EGL-USA would include this type of result in a grading report.
Using or testing these devices in a controlled environment like an Independent laboratory is however a good idea if there are no influences by large clients as Gary suggests.
Well I suppose we will have to wait and see.

Johan

 

[chrono]

MDX, perhaps I'm not explaining clearly or perhaps my diamond knowledge is somewhat off but this is what I am thinking: A BScope is a tool to gauge the optical performance of a diamond in a certain light condition with a 5% error. The optical performance is also somehow tied to the quality of the cut. If that statement is true, then how can a BScope not be a tool to help measure the cut quality? Why would EGL USA not include this in their grading report? This is what I thought would happen. Perhaps I'm not reading the article correctly. It would also be a good thing for the BScope to come under proper peer review as well.

 

[jesrush]

This is fabulous... anything that brings more attention to cut-quality sounds good to me! And like Gary said, it will be nice to see more peer-review on the B'Scope! -J

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Just curious, does EGL have any proprietary interest in GemEx/BScope?

Sharon

 

[mdx]

----------------
On 8/31/2004 9:30:34 AM chrono wrote:

MDX, perhaps I'm not explaining clearly or perhaps my diamond knowledge is somewhat off but this is what I am thinking: A BScope is a tool to gauge the optical performance of a diamond in a certain light condition with a 5% error. The optical performance is also somehow tied to the quality of the cut. If that statement is true, then how can a BScope not be a tool to help measure the cut quality? Why would EGL USA not include this in their grading report? This is what I thought would happen. Perhaps I'm not reading the article correctly. It would also be a good thing for the BScope to come under proper peer review as well.----------------

Hi Chrono

Nothing wrong with your explanation, It’s actually a bit of a tough one
Some uses successfully use the BS as highly a visible sale tools that seem to give some form of repeatability on stones within a range known good visual performers.
Other uses correctly explain that you don’t need to have triple VH for a stone to be beautiful. Others as well as us have found a number of stones scoring triple VH that certainly cannot be classified as good performers.
One of our suppliers offers BS reports on all their stones so we have had access to large numbers of results covering a diverse range of possibilities prior to our selection.

So that’s where we are, an unproven technology without scientific verification from an independent unbiased authority, used primarily as a sales aid.

The last thing anyone wants to do is discourage good technology that can help consumers choose good diamonds but results must stand up to independent unbiased scientific scrutiny.
So lets wait and see what EGL-USA have to say. We will be sending some selected diamonds once they are up and running and will be happy to report back, good or bad

Johan