Elexese Princess Cut

[dreamer777]

Hi All,

As a novice, I''m looking for some opinion. I was at Robbins Bros today and they showed me two princess cut diamonds. One was an Elexese cut. The other princess daimond was an E ,130pts, VS2. The Elexese was an F, 126pts, VS2. The non Elexese cut was was slightly more colorless (of course), but they looked the same in size, and both were nice. The non Elexese cut sparkled slightly more, but I was drawn to how the Elexese diamond was cut. When we took it outside in the sun, both sparkled about the same. The Elexese diamond was a couple hundred dollars cheaper.

The lady at Robbins Bros mentioned that these diamonds are not as common, but mentioned I wouldn''t go wrong with either diamond. What''s your thoughts on the Elexese cut?

 

[dreamer777]

Correction - The lady mentioned that the Elexese cut diamonds were not as common, but I wouldn''t go wrong with either one.

 

[valeria101]

Hm... I don''t know. From their website it seems that Elexese is cut with the same facet pattern as the traditional princess (whatever that means, since there are a couple of slightly different cuts in circulation under this name). The band claims that they cut to strict proportions to insure brilliance. And this is all - no further informatioon on what exactly they do or what is their quality standard all about.

Given that both stone (branded and not) are basically princess cuts... and you seem to have found good points for each, it remains your call to choose.

What are the other specs? Table... depth... size... whatever available.

Princess cuts can look quite difference by varying their proportions alone. You would never get such wide variation in rounds. So I imagine you have two stones with darn different proportions at hand.

From what you say, one more thing comes to mind: most diamonds look brillinat in strong light (say, direct daylight out of the shop, or strong store lights), but those that hold their own in normal lighting (not bright) are considered best. If you wnat to tell what difference the cut makes, than bright light does not help - quite the contrary.

And then, you say E looked brighter than F: sure, but I bet it was their cut not body color (=color grade) at play. It is posssible, of course, but I would be amazed if you saw the difference between E and F face up and under strong light. The difference between a brilliant cut (a strone with strong white light flash) and a fiery one (a diamond less bright but showing strong dispersion - rainbow like) is much more glaring.

Just my 0.2, of course. Hope it helps.

 

[dreamer777]

Offhand, the table and depth were at the ideal range. I do not know the exact numbers. One difference was that the elexese measurements was 6.01x6.03 - near perfect square (off by .02), which is what I am looking for. The other one was off by .15, which looked square to the naked eye, but you can tell the difference between the two, if you really really stared at it.

In regards to color, I could slightly slightly tell between the E an F. It may have been the cut. The nonElexese had smaller angled cuts, thus sparkled a bit more, in my opinion. However, as I stated, I was drawn to the Elexese cut. It seemed like I could see through to the bottom or other side of the diamond, after the sparkles.

 

[sean13]

This is strictly my opinion, but I would not pay any extra money for an Elexese cut diamond. I was at Robbins Bros a couple of months ago at the beginning of my search and looked at several princess cut diamonds. From what I remember the Elexese cut only takes depth and table %''s into consideration (all Elexese must be graded by GIA). Plus, there is a very wide range that a diamond can fall into and still be consdered an Elexese cut. One in particular Elexese cut I looked at had a table of 73% (well over the ideal AGA limit of 68%). The cut does not consider any of the more important factors such as crown height, or crown/pavillion angles. Basically their ranges are so wide that a poorly cut diamond could conceivably make the grade as an Elexese cut. The most important thing is how the diamond looks to you...if you like it then go for it, but my humble advice is that the Elexese brand is not worth the extra money. There are many Elexese cuts that people here would advise you to avoid based strictly on the numbers.

On a side note I originally purchased a ring from Robbin''s bros, before I returned it because I found out the stone I had was just not up to par. I found their was a much better selection online and you can get a wealth of information compared to their store. I talked to six sales people and one manager and not one of them had heard of a sarin, or megascope and could not understand why I would want to know crown/pavillion information. Additionally I saved $1500 on a better diamond and $1000 on the same setting. I am not trying to be down on Robbin''s Bros, it was just my experience that their princess cut diamonds were what I now consider average, and the sales people tried to pass many of them off as "ideal." Buy with your eyes, not by the Elexese name.

Sean

 

[dreamer777]

Thanks for the input. What do you think of the Elexese style of cut itself versus the standard cut you see out there? I know you have to compare with your eyes at the store, but how''s the brilliance, fire, and scintillation from your (everyone''s) experience? As you can see, I''ve been reading up on this website?

 

[dreamer777]

I received an email from a member of the Diamond Masters Guild, who are proponents of this cut. For elexese princess cuts, depth should be between 67% and 75%. Table should be between 70% and 82%. This seems to be different than AGS specs...