Emerald cut - how low can you go on clarity, colour and cut to maximise carat?

[michela002]

Hi knowledgable diamond people,




I''ve got a question regarding emerald cut diamonds colour, clarity and cut:




Cut: I understand with emerald cuts that cut is very important (right?) How low can you go to still get a beautiful emerald cut? (i.e. on Bluenile etc, would a "good" as opposed to "very good" or "ideal" give you a disappointing emerald cut diamond?)




Colour: If it is to be set in platinum or white gold (preferably platinum), what is the lowest colour you can buy before it starts to look yellow, or even just "not good"? (Does it make any difference if I might want faint to medium fluroscence? I love the idea of the stone having a hint of icy blue. But I have never seen a fluroscent before, so I''d see one before deciding I wanted it.)




Clarity: If you want the diamond to be eyeclean but don''t care what it looks like when magnified, what is the lowest you can go? I have been told that clarity is again important in an emerald cut because you can see flaws more easily. Is an S1 or S2 be eyeclean? Or is this totally dependent on the stone? (i.e. might some S1s be eyeclean, while others are not?)




Not to sound shallow, but size is of importance to me. While I want a beautiful stone, if I can downscale in cut or colour or clarity without me (fairly diamond inept) seeing the stone as any less beautiful and get a bigger stone I''d prefer to do that, but I don''t want to go too far.




If anyone has any advice on which, if any, I can downscale on and how far, I''d really appreciate it.




Thank you!




Michela

 

[Hest88]

1) You don't want to skimp on cut. And you can't go by vague "Very Good" or "Ideal" terminology either. You want to get specific specs and, if possible, you want to see it (or have a trusted expert see it) before committing yourself.

2) Um, it really depends on how easily you see color. H or higher is safest, but that doesn't mean you can't go lower depending on the stone and your tolerance.

3) To be safe, I wouldn't go lower than a VS2, but it also depends on the size of the stone and the placement of the inclusions. You could get an eye-clean SI, but you won't know until you see it.

 

[DiamondOptics]

Hi Michela,

Its an excellent idea to have the stone pre-examined
by an expert, and try to have a check list of questions for
him or her to answer, on the specifics of the diamond in question. I would consider it to be a good thing to do,
because in many cases the customer doesnt see the diamond when purchasing through online vendors.

As for trying to achieve maximum carat size by comprimising
other characteistics is also a very tricky question to answer, cause it quickly becomes an issue of personal preference, to which we are all entitled to our own.

You will find many fine people with valiant efforts in here to give you some guidlines to go with, in terms of color, clarity, cut and so forth. Keep in mind, that these guidlines are for your educational purposes, and may be subject to a difference in opinion.

kirk

 

[katrina_33]

there have been lots of threads lately on color and clarity in RB's, and how low to safely go before people think they may start to detract from a stone's appearance. However, step cut stones show both color and clarity more readily than RB's do. Maybe read some of those threads and make a bit of a backward adjustment to get guidelines for your search, because your stone will be an EC.

I think that most people find H totally safe in RB's, so maybe a G is the safe spot for step cuts to show no color, or it may be as high as F. Also, many SI1's are eye clean in RB's as well, but I think you typically need to bump it up to at least VS2's for Asschers and Emeralds.

hope this helps. I'm not an expert by any means, by the way, this is just based on what I've always heard and read on the subject!