shape
carat
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clarity

Emerald Cut Stone Help

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Hello everyone!

I was looking for some help/advice related to purchasing an emerald cut stone for a Leon Mege setting - R1027 (link below).

http://artofplatinum.com/vault/inde...&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

My issue is that I am currently in Iraq and am trying to get this project completed before I come home on leave next month so I can surprise my fiancee with the ring (she thinks we're going ring shopping while I'm home). So obviously, I will have to pick a stone online based just off of numbers and pictures. Since I'm getting a LM setting, I figured the easiest thing to do would be to go through LM himself, but looking through their Diamond Concierge database online it can get somewhat confusing.

My parameters are listed below, the only thing I'm having trouble with is that I'm told that Depth % and Table % play the biggest role in the brilliance of the diamond, but the numbers vary so wildly, that I have no idea what I should be searching for.

Carat: 1.0 - 1.20
Color: F or higher
Clarity: VS1 or higher
Ratio: 1.4 - 1.6
Depth%: ??
Table%: ??

Any help would be appreciated - thanks!!
 

kelpie

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
2,362
Here's my ballparks:
Depth 64-70...although low 70's might look fine but will start to face up small
Table 50-64%

You're probably fine with a VS2 if it opens you up to more stones...also we were just discussing that E is one of the best value colors.

The following statistics provide an indication of the relationship between color grade and price:

D costs 50% more per carat than E
E is 12% more than F
F is 16% more than G
G is 22.5% more than H
H is 18% more than I
I is 22.5% more than J
J is 9% more than K
K is 10% more than L
L is 20% more than M
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
kelpie|1310905035|2970741 said:
What made you decide on the length/width ratio you did? most emeralds are 1:10-1:50
Thank you for the stone ideas!

I opted for that ratio because I wanted a more traditional, rectangular look - especially since it will be a three stone ring and my finacee has small hands, I didn't want it to appear too "blocky".
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
kelpie|1310904233|2970734 said:
Here's my ballparks:
Depth 64-70...although low 70's might look fine but will start to face up small
Table 50-64%

Thank you for the advice! So am I correct in assuming that I will want a higher Depth % than Table %?
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
kelpie|1310906124|2970744 said:
You're welcome! I could only find one with even a 1:40 ratio in your perimeters. 1:20-1:35 seems most popular.

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-VVS1-Ideal-Cut-Emerald-Diamond-1345241.asp

Yeah, that seems to be the problem with shopping online - even with pictures it's really hard to tell what would be a good size, shape, and ratio for a diamond, so a 1.30 ratio EC may be perfectly fine for the ring, I just can't see it. I was able to find a couple diamonds on LM's website itself that seem like they could be good fits - the only problem is the grade of cuts aren't rated so I have no idea of the quality.

Carat: 1.0
Color: D
Clarity: VS1
Depth%: 63
Table%: 64
Ratio: 1.42
Polish: EX
Symmetry: VG

Carat: 1.01
Color: D
Clarity: VS1
Depth%: 63
Table%: 64
Ratio: 1.43
Polish: VG
Symmetry: VG

Carat: 1.01
Color: F
Clarity: VVS2
Depth%: 67
Table%: 62
Ratio: 1.43
Polish: VG
Symmetry: VG
 

kelpie

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
2,362
You probably do want higher depth than table. My feeling is the smaller a table the better. My table on my old cut is only 41%! Leon is offering a concierge service so you shouldn't need to struggle with visualizing....just contact Perry Chen and tell him what you want and see what he comes up with. He knows a lot more about what makes a good emerald than you or I and he can use his eyes. He should send you pictures and probably an ASET image on the ones you are serious about.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
Hiya. Don't mean to throw a wrench in your plans, but if it were me, and my guy was coming home to go ring shopping with me, I'd be excited about the actual prospect going ring shopping-- not just getting a ring. While I think a surprise ring is great... if she's expecting to have input on the ring, and then she gets to Leon's and... surprise, you get no input here's your ring... some women might be disappointed.

It depends on your lady, of course, but... you might want to talk to her mother/sister/best friend and make sure she's going to be okay with you taking away her chance to shop with you and to pick out her ring with you. And I would make sure a three stone emerald cut ring is what she wants-- exactly what she wants, if you are going to take away her chance to shop for herself.

:wavey:
 

tyty333

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
27,198
I feel the same way Gypsy...ring shopping with my SO was one of the most fun and exciting times for me. If my BF had
showed up with a ring when I thought we were going to pick it out together I would have been a little let down by the process
(although happy to be engaged).
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Well I'm fortunate enough to be engaged to one of the few women that DOESN'T like to shop. :) Plus, she's very traditional and has hinted at the fact that she would rather be surprised by something I picked out for her, then shop for it herself.

Having said all that though, she and I have been going back and forth about ring designs and she kept coming back to the Tiffany's and Harry Winston emerald cut 3-stone ring, which she loved. Unfortunately, both were outside my price range, so that's why we agreed to wait until I came home so we could see if any of the local jewelers had anything close to that. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across this website, which recommended Leon Mege, and lo and behold, he had an almost IDENTICAL ring for a much cheaper price. So in my mind, it's the best of both worlds - she gets the rings she wants AND she doesn't have to go shopping.

I haven't been home in 8 months - I'm fairly confident she won't be thinking about a shopping trip when I show up next month. :D
 

Mayk

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
4,772
CageyKG|1310981651|2971245 said:
Well I'm fortunate enough to be engaged to one of the few women that DOESN'T like to shop. :) Plus, she's very traditional and has hinted at the fact that she would rather be surprised by something I picked out for her, then shop for it herself.

Having said all that though, she and I have been going back and forth about ring designs and she kept coming back to the Tiffany's and Harry Winston emerald cut 3-stone ring, which she loved. Unfortunately, both were outside my price range, so that's why we agreed to wait until I came home so we could see if any of the local jewelers had anything close to that. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across this website, which recommended Leon Mege, and lo and behold, he had an almost IDENTICAL ring for a much cheaper price. So in my mind, it's the best of both worlds - she gets the rings she wants AND she doesn't have to go shopping.

I haven't been home in 8 months - I'm fairly confident she won't be thinking about a shopping trip when I show up next month. :D


That's Awesome.... Thank you for all you do. I hope you find the perfect ring!
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Mayk|1310981864|2971246 said:
That's Awesome.... Thank you for all you do. I hope you find the perfect ring!

While I appreciate your gratitude - I can't take the credit as I am not here in a military capacity, I am just here as an adviser to the military. Once upon a time I was a soldier, but that seems like a long time ago now. :)
 

Blackpaw

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
2,469
Hi Cagey :wavey: i recently purchased an EC from good old gold, and had it set in a leon mege setting - alas my significant other has hold of it now but i assume its turned out fantastic.

For vendors, i would try good old gold, ERD and whiteflash. They will all do pictures and asets, though GOG are the only vendor that will do video. If you click my topics you'll see my thread searching for an EC and ive linked to the video. When you're not seeing it in person this is the next best thing, though there are a number of people who've picked beautiful ECs from ERD and Whiteflash with images alone.

The thing is you'll need to contact them and let them know you're in a rush, these vendors will search their EC inventory for you but it wont be directly on their website like james allen. That said they'll be able to get stones in for you in a matter of days...

And yes you do want table % to be less than depth %. One way or the other it doesnt guarantee a great stone (you have to see the pics, video for that) but those parameters typically give you the good ECs (table higher than depth the stone can look 'glassy').

Let us know if you have more questions - ECs are certainly tougher than rounds to source but they're so beautiful i think the search is worth it :love:
 

tyty333

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
27,198
CageyKG|1310981651|2971245 said:
Well I'm fortunate enough to be engaged to one of the few women that DOESN'T like to shop. :) Plus, she's very traditional and has hinted at the fact that she would rather be surprised by something I picked out for her, then shop for it herself.

Having said all that though, she and I have been going back and forth about ring designs and she kept coming back to the Tiffany's and Harry Winston emerald cut 3-stone ring, which she loved. Unfortunately, both were outside my price range, so that's why we agreed to wait until I came home so we could see if any of the local jewelers had anything close to that. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across this website, which recommended Leon Mege, and lo and behold, he had an almost IDENTICAL ring for a much cheaper price. So in my mind, it's the best of both worlds - she gets the rings she wants AND she doesn't have to go shopping.

I haven't been home in 8 months - I'm fairly confident she won't be thinking about a shopping trip when I show up next month. :D
:lol: :lol: :lol:

This is good news...sounds like you have thought it all out and you do have a good approach!
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Well I just contacted Perry at LM and he's on the search for me - he should have something for me in the next day or so.
 

Laila619

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
11,676
CageyKG|1311013933|2971575 said:
Well I just contacted Perry at LM and he's on the search for me - he should have something for me in the next day or so.

Yay, great news!
 

Rockdiamond

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
9,711
Hi Cagey- even though you're through with active duty, you're still a hero in my book- having never served myself, I am truly grateful for those who have made the sacrifice!

There's a lot of numbers being thrown around here- and some are very misleading- I know there's no bad intention here, but you know what they say about statistics. The jist of it is that stats without more info can be misleading.
For example, a 1.00 D/ Internally flawless is indeed almost 50% more than an E. However a D/VS2 is only about 3% more than an E/VS2 in a one carat size.
Same for table and depth stats- although many lovely stones may have a smaller table than depth, it's not the case that table must be smaller than depth for an emerald cut to be extremely well cut.

There's also more than one vendor who supplies videos.

I'm sure that she's going to appreciate all you're going through for her on this
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
tyty333|1311005045|2971433 said:
CageyKG|1310981651|2971245 said:
Well I'm fortunate enough to be engaged to one of the few women that DOESN'T like to shop. :) Plus, she's very traditional and has hinted at the fact that she would rather be surprised by something I picked out for her, then shop for it herself.

Having said all that though, she and I have been going back and forth about ring designs and she kept coming back to the Tiffany's and Harry Winston emerald cut 3-stone ring, which she loved. Unfortunately, both were outside my price range, so that's why we agreed to wait until I came home so we could see if any of the local jewelers had anything close to that. Fortunately for me, I stumbled across this website, which recommended Leon Mege, and lo and behold, he had an almost IDENTICAL ring for a much cheaper price. So in my mind, it's the best of both worlds - she gets the rings she wants AND she doesn't have to go shopping.

I haven't been home in 8 months - I'm fairly confident she won't be thinking about a shopping trip when I show up next month. :D
:lol: :lol: :lol:

This is good news...sounds like you have thought it all out and you do have a good approach!

PERFECT!! I think she's going to be over the moon, then. :wavey: :appl: :appl: :wavey:

Also I have a F VS1 square emerald cut and can honestly say that I have only seen ONE diamond-- a 4 carat D emerald cut with blue fluorescence--that has TRULY out-whited my diamond.

I personally would be thrilled with anything in the E-F-G range for an EC and down to VS2 (eye clean on all sides) for clarity. One of the things I have noticed when looking at EC's in person is that the truly bright ones (fortunately, like my own) have crown height's over 14% (usually these are coupled with a small table, but not always). On PS we always say that over 10-11% is fine on EC's and it IS, but the EC's that have dazzled me have always had higher crown heights (my own is 16-17%).

PLEASE post pics when you have the ring. I love three stone ECs done well. They are just so classic and elegant! We'd love to see hand pics on her hand as well!
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Rockdiamond|1311028799|2971737 said:
Hi Cagey- even though you're through with active duty, you're still a hero in my book- having never served myself, I am truly grateful for those who have made the sacrifice!

There's a lot of numbers being thrown around here- and some are very misleading- I know there's no bad intention here, but you know what they say about statistics. The jist of it is that stats without more info can be misleading.
For example, a 1.00 D/ Internally flawless is indeed almost 50% more than an E. However a D/VS2 is only about 3% more than an E/VS2 in a one carat size.
Same for table and depth stats- although many lovely stones may have a smaller table than depth, it's not the case that table must be smaller than depth for an emerald cut to be extremely well cut.

There's also more than one vendor who supplies videos.

I'm sure that she's going to appreciate all you're going through for her on this

You're welcome!

Thanks for the advice - that's basically what Perry at LM said too and I happen to agree. I gave him the parameters as a ballpark figure and he knew exactly what I was looking for, so he's going to pick out a couple stones for me that he thinks are the best cut, catch the light the best, and are the best value. He said that he will go to the cutters today and hopefully have some pictures and video to send me this afternoon.
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Gypsy|1311040217|2971849 said:
PERFECT!! I think she's going to be over the moon, then. :wavey: :appl: :appl: :wavey:

Also I have a F VS1 square emerald cut and can honestly say that I have only seen ONE diamond-- a 4 carat D emerald cut with blue fluorescence--that has TRULY out-whited my diamond.

I personally would be thrilled with anything in the E-F-G range for an EC and down to VS2 (eye clean on all sides) for clarity. One of the things I have noticed when looking at EC's in person is that the truly bright ones (fortunately, like my own) have crown height's over 14% (usually these are coupled with a small table, but not always). On PS we always say that over 10-11% is fine on EC's and it IS, but the EC's that have dazzled me have always had higher crown heights (my own is 16-17%).

PLEASE post pics when you have the ring. I love three stone ECs done well. They are just so classic and elegant! We'd love to see hand pics on her hand as well!

Thanks for the advice Gypsy, I'll be sure to ask about the crown height when I next speak to Perry and I will definitely post some pictures next month when I'm home. :D
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Perry picked me out the following stone - looks beautiful and I think we're going to go ahead with finding some matching centerstones for it now.

Carat: 1.01
Color: G
Clarity: VVS1
Depth%: 66
Table%: 61
Ratio: 1.41
Polish: EX
Symmetry: EX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveiDkKt5GM
 

kelpie

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
2,362
Looks like a winner!
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
The shape and faceting are very nice. Color and Clarity too. It's a really lovely looking stone. Any idea of crown height?
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Gypsy|1311201510|2973363 said:
The shape and faceting are very nice. Color and Clarity too. It's a really lovely looking stone. Any idea of crown height?

I don't remember exactly, but it was around 15% I believe.
 

TristanC

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 6, 2011
Messages
995
Good story, good that you're coming back, and good reason for wanting to do a surprise proposal and all the prior shopping inputs seem to be there too.

Heck, if there was a PS checklist it would be tick tick tick. I personally wouldn't have chose LM, but it would not have had anything to do with his work... which by most accounts is amazing, so yet another tick there.

Just remember to get some takeaway before you get home. Get the feeling you won't be going out for some time after.

Oh, and photos of the ring when its done please... :)
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
CageyKG|1311239709|2973642 said:
Gypsy|1311201510|2973363 said:
The shape and faceting are very nice. Color and Clarity too. It's a really lovely looking stone. Any idea of crown height?

I don't remember exactly, but it was around 15% I believe.

Cool beans. Looks like a winner. Can't wait to see the finished ring!
 

CageyKG

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
17
Perry sent me a picture of all the stones side-by-side - they look great in my opinion.

G-LAYOUT_compressed.jpg
 

kelpie

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
2,362
CageyKG|1312043894|2980534 said:
Perry sent me a picture of all the stones side-by-side - they look great in my opinion.

Oh HECK yeah! That's gonna be awesome.
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
27,242
CageyKG|1312043894|2980534 said:
Perry sent me a picture of all the stones side-by-side - they look great in my opinion.

G-LAYOUT_compressed.jpg



WOW. Those are stunning together!!!
 
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