excellent/excellent = ideal cut?

[Lula]

Like some of the other posters, I would also encourage you to look at the princess cuts sold by Whiteflash and Good Old Gold, if you want a high-performing princess cut in the traditional 3 chevron style. These vendors supply ASET images and GIA or AGS certs with full information about the cut. You can post the specs here for feedback from other forum members. You will get a great stone that way.

If you're looking for something a bit different than the traditional 3 or 4 chevron princess, check out the Infinity Princess cuts which are AGS certified and have 2 chevrons. I saw the Infinity princess cut diamonds in person for the first time a few weeks ago, and they have both the small twinkly sparkle that princess cuts are known for PLUS a lot more large colored flashes and sparkle. So they have a more lively appearance, imo.

You can see what Infinity offers in princess cuts on their website
Infinity
If you look under the Dealers tab on the Infinity site, you will see a list of dealers that carry Infinity. Perhaps there's a dealer in your area and you could go see an Infinity princess cut in person. Otherwise, I'd recommend working with Wink from High Performance Diamonds (mentioned above in other posts) HPD

Wink carries Infinity rounds and princess cuts. Here's an old thread about the introduction of the Infinity princess cut, just for reference.

2005 thread

ETA: Todd at Nice Ice (mentioned above) also sells Infinity diamonds and has a good rep. on Pricescope.

Good luck to you!

 

[John P]

Date: 10/22/2009 2:46:17 AM
Author: kenny

John Pollard, does HPD cut their Infinity brand princess diamonds to a higher tighter standard than just AGS 0?
Same question for Jonathan at GOG.

Hi Kenny. For the record, HPD is Wink's business. He is not cutting Infinity diamonds, though he has visited our operation in Antwerp, but we depend on him as a master ambassador for our brand!

To answer your question, yes. The AGS0 range for princess cuts encompasses a wide variety of looks. In terms of basic design it spans 3 different pavilion configurations ranging from 24 to 40 facets, a wide (in our opinion) range of tables and numerous angular possibilities on top of each. We target a single "recipe" with a narrow table and angle range which we like best inside the AGS0 bullseye - similar to targeting Tolkowsky in rounds. This is in-line with our brand proposition of consistency in performance, so an Infinity bought today has the same sparkle as one bought a year from now, etc. In short, we work so that size, color and clarity are variable in the brand but cut performance is not.

 

[John P]

Date: 10/22/2009 5:23:03 AM
Author: Stone-cold11

Date: 10/22/2009 2:28:08 AM
Author: thetoolman

Really sorry to be dragging this out everyone. But maybe you could beat something into my head before we are done. If AGS are the only ones who grade princess' then how are you supposed to know the quality of the cut on anything non AGS graded? For example I went to JA, BN, and GOG and Im pretty sure they had GIA papers. Do none of these vendors carry high quality princess cuts? Who carries the AGS stones?

Maybe I am taking this the wrong way. Please correct me if thats the case. I really do want to understand this.

There are great princess stones that are AGS0 cut graded. We will need to see the ASET image to say if it is well cut for light return. GOG definitely carries both GIA and AGS0 cut graded stones but they supplement it with their own analysis. There are plenty of vendors that has AGS0 stones, HighPerformanceDiamond, NiceIce, WhiteFlash for example.

Matt, you're simply asking good questions.

Stone-Cold gives a good list. It is possible to find good performers out there, typically accompanied by AGS or GIA paper, and those with GIA paper have to be diligently screened-for. The cut focused PS sellers named above perform such due diligence.


We often field the question "Why don't more companies cut to (any!) AGS0 princess parameters?" The simple answer is lack of demand. Consumers in the mainstream often lack any awareness on this topic - as demonstrated in this thread (not the fault of consumers). Contributing to the lack of demand for top-performers in this shape is the fact that rough traditionally sent to become cut as a princess is frequently shaped so that best recovery involves a spready table & low crown. Such configurations don't do well in the AGS metric for light performance, therefore they would not get a very good grade if sent to AGS.

Logically, as long as the largest labs do not impose any performance grade on this shape many manufacturers will not feel the need to cut to a strict performance standard.

 

[kenny]

Thanks for clarifying John.