Final two: Which is best?

[vanquish]

Hi everyone, which one should I go for?!

I''m down to the very last 2 to choose from to make her engagement ring diamond the finest I can. One has got all excellent HCA ratings but only ''good'' on symmetry whilst the other is very good on all HCA with excellent symmetry, but is the girdle thickness maybe a problem (and would this further shift the HCA ratins)? The price difference is $250 (number 2 more expensive)

The head to head stats (all else being equal) are
1 2
Diameter 6.5-6.6 6.4-6.41
Depth % 60 61.1
Table % 56 60
Symmetry Good Excellent
Crown Angle 33.5 34
Pavilion Angle 40.8 41
Girdle 3% thn-sl.thick 4.5% Slightly Thick toThick
Crown Height% 14.5 13.5
Pavilion Depth% 43 43
Star Length% 55 50
Lower Half% 75 80
Culet None None
Cut Very Good Very Good
Polish Excellent Excellent
Flourescence None Faint

Both are ~1 carat F VS2

Any help on this would be much appreciated. If it boils down to a preference, perhaps somebody could explain what this choice exactly is (e.g. scintillation and fire better on 1 but 2 is better for brilliance spread and hearts + arrows)?

Thanks to you all in advance

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 9/7/2009 12:13:04 PM
Author:vanquish
Hi everyone, which one should I go for?!

I'm down to the very last 2 to choose from to make her engagement ring diamond the finest I can. One has got all excellent HCA ratings but only 'good' on symmetry whilst the other is very good on all HCA with excellent symmetry, but is the girdle thickness maybe a problem (and would this further shift the HCA ratins)? The price difference is $250 (number 2 more expensive)

The head to head stats (all else being equal) are
1 2
Diameter 6.5-6.6 6.4-6.41
Depth % 60 61.1
Table % 56 60
Symmetry Good Excellent
Crown Angle 33.5 34
Pavilion Angle 40.8 41
Girdle 3% thn-sl.thick 4.5% Slightly Thick toThick
Crown Height% 14.5 13.5
Pavilion Depth% 43 43
Star Length% 55 50
Lower Half% 75 80
Culet None None
Cut Very Good Very Good
Polish Excellent Excellent
Flourescence None Faint

Both are ~1 carat F VS2

Any help on this would be much appreciated. If it boils down to a preference, perhaps somebody could explain what this choice exactly is (e.g. scintillation and fire better on 1 but 2 is better for brilliance spread and hearts + arrows)?

Thanks to you all in advance

Hi Vanquish

I would prefer the first with the smaller table, but Idealscope or ASET images of the diamonds would be very useful if you can get them. The HCA isn't used for selection but for elimination so don't base your final choice on that also.

Are either of these diamonds being sold as h&a? If so then images of both the hearts and arrows will be needed, otherwise although you might see arrows possibly this doesn't mean that such a diamond IS h&a in truth. The girdle might not be an issue but hard to say without more info, also are both diamonds exactly 1 carat in weight? Are both GIA graded and which vendor has them for sale?

 

[stone-cold11]

Best to see an Idealscope/ASET image. Also some like the 60 table some don''t, personal preference.

 

[vanquish]

Cannot get ASET or firescope images for the diamonds unfortunately. Are they so close from a specification perspective that they are not possible to separate without ASET?

Thanks

 

[vanquish]

Also, could fish-eye be a problem due to the thick girdle on number 2?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 9/7/2009 12:37:59 PM
Author: vanquish
Also, could fish-eye be a problem due to the thick girdle on number 2?

No shouldn''t be, also its very hard to tell without images which would be best, can only guess really with the info given unfortunately.

 

[vanquish]

Anybody with any more opinion; I''m sorry that I can''t get the images. I''m a little surprised that it''s too close to call between the 2 of them although though my unsurety was why I posted; I thought that number 2 was better but clearly it isn''t as clear cut as that (no pun intended)! Can anybody maybe explain why there is so little between them?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[stone-cold11]

This is because of the symm and the averaging and rounding of the crown and pavilion angles by GIA. Crown and pavilion numbers are the average of 8 different facets'' numbers and then rounded to 0.5 increment for the crown and 0.2 increment for the pavilion.

So, for #1 the average might be good but individual numbers might be bad, given that the stone has a good symm grade of the stone, and we don''t know why it get that grade. So we need an IS image for this.

#2 could be good too, with the larger lower half numbers but again IS image to confirm because of the GIA rounding and averaging and also some prefer a smaller table.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 9/7/2009 4:47:13 PM
Author: Stone-cold11
This is because of the symm and the averaging and rounding of the crown and pavilion angles by GIA. Crown and pavilion numbers are the average of 8 different facets'' numbers and then rounded to 0.5 increment for the crown and 0.2 increment for the pavilion.

So, for #1 the average might be good but individual numbers might be bad, given that the stone has a good symm grade of the stone, and we don''t know why it get that grade. So we need an IS image for this.

#2 could be good too, with the larger lower half numbers but again IS image to confirm because of the GIA rounding and averaging and also some prefer a smaller table.

Well explained!

 

[Laila619]

Well stone 2 is facing up a bit smaller than what a one carat should be (due to the thick girdle?), so I would be more inclined to go with stone 1.