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Firey Ideal Cut - What to look for?

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turbo

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
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7
I have begun my search for an engagement ring - and I am looking for an ideal cut diamond around 1 carat. I love diamonds that have a firey look to them. What should I look for dimensions-wise for a great, firey but brilliant diamond?
 

BigLou

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
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20
I guess I can start by asking some question. You are looking for around a 1Ct "Ideal Cut" diamond. What are the other qualities that you are looking for in the diamond? The color, clarity, and of course cost will have a great effect on what quality stones are in your price range. To keep cost down most would say to stay in the G/H range in color and SI1 clarity. In most cases diamonds in that are cut in the GIA Ideal range, or H&A, or even AGS0 will be a place to start. In the end the only way to find the diamond that you are specifically looking for is to look at diamonds that fit into your parameters. Specs on a piece of paper can only give you a place to a start. Good luck.
 

turbo

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
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7
I am looking to spend around 5-6 grand on a diamond. F,G, or H color, VS1 - SI1, 1-1.1 carat. I still am not sure if I should go with a Round, or Princess, or Radiant cut. Does a Round display the very best qualities that a diamond has to offer - more so than any fancy cut would? Platinum ring, probably 3 stones or something similar.
 

Richard Sherwood

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 25, 2002
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4,924
Rounds are the most brilliant & fiery of all the cuts.

There are 3 components to a diamond's beauty.

1. Brilliance- white light return that is bounced around inside the diamond and then shoots out through the crown.

2. Fire- dispersive refracted rays of light that split up into the rainbow colors when they exit through the prism angles of the crown.

3. Scintillation- light reflected off the surface facets of the crown.

With fancy shapes, you always lose out on brilliance and fire. The rounds are just more perfectly "angled" to create the greatest light return and dispersion.

If you want the most brilliant of rounds, the "ideal cuts" are a good place to start. Then fine tune it from there. The ultimate decision will be made by your eye alone, which is infinitely more discerning than any machine or set of mathmatical figures.

Educate yourself, and then trust your instincts. You are as good a judge of beauty as anyone. The tutorial on this site is an excellent place to start. Then play around with the cut adviser and ideal scope info. By the time you finish that, you'll know more than 90% of the people you'll run into behind jewelry counters.

Rich, GG
Sarasota Gemological Laboratory
 

turbo

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
7
I had been searching for diamond information on the internet for over two hours, always running into the same 4Cs stuff. Then I found pricescope. I read the tutorial. Everything changed. My diamond knowledge grew 10x. This site is fantastic. Is there any more advanced information around here? I am really interested now...

Now I am looking for a round D to G color, TIC, 1 carat.
I have started at bluenile and whiteflash, however, they do not list angles so it is difficult to relate to the HCA.

Any recommendations? Thanks!
 

JOE_Q

Rough_Rock
Joined
Nov 1, 2002
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29
Check out www.goodoldgold.com quite possibly the best info on diamond cut in the universe. Also Jonathan's a great guy to answer any questions you may have. He's got my business in a couple of months when I'm ready to buy.
 

Tarams

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Nov 26, 2001
Messages
228
Now there's something that confuses me! Between 10 & 15 years ago, when I was looking for my first stone, every jeweler I spoke with told me that marquises were the most expensive shape, because they were fancy & not the ordinary typical, round. Hearts & Arrows was never mentioned then, but they are obviously quite popular now & rounds are definitely the most popular shape now. Did something change? When actually did H&A come about?

Rich, you mention fancy's losing out on brilliance & fire, yet mine has more than pretty much any round I've ever seen. So I'm puzzled (once again!).

I'm working on having mine appraised again - only with more info this time (as we previously spoke about). Is there a chart to determine the brilliance & fire of a fancy shape as there are rounds? Or does a brilliance (brilliant?)scope do just that?:read:
 

Richard Sherwood

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
4,924
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Now there's something that confuses me! Between 10 & 15 years ago, when I was looking for my first stone, every jeweler I spoke with told me that marquises were the most expensive shape, because they were fancy & not the ordinary typical, round.
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Hiya Tarams. 10 or 15 years ago that was often the case. Marquise's were all the rage, and sometimes cost as much (or more) than rounds. Since that time though, the popularity of marquise as a fancy shape has fallen off some, with the popularity of the princess cut rising.

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Hearts & Arrows was never mentioned then, but they are obviously quite popular now & rounds are definitely the most popular shape now. Did something change? When actually did H&A come about?
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First, rounds have always been the most popular shape. Approximately 90% of all diamonds purchased are rounds. Fancy shape lovers are eclectics, walking to the beat of a different drum.
I'm not certain on the exact dates, but I believe the H&A's came out around the early 90's, and took a while to catch on. That's why you didn't hear about them. A lot of jewelers weren't even familiar with them. Also, they were more expensive than what the average jeweler was used to paying, so a lot of jewelers passed on them.

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Rich, you mention fancy's losing out on brilliance & fire, yet mine has more than pretty much any round I've ever seen. So I'm puzzled (once again!).
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A master fancy diamond cutter can do wonders, and often puts out a finished marquise which will stop traffic. Still, it's tough for a marquise to match a round in light return performance because the "elongation" of it's shape creates areas of "leakage". It's a subtle thing, not picked up by many, but there. An instrument like Garry's IdealScope allows it to be seen easier, allowing more accurate objective comparisons of different stones. Almost always the fancies are out-performed (in light return) by the rounds.

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I'm working on having mine appraised again - only with more info this time (as we previously spoke about). Is there a chart to determine the brilliance & fire of a fancy shape as there are rounds?
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Dave Atlas' A.G.A. cut class charts are very helpful in determining optimum parameters for fancy shapes. You can locate them at his website, http://www.gemappraisers.com/index.htm.

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Or does a brilliance (brilliant?)scope do just that?
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I would suggest purchasing one of Garry's IdealScopes. It's only $25, and a lot of fun to play around with. If I'm not mistaken, I think you can purchase it through this site. Not too mention having a tool which you can use for a lifetime in eliminating "poor performers".

His tutorial on cut will answer a lot of your questions as well. It's located at http://www.preciousmetals.com.au/, and I think through this site as well. The tutorials on this site are excellent, by the way.

Rich, GG
Sarasota Gemological Laboratory
 

oldminer

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Sep 3, 2000
Messages
6,691
Rich has pretty much covered all the bases. Rounds do the most brilliancy, scintillation and fire. Some fancy shapes, such as marquise look larger for their weight, but they do trade off some light performance. This does not mean they don't look very good when properly cut, but I don't think much can beat out a round stone when it is at its best.
 

GiGi

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 8, 2002
Messages
87
I would also like to comment on my newly purchased emerald cut. I did not use diamcalc to find out the "light return %" of the stone before the purchase, instead I took a chance and followed David's chart alone. Lucky for me I got a beautiful stone with modest amount of brilliance which is elegant and subtle, lots and fiery rainbow coming out of crown angles, and mirror-like surface reflection of light. It is so much more than what I expected. The conclusison is to always go for the best cut you can find. IMHO the cut will compensate for lesser degree of color and clarity, hence save you some money.
 
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