Frivolous question on fancy shapes

[Jolie]

I''ve seen all sorts of fancy shapes for diamonds, including hearts and octagons (someone posted pictures at diamondtalk), but I wondered whether there are any hexagon shapes out there. A six-sided diamond would seem to match a traditional six-prong setting, and hexagons are found in nature (honeycombs). Do you think the six-sided shape just doesn''t work for diamonds - less sparkle, or whatever? As the title indicates, it is a frivolous question, but I was curious and thought you gents and ladies would be the ones to know.

 

[Giangi]

Hello Jolie,

yes, there are some hexagon shape diamonds out there. But from what I've seen they're mostly fancy colors. They were cut in that way to make the color look deeper or lighter, depending on the shade. I've seen very few colorless hexagons, though. I suppose they are collectors items.

 

[valeria101]

Hard to tell why Hex-es have not caught. Actually is not a popular shape for any gem (even those which have typically hexagonal crystals and thus a Hex cuting will yield maximum weight and money, the case of ruby here). There was at least one attempt to ptomote a hex cut (look at an old post of mine called 'Fancy and Forgotten'). It seems that non-traditional shapes have a hard time to get out there and the demand for even the most popular ones is very limited compared to the 'classics' and, not to mention, the RBC. I could just guess that given the way this diamond business works from rough to ring, it is relatively hard to develop and exploit fashion trends in diamond cuts (so these don't change much, and not too fast) while most innovation goes into the more flexible domain of jewelry-making and design (what goes around those gems). Why would it be hard... I know it is expensive (imagine large numbers of stones wasted to test the details of the cut, while the intermediary product cannot be sold for fear of copycats) and hard to appropriate (small differences in cut make pattents worthless and look the same). Besides, the one largest marketer of diamonds (De Beers) has not promoted cut diversity to support such novelties. Just my take...

 

[Jolie]

Thank you, guys, for your takes on this. I did look up the "fancy and forgotten" and I love those pictures of the flower cuts. Thanks!