good find or keep looking?

by joeblough » Jul 10, 2001

this diamond looks like it might be a
little high in total depth and a little
shallow in crown angle but looks like it
may be a lot of diamond for the money if
the cut is still in an acceptable range.
scored "1.4 within BIC range" and
Very good to Excellent except "Spread" which
was just "Good" on the Holloway Cut Advisor1.09ct I VS2
6.56 x 6.51 x 4.17 mm
63.8% depth
53% table
crown angle 32.4
crown height 15.8%
pavilion angle 41
pavilion depth 43%
polish Gd-VGd
symmetry Gd
Culet None
Fl No
$3300Has laser inscription of EGL cert and
"I Love You" on girdle. Does this mean
this must be a "used" diamond? What effect
should this have on price? Thanks in advance for all opinions and input!

 

by joeblough » Jul 12, 2001

Thanks for such a quick reply!
I don't have a girdle measurement but I believe the girdle was MED remembering from the cert. but may have been MED-THICK.
On my list of things to look for was a MED to MED-THIN girdle so I probably would have remembered if it was anything that looked out of spec.
This is through a bricks&mortar dealer so I've looked at the stone and it seemed to an ameteur such as myself to be a very clean VS2.
I don't know if it's because dealers were showing me a lot of "teaser" or "sucker" diamonds during my shopping experiences thus far but from what I've seen there was an extremely broad range of inclusion charactaristics between diamonds all rated VS2.
Visual clarity would look fine on all of them but what a difference under a loupe!!!
Some degree of decent loupe clarity is important to me and I would find that without personal inspection of VS2's under the loupe, a LOT of suprises could be in store for a buyer!
I put a small deposit on the diamond I indicated above, the clarity looks better under the loupe than any other VS2's I looked at and almsost as good as some VS1's I found at another store a much higher price/ct.
I've done some searches for 1-1.1 G-I VS1-VS2 stones on line and I've found very few that come close in price to my deal. But the ones I do find when I do a www.diamondscope.com search are nowhere to be found when I click over to the individual dealers! Hmmm.
Also since I do care about how the inclusions look under a loupe, am I right to assume that any VS2's I find on the net with this low of a price are going to be some of the more "loupe ugly" and very probably less well cut VS2's?
The dealer has a Sarin and said while the cert. gives a 15.8% crown ht. he measured a 14.9%.
I ran the Holloway cut advisor using each different parameter: c< 32.4' p< 41' then c% 15.8 p% 43 and his measured c% 14.9 p% 43 and they all come out looking very strong!:1.4 Ex,Ex,Vg,Gd
1.3 Ex,Ex,Ex,Gd
1.1 Ex,Ex,Ex,GdLooks like the last step is to find an independent gem appraiser and get an independent professional opinion. Since this gem has the laser inscription and I'm wondering if it may have been previously in a setting, is there some kind of special gem lab procedure I should look for that can check for any kind of hidden "stress" problems there may be with this stone?BTW, since it's for an engagement ring, I guess a little microscopic "I love you" cheese on the girdle can stay! besides...if I don't tell her about it, I'll probably find out this way if she ever takes it to get looked at under a loupe because she'll probably say something about it if she finds it herself!
Sorry for the long post....thanks again for the input!!!

 

by joeblough » Aug 7, 2001

Hi, just wanted to follow up with how my diamond story ended....
After using this great web site, the cut advisor, and all your great help, I finally made my purchase!
As it turned out, I passed on the diamond I described above which I was previously considering and I kept looking instead.....That diamond represented my best deal from countless hrs of internet searching and beating up every diamond dealer in town. The effort I put into educating myself definately paid off though because I'm sure that without it, I would have settled for any one of a half dozen or more other diamonds I had looked at which were all nice and not too bad a deal for my budget but were smaller (3/4+ct range) or none were that ONE "incredible zero compromise absolute beauty that I can't take my eyes off of and would never wish I had anything else and just had to have this one" diamond (which also describes the girl I'm giving it to!!! ) But I digress....I went to a local jewelry supply store, bought myself a 10x loupe for about $25 and made the pilgrimige from San Diego to the jewelry plaza in downtown L.A.
There I went to several booths and found that by walking up with loupe in hand and making fairly specific requests (in this case round brilliant 1+ct G VS2 or better) I was able to easily find very nice but non ideal cut diamonds as good or possibly better than the "I Love You diamond" above (AGS1-2 cut, sometimes colour was maybe more like H or I), anywhere from $2600 to $3600 all day long.After a bit of looking around, my dad introduced me to a guy there whom he'd been buying diamond jewelry from for about 16yrs. After showing me 3 more round brilliants which were higher quality cut than most of the previous ones I'd looked at that day but also at a slightly higher price...but not quite yet THE ONE...he showed me something a little
different!
He pulled out a princess cut 1.01ct F VS2 Very Good cut (if there were ever such a thing as an ideal cut princes....THIS WAS IT).
THIS THING WAS ON FIRE!!! He even set it next to the RB 1.08 G AGS0 ideal cut I was looking at earlier and it was like holding a piece of white hot burning magnesium next to a scrap of dull glass from an old coke bottle.The clarity under the loupe was outstanding, the quality of symmetry and polish
on this diamond just left my mouth hanging open.
With the exception of some pinpoint inclusions invisible to 10x magnification but
indicated on the plot on the EGL cert, there were only a couple small clear/white
inclusions near one corner which were visible under 10x with a bit of searching around for them but in no way detract from the experience of staring directly into the heart of this
diamond with a loupe and gazing at apparent perfection.My mom, who was also along to look at diamond bracelets for herself looked over and
saw me looking at this thing and before I got a price out of the dealer she
exclaimed, "Oh my God! That's the most beautiful diamond I've ever seen!!!"I told the dealer to ignore her and give me his best price and I managed to get that
1.01ct F VS2 princess VGcut, EGL cert mounted in a 950plat 4 prong solitaire
for just under $4K!By going to a princess cut, I was able to get a much higher cut and colour
quality that I could find in a round brilliant and by putting a little extra work into education and shopping around, I got an unbelieveably better diamond than I ever thought
I could have been able to afford! zero compromise! great cut, great clarity, over 1ct, and in the colourless range!All I need now is to hear my girl say "YES!" when I give this to her as a total suprise!