H&A and 8*

[hello kitty5]

Hello,
Im just curious to know what the difference is between H&A and eight star? They look pretty similar. I originally wanted a fancy marquise or pear, but after finding this site a few months ago ( which i love ) im leaning toward the round H&A

thank you in advance
ps. how do i know, besides going through priscope if it truely is H&A? does it have a separate cert or grading?

 

[Magnum]

From what I understand, while eightstars do often display a decent H&A pattern, they are not cut with the specific intention to display perfect hearts and arrows. Instead they are cut to produce a very specific image in a firescope, a device similar to an idealscope. The goal is edge to edge light return (all red and black in the firescope image) and big, bold, very distinctive black arrows as seen in the firescope, and with the naked eye. The result of this type of cut tends to be bigger flashes of colored and white light, but less of them compared to a H&A stone, while a normal H&A stone will have smaller, more numerous flashes of white and colored light. Some say this detracts from the scintillation of an Eightstar, while others prefer the bigger colorful flashes of light. There are many past threads that have debated the comparison between eightstars and H&A's. If you do a search on Eightstar, i'm sure you'll find many of them. Many people would argue that the top of the line H&A stones are just as beautiful as eightstars. For those that disagree, there's also the fact that while eightstar's may be more beautiful, they are also significantly more expensive than H&A stones on the internet. Some people are willing to pay the premium. Only each individual person can decide that. To answer your second question, I don't think any of the major labs (except maybe one in Japan, but I'm not sure) have developed a standard for grading hearts and arrows. If the comments section of the grading report says H&A on it, that just means the manufactured inscribed it on the girdle. It doesn't mean the lab actually graded it. There's a tutorial on this site that talks about it and on goodoldgold.com, and if you are given H&A pictures and post it here, there are several experts, and long-time posters that would be happy to help you evaluate it. Hope this helps, and wasn't too confusing.

 

[hello kitty5]

thanks magnum, off to do more research

 

[8*flash]

The difference is, everyone wishes they had an 8* for obvious reasons and all other H&A stones strive to be half the diamond an 8* is. But maybe I'm just biased.

 

[niceice]

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On 4/30/2004 10:55:47 AM 8*flash wrote:

The difference is, everyone wishes they had an 8* for obvious reasons and all other H&A stones strive to be half the diamond an 8* is. But maybe I'm just biased.----------------

With all due respect, you're biased and we say so with a deep appreciation for the contributions that Richard has made to the understanding and advancement of diamond cutting over the past decade or so... We gave serious consideration to the 8* product line and still might pick it up in the future if we are able to come to terms with Richard regarding his concerns that we are a major distributor of diamonds here on the internet, but the reality is that the average person would be hard pressed to separate an extremely well cut super ideal cut diamond from an 8* without a whole lot of coaching. To the extent that several years ago we had an 8* sales rep. in our office and we mixed up several of our diamonds on the table with a selection of 8* diamonds and asked the sales representative to separate them without using the Fire Scope and the fact is that he couldn't do it... Now to be honest, he was kind of new to the company and he's no longer with 8* but that is the point isn't it, unless a person is extremely familiar with the intricacies of an 8* diamond, they probably aren't going to be able to see enough of a difference in visual performance to be able to determine a difference and if they can't see a difference, then how can they justify the difference in price? And more to the point, since the sales rep. was a long standing member of the diamond community and he can't see the difference given all of his years of experience, then how can the average consumer be expected to understand the price increase? We're not saying that we don't. We do. We've seen a portion of the cutting process and we know the care that Richard and his crew take to produce what we consider to be an exceptional diamond. But to say that "everyone wishes they had an 8* for obvious reasons" is an irresponsible statement IMO.

 

[Dancing Fire]

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On 4/29/2004 8:59:11 PM hello kitty5 wrote:

Hello,
Im just curious to know what the difference is between H&A and eight star? They look pretty similar. I originally wanted a fancy marquise or pear, but after finding this site a few months ago ( which i love ) im leaning toward the round H&A

thank you in advance
ps. how do i know, besides going through priscope if it truely is H&A? does it have a separate cert or grading?----------------

The other day I went to look at some 8* and compared it to my 3+ ct H&A ideal. The difference is the 8* has smaller sparkles. My ideal cut has bigger flashes; maybe because it is a 3+ ct. I was looking at a K VS1 8*, 1.09 ct. They wanted $7900 for this stone. Pretty big premium compared to a H&A ideal cut. The sales person showed me the stone with a firescope. The stone had no light leakage (all red) but, on the other hand, some people would prefer some light leakage along the edge for contrast. You must compare the two type of stone yourself. If you see that the 8* is something special, and you are willing to pay the extra premium, then go for it. That's what life is all about.

 

[hoorray]

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On 4/30/2004 10:55:47 AM 8*flash wrote:

The difference is, everyone wishes they had an 8* for obvious reasons and all other H&A stones strive to be half the diamond an 8* is. But maybe I'm just biased.----------------

You obviously are biased... I'd prefer to see you provide some specific differentiators in order to make my own mind up. I've always heard that 8* stones are beautiful, and I don't doubt it, but I'd rather hear an objective description of why than an arrogant statement like this. No offense...I just think it would be more useful.