Hearts and Arrows vs. HCA

[latte_espresso]

What are people's take on this? For an ideal cut, should I focus on the hearts & arrows or should I focus on a good HCA score? Or focus on both?

I know HCA isn't suppose to be a deciding factor but something used to eliminate "poorly" cut diamonds.

I just want the diamond to reflect a better brilliance and was hoping to get some guidance from PS.

 

[the_mother_thing]

Both. You should first plug any diamonds (with GIA XXX certs so you have table, depth, crown & pavilion angles) into the HCA tool. Toss aside anything that scores >2; anything that scores <2, you should then pursue IdealScope & ASET imaging to further assess for cut, light return, leakage, etc. as well as hearts & arrows images. If a diamond you’re considering has an AGS cert, you’re looking for “AGS 0” for ‘Cut Grade’.

 

[tuckie]

Looking forward to hearing the experts chime in!

My two cents:
Neither? Both?
As they say, HCA is a rejection tool. Stones with scores under 2 should be in your consideration set, but there is more to assess.
H&A stones have a distinct type of patterning, but that alone doesn't mean its the best cut stone for you.

There are a couple ways you can go if you're looking for a particularly well cut stone:
1. Pay a premium for a stone that is superideal (e.g., WF ACA, CBI) and choose something in your budget and color / clarity parameters. These are gorgeous stones that are literally the best cut available.
2. Hunt through AGS0 / GIA XXX stones with the cut parameters you like, get idealscope / ASET images and assess. This is more challenging, but might allow you to see stones that are not superideal but still very well cut. This is certainly more time consuming, you'll need to become much more knowledgable, but it could mean you pay less premium or are comfortable with "great but not superideal" cut to help you maximize your budget in other areas.

 

[skypie]

Focus on the angles first, then look at IS/ASET images.

 

[tyty333]

Ditto skypie...angles first (which will mean good HCA), verify with Idealscope image then H&A after that.