Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Help! Engagement Ring questions!

J

jchong0707

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
4
Hi all,

This has been one helpful little forum here....I'm a complete newbie trying to buy the love of my life an engagement ring and this is hard. Sorry if my post title is not as descriptive/detailed as I would have liked. I'm currently looking at buying a loose diamond online, and then get it set in person at a local shop

There are two parts to my question that hopefully someone will be kind enough to help me with!

1.) I've tried my best to become educated with diamonds, and was hoping you guys could help me look this diamond over. This is a good candidate for what I'm looking for!

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-VS1-Excellent-Cut-Round-Diamond-1490996.asp

Based on what I've learned, the colour, clarity and cut on this is good. Carat weight is about what I'm looking for. The values for things like depth, crown/pavilion angles, girdles etc seem inline with what I've read is good...I'm not sure if I'm completely wrong or not, was hoping someone could tell me if those values are good and if not, how come they are not?

Another thing I noticed on the GIA document is where it shows inclusions, there a few 'crystals' right in the center...now I know VS1 is essentially clean to the naked eye, but does it being right in the middle make it noticeable at all?

Overall, I was hoping someone could tell me if I picked a good diamond, and if not this one, whats not good about it?

2.) This questions for some reason I can't find an answer too here (maybe I'm not searching hard enough), and keeping in mind I'm a completely newb at this, I hope this isn't too stupid of a question

Say I do get a loose diamond that I'm happy with and I buy it, and it's shipped to my house.....then what? I'd like to get set locally so I can see the setting in person and get it set there. Do I just bring my loose diamond into a jewellery store where they sell ring settings and I just give them the diamond to set into a ring I've picked out?


Well that's it for now, hopefully I'm not too nonsensical and thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me!
 
That looks like a great diamond. I can barely see the inclusions even with the magnifying tool, so I doubt they would be at all apparent in real life unless you examined the diamond with a loupe. You can ask JA to have one of their gemologists examine it for you. From past responses I've seen, they seem pretty honest about inclusions and brilliance.

When you get your diamond set somewhere other than where you bought it, there is often a "setting fee" of a hundred or several hundred dollars. But yes, the process is essentially that you pick out a setting and bring your diamond in. They will set it (or send it out to have it set, which is often the case unless you have specifically looked for a jeweler who has their own bench and makes their own settings - if you are getting a designer setting by a brand like Tacori or whatever, it should absolutely be sent out to the designer to have the setting designed around your stone and then set) and then you will go back to the jeweler and pick it up. In order for your stone to be insured during this process, you usually need to provide the receipt/appraisal of the loose stone AND the receipt of the purchase of the setting.
 
I would ask your local jeweler if he would set an outside stone if you purchased the mounting there. Some do, some don't. Then ask if he would cover your stone while being set. Diamonds can be chipped during the setting process. It would be wise to have insurance on your diamond before it is set. The easiest way to avoid all of this is to pick out a setting at James Allen. But I would find out first before you have your diamond shipped to you.
 
I would add this diamond from James Allen 1.27 G VS-1. It is better cut and and a AGS zero. You can request idealscope images from James Allen and have their gemmolgist do a side by side analysis for you for three diamonds. I do not like the pav angle on the F. =)
 
I actually don't love that diamond. If you put the numbers into the HCA it scores a 3.4. The HCA is used to rule out bad stones not a pick a good one so anything with a score higher than 2.0 is usually ruled out. https://www.pricescope.com/tools/hca

Have you looked at rings/diamonds with your GF? Is she color sensitive? What is most important to her in a stone? Size, color, clarity or cut?
You will pay a premium to get an F colored diamond and most people can not tell an F from a G or a H color diamond. Personally I would go for a larger stone with a lower color, because I would never notice the difference, and I totally love a warmer diamond. If you stay in the G-I range the diamond will still look icy white and you will be able to get a larger stone.

What style of settings does your GF like? Simple, timeless, blingy, trendy, delicate, substantial, antique, modern, organic ect...

It is generally much easier to get the diamond and the setting from the same place. Buying online will usually save you money and the PS vendors only deliver top quality pieces. BGD and Whiteflash have beautiful quality settings. If you still want to get a setting from a local store I would make sure they will set outside stones first. most places will but some wont. If you get the stone set with a different vendor I would absolutely get it insured before you give it to the jeweler to set just in case the diamond is damaged in the setting

Also what is your budget for the entire ring?
 
Thanks for the help guys!

From what it seems like, getting a loose diamond and getting it set somewhere else seems like a bit of a pain. If I were to say buy a diamond online and buy the setting at the same time (buying a ring basically instead of buying loose diamond), is it easy to just take it to a jewellery shop to get it resized if it doesn't fit her finger perfectly? (She doesn't wear rings at all....I have no rings to steal and get a good fit from unfortunately haha). I don't like the idea of having to mail back the ring to wherever I get from to get it resized

That's unfortunate that it gives bad value for the HCA test, does a lower score basically indicate it's cut is not as perfect as it could be? I see the pavilion angle is about 41.2, my research seems to tell me a better angle is 40.6-41.0

My budget for a ring is $15K. I haven't gone out and looked at diamonds with her, I know cut is important to her, and from what I've read an excellent cut is key to having a great looking diamond. G-I range colour will look icy white if I get an excellent cut if I recall my research my correctly right?

The diamond I had previously listed has the basic qualities I'm looking for (in terms of the 4C's) so should I just look for one that has better angles etc (which means it's cut is better right?)

In regards to her setting, I'd say she likes trendy/modern style
 
Another thing I came across in my research

Is Fluorescence is a big deal in a diamond? The one I listed above has none says the GIA report, but other ones I see that I've liked say it's 'Faint' in the certificate. Does having a 'faint' fluorescence significantly affect how nice a diamond is?
 
It's really not that much of a pain at all. We just want to be sure we've told you what you need to know.

As long as the Fluorescence is not having any negative effect (their gemologist can pull the stone and tell you that), and I've never heard of "faint" having a bad effect, but it's worth the ask, then there is no reason not to get a stone with faint Fluorescence.

Personally I'd have it sent to ERD for a setting (That's Engagement Rings Direct) or BGD (Brian Gavin diamonds) as I love their settings.
 
Here are some round diamonds that you couldn't go wrong with, they have lifetime guarantees:

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9099/ ($13.8K after bank wire discount)
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9501/
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9497/ ($13.6K after bank wire discount)
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9528/ ($11.6K after bank wire discount)
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9464/
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/8869/
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9622/
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/8230/

Yes, as Gypsy said, ERD has beautiful settings. Or you could always have it set in a plain solitaire for the proposal and then let her pick out a setting... And that would also solve the ring size problem :bigsmile:
 
And BGD settings as well =)
 
jchong0707|1343752649|3243674 said:
From what it seems like, getting a loose diamond and getting it set somewhere else seems like a bit of a pain. If I were to say buy a diamond online and buy the setting at the same time (buying a ring basically instead of buying loose diamond), is it easy to just take it to a jewellery shop to get it resized if it doesn't fit her finger perfectly? (She doesn't wear rings at all....I have no rings to steal and get a good fit from unfortunately haha). I don't like the idea of having to mail back the ring to wherever I get from to get it resized

My budget for a ring is $15K. I haven't gone out and looked at diamonds with her, I know cut is important to her, and from what I've read an excellent cut is key to having a great looking diamond. G-I range colour will look icy white if I get an excellent cut if I recall my research my correctly right?
Click to expand...

Before you order the ring, you can always take your girlfriend to a jewelry store to look at settings to find out what she likes and to have her finger sized. Then you'll know for ordering online! With some designers, having others work on the ring could void your warranty, so

G-I color will not look icy white, but it will look white and not at all yellow or creamy. To me, D/E diamonds are so white that they look almost blue, even when they don't have blue florescence.

Your budget is very healthy so you should be able to get a great diamond and setting. I personally would stick with around G or H VS2, and then see what kind of setting your girlfriend likes, subtract the setting money from your total, and then get as big of an ideal cut diamond as you can in that range.

Here are a couple BGD settings that maybe fit in your trendy/modern description:
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/engagement-rings/pave-and-side-stones/4-prong-sleek-micro-pave-platinum-5472p
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/engagement-rings/pave-and-side-stones/marquise-and-round-platinum-5443p
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top