Help needed: choosing a diamond - 1.1 ct Round G SI2, pics

[francisrogers]

Hello all,

I'm hoping to get some advice on choosing a loose diamond:

After scanning through dozens of diamonds on James Allen, I've narrowed it down to these two:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.14-carat-g-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-239626
$ 6,740
1.14 Carat, G, SI2, Excellent Cut, No Fluoro, GIA
6.65*6.68*4.12
Depth:61.90%
Table:58.00%
Crown: 35.0 deg
Pavillion: 40.8 deg
HCA score: 1.8

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.09-carat-g-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-299541
$6,430
1.09 Carat, G, SI2, Excellent Cut, No Fluoro, GIA
6.63*6.68*4.03
Depth:60.50%
Table:59.00%
Crown: 33.0 deg
Pavillion: 41.0 deg
HCA score: 1.1

Any opinions? I'm mainly looking to know if these would be a good buy or if I should keep looking! Also, would these inclusions be enough to diminish the performance or brilliance of the diamond?

1. These are basically the same, I think... I'm leaning towards the second one, since it's $300 cheaper and is the same diameter face-up. To my untrained eye, the videos and 40X photos look similar to me, and eye-clean (I also asked the JA sales rep and they said they thought both were eye clean). Plus they are excellent cut with <2 HCA scores.

2. I'm drawn to these G SI2's as I'm willing to trade off for carat size, and my budget is around $6500. Looking to halo this diamond. Plus, these SI2's look pretty clean!

3. Or, should I go down to 0.90-0.95 ct and look for a G SI1 or VS1/VS2 and not make these trade-offs for size?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JulieN]

Re: Help needed: choosing a diamond - 1.1 ct Round G SI2, pi

Ask for gemologist evaluation from ja

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Re: Help needed: choosing a diamond - 1.1 ct Round G SI2, pi

Have they confirmed these are eyeclean? I'd personally rather have an H SI1. But of these two, I think the first one is better cut, although I'd need to see the idealscope images of both of them to really know for sure. If you haven't requested those, you need to do so.

 

[francisrogers]

Re: Help needed: choosing a diamond - 1.1 ct Round G SI2, pi

Thanks for the advice!

I haven't received confirmation from the gemologist, but I did speak with the "diamond expert" with GIA training, who said it was eye clean - although they based their opinion on the same images and video that I had access to, and I'm not sure if they are just sales people...

In any case, I've requested an idealscope for these + gemologist eval, but will have to wait a few more days.

Regarding H SI1, I briefly looked at these:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.05-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-248985
1.05 Carat H-SI1

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.04-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-288210
1.04 Carat H-SI1

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.08-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-284192
1.08 Carat H-SI1

All three of these are within the same price range as the G SI2. However, the HCA scores for these are >2 (3.7, 2.8, and 5.4 respectively).

How would I interpret these? Would the HCA scores above 2 be enough to exclude these worse cut H SI1 (but with less inclusions) in favor of the better cut G SI2?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[Roxy]

Re: Help needed: choosing a diamond - 1.1 ct Round G SI2, pi

Thanks for the advice!

I haven't received confirmation from the gemologist, but I did speak with the "diamond expert" with GIA training, who said it was eye clean - although they based their opinion on the same images and video that I had access to, and I'm not sure if they are just sales people...

In any case, I've requested an idealscope for these + gemologist eval, but will have to wait a few more days.

Regarding H SI1, I briefly looked at these:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.05-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-248985
1.05 Carat H-SI1

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.04-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-288210
1.04 Carat H-SI1

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.08-carat-h-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-284192
1.08 Carat H-SI1

All three of these are within the same price range as the G SI2. However, the HCA scores for these are >2 (3.7, 2.8, and 5.4 respectively).

How would I interpret these? Would the HCA scores above 2 be enough to exclude these worse cut H SI1 (but with less inclusions) in favor of the better cut G SI2?

Thanks for any insight!

Yes, as a general rule of thumb, you can use the HCA as a rejection tool. So it's really helpful in weeding out stones and narrowing your search.

In the case of these three, since you've run their numbers and you're saying that they all have HCA's above 2.5, I would look at other stones and focus on those that are below 2.