I saw arrows- could I have an ideal?

[gailrmv]

hi! We bought my diamond years ago from a family member who is a jeweler and we were not very educated (pre-pricescope.) however, I have always been very pleased with my diamond and it seems to sparkle pretty well compared with friends'' and the ones I see in stores. It''s not the best out of all that I''ve seen, but way better than average. Our relative sold it at his wholesale price and we never could have afforded a carat at that time otherwise.

It''s a 1.13, SI1, I colored non certed round stone (in my avatar). Unfortunately no crown/pavs are listed in my appraisal. It faces up really white and is completely eye clean except a feather, visible at one specific angle, doesn''t bother me a bit. (hey, even before pricescope I managed to hit on the sweetspot of I, SI1 eye clean and I''d do it again in a new york minute!)

Anyways I have been noticing that in certain lighting conditions I can see arrows!! I have to look hard and I don''t usually see 6 all at the same time, but I definitely see them and they are lined up with the prongs.

Could I possibly have a H&A or ideal cut stone? Or at the very least, does this say indicate anything good about the cut? That would be great news. A poorly cut diamond wouldn''t have arrows, would it?

 

[gailrmv]

By the way I meant to post this in rocky talky. Moderators please feel free to move if it would be better over there.

 

[ladykemma]

i am not a gemologist, just a smart cookie.

can you post a picture? as a pricescope heretic, i also am not hung up on certificates. may i suggest the book "The diamond ring buying guide" by renee newman? you will see pictures of diamonds, not certificates, of what a good diamond looks like, what dimensions and characteristics are bad. very informative. .....(I have a secret--- it ain''t rocket science!)

 

[princessv]

Hi gail! I have never seen all the arrows in my ring at once unless looking through a H&A viewer. A diamond doesn''t have to be a true H&A to be beautiful to me. I''ve seen diamonds (here I''m thinking about lmurden''s she has perfect arrows but apparently the heart alignment is a little messy) look better than branded H&As and here I''m thinking about HoF brand. I''ve also seen beautiful 60/60 diamonds as well. Even a diamond that has H&A doesn''t mean that it''s truly beautiful and vice versa, a few diamonds that are AGS000 aren''t H&A either. Either way it sounds like you have a beautiful diamond and it surely sounds like it''s a nice cut

 

[ladykemma]

i agree with P V. stones don''t have to be ideal to be beautful. right now precision cut Ideal is "in". flourescence is "out". a few years ago 60/60 was "in".

i wish i could get a good picture of the canterbury junk store stone. gorgeous yet not a 000 cut.

 

[Lorelei]

Gail I have that effect in my diamond too and I love it! Mine are skinnier more splintery arrows that don''t show dark so much as silvery in most lights and it is so pretty! Mine is a lovely cut but not a H&A but I think many well cut diamonds can show the arrow effect although not as precisely as a true H&A cut....some arrow patterning is a bonus I think! I think you can safely say that the diamond of yours is a nice cut!

 

[valeria101]

''Ideal'' by who''se definition? I wouldn''t know to tell what that is in less than 500 words anymore

H&A is more or less leisurely defined as well - from something easily seen (like you say ''there are some arrows there) to... you know what I mean. What''s the use of these tricky terms if anyone but the maker of seller of the goods could eventually identify what they are?

That''s the cynic approach, of course.

Now, how it could be the case that some diamond has a well formed arrow pattern but no hearts. Perhaps there is a way to tell which of two is the case without actually looking at the stone culet up, but I don''t know how it.

Kind''a wonder myself what exactly shows this pattern - ''guess that arrows alone should indicate top light return... from the crown only, but there could still be a fair amount of leakage under the table - if the pavilion is too deep or the table too large. Such leakage (imagine a white ring under the table in a hypothetical IS picture) would not be ''Ideal'' on Pricescope, although some ''old'' AGS0 diamonds and now GIA''s Excellent cut grades allowed it. I don''t know if something about the arrow pattern indicates if this is the case... you could always try an IdealScope on the mounted diamond - it is supposed to work.

My 2c. Would like to hear an expert verdict on this one too.

 

[diamondlil]

Date: 4/13/2006 11:05:44 PM
Author: Princess V
Hi gail! I have never seen all the arrows in my ring at once unless looking through a H&A viewer. A diamond doesn''t have to be a true H&A to be beautiful to me. I''ve seen diamonds (here I''m thinking about lmurden''s she has perfect arrows but apparently the heart alignment is a little messy) look better than branded H&As and here I''m thinking about HoF brand. I''ve also seen beautiful 60/60 diamonds as well. Even a diamond that has H&A doesn''t mean that it''s truly beautiful and vice versa, a few diamonds that are AGS000 aren''t H&A either. Either way it sounds like you have a beautiful diamond and it surely sounds like it''s a nice cut

I could not agree more, PV!!!!

 

[gailrmv]

Thank you guys for the replies!
All the pics I have taken so far do not do the diamond justice. I will try again this weekend though and post if any come out good.

When my husband and I were getting ready for our diamond purchase, we did a lot of reading but most of the things we found talked about color and clarity, and we did not get enough information about cut. This has been 6 years ago, now. After some sticker shock at local stores we took up my uncle's suggestion that he would help us out, we just told him we wanted the prettiest and biggest diamond we could get for our budget without going below certain color and clarity limits. I should add that my uncle is a jewelry wholesaler who does not normally deal in diamonds but did this as a favor for us. (Unfortunately, the pieces he sells are a lot more traditional/busy than my taste - otherwise what a connection! He typically sells to upscale mall type stores.)

I am sure he did well for us, and it appraised for more than double what we paid. I'm very pleased with my ring, but recently saw a H&A in person and it did outperform mine. All the talk around here about cut has got me wishing we had done our homework better years ago.

Now that I am more educated, I would definitely go about a search totally differently, focusing on cut. I still hope to upgrade someday because I LOVE the look of a 2 carat stone in a solitaire setting (Mat's new ring is major inspiration) but my husband says he doesn't believe in upgrades. In fact, I told him back when we were getting engaged that if he could find it in his budget to get me a carat, I would never want bigger. Well, he made it happen, so I'm sort of stuck!! So I'm hoping that what I have it is decently cut since I will probably have it forever.

But really, no matter how it is, there is not a thing to do to change it, and I am pretty happy with it, so I suppose it doesn't matter tooo much what it might be labeled or categorized.