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"Leo" cut isn''t so hot

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mrmarius

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I stopped by Jared today to look at a few diamonds with my new ideal-scope. Just an FYI... I looked at both the standard round cut and their special "Leo" cut which is supposed to be more brilliant. It was, but every stone I looked at there fell into the "medium cut" as far as the Ideal-Scope images were concerned. They all had a fair amount of white at the girdle, and the non-Leo stones also had a lot of leakage through the middle of the stone.

I have a feeling I am going to have to look at a LOT of stones before I find one that I am happy with...
 

pricescope

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Mrmarius, did you see any ideal cut stones yet? The easiest perhaps is to find a Hearts on Fire dealer in your area.
 

Garry H (Cut Nut)

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As I say M, less than 10% of diamonds are ideal cut. People do not believe me till they get out there and find out for themselves.
The Leo is no different than an ordinary diamond - it just has an additional 8 facets added to the pavilion that could probably be added to any diamond. Start with the wrong proportions and you end up with the same lousy cut with a few extra facets...

There is a lot of marketing hype out there folks :)
 

mrmarius

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Leonid -

No, have not seen anything that I would consider yet. As for HOF dealers in my area (DC), I did a search on hofdiamonds.com and the first four hits were Christian Bernard, which is a place I would not even consider buying, I will certainly go over there and take a look. Maybe I'll pop over there during my lunchhour.

Marius
:wavey:
 

pricescope

Ideal_Rock
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That's a good idea M. You'll figure out what to expect from ideal cut stone but don't faint because of the price :)

Take your i-scope with you and let us know what you'll find out.
 

Ceillie

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M,

If you are in the DC area - there is a nice little Brick and Mortar on Rockville Pike I can recommend. While I don't think they "stock" a lot of loose stones, the woman I dealt with there got in several stones, meeting various parameters, for me to look at over the course of maybe 3 weeks to help me narrow down what I wanted in an engagement stone. Very low pressure and nice to work with. I ended up with a lovely H&A, ideal 000 stone. Her prices were fairly comparable to what I found listed at some of the Internet sites I see recommended here.
 

mrmarius

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The folks at Christian Bernard were pretty helpful, although their prices are predictably outrageous. They showed me a Hearts of Fire diamond, E/VS2, right around 1 ct., it was something like 14K. :-o Thanks to pricescope, I won't pay anywhere close to that. Glad to have looked at one, though.

It was the nicest ideal-scope image I have seen thus far, although there was a tiny tiny bit of leakage around 3:00. Or 9:00 if you held the diamond the other way.

It is funny going into these stores with the scope... the guy at this store asked me why I had a pink plastic thing on my loupe! I showed him how to use it and he was pretty impressed, was like, "wow! your little scope thing there really works!" I think they are converts.

I am hoping to find a place where I can compare an Eightstar with an H&A side-by-side.

Thanks for the tip Ceillie - did you have a name for the brick and mortar place?

Marius
:wavey:
 

Ceillie

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 27, 2002
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M,

The store is: 
 
Mc Cutchen Jewelers  
1750 Rockville Pike,Rockville,MD 20852  
Phone: (301) 881-8575 
 
It is located in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel on Rockville Pike. 
 
Ask for Elenore. She was fantastic with me. see the following post...  
 
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/consumers-what-are-you-buying-where-and-why.1755/
 
good luck with your search. 
 
 

cwelu

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Mar 11, 2004
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It is funny going into these stores with the scope... the guy at this store asked me why I had a pink plastic thing on my loupe!

In regard to that statement...what IS the pink thing on your scope? how do you know if there is leakage? I am looking for a well cut diamond over color but get so confused--they all look brilliant and fiery under the lights these places have. 2 places let me take the stones outside into natural lighting but that will only give you true daylight color. anyway, i'm frustrated and would like Your "pink thing" if it can help me get a great cut.
 

Colored Gemstone Nut

Ideal_Rock
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Hi Cwelu:




The device your referring to id the ideal-scope and you can find out mor information on the link below..




ideal-scope




Garry Holloway (aka Cut Nut) is also a frequenter of this forum and you might direct any further inquiries to him.
 

lara

Rough_Rock
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Jan 12, 2004
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Cut Nut or others who may know, what percentage of stones would you estimate fall under the 2 mark on the HCA? Mr. Marius, I'm also in DC (VA) and got a great stone at Princess Jewelers. They have a store in Vienna, or if you're in MD there's one on Rockville Pike. They have a website. They have all different quality levels of stones, so know what you're looking for. But they price accordingly.
 

Garry H (Cut Nut)

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Hard to say for sure - but it has probably moved from 5% 5 years ago to maybe 10% or better now.

There has been an improvement in cut quality - but it is damm hard to quatify
 

lmurden

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What place is this in Silver Spring?
 

lindsal

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Darn it, I can't remember the name of the store right now, but it's on 17th I think between K and L right next to the tennis store and I can highly recommnend them. They did some awesome custom work for my boss when were in DC, and took great care of two old antique rings I have. They had a great diamond selection too.

I'll look for the name and post it back here when I find it.
 

lindsal

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 13, 2004
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I remembered.... it's

Lynn Jewelers
1030 17th St NW, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 833-2500

Scott Lynn is one of the owners, and if Mitchell Engle is still there he's great to work with too.
 

quaeritur

Brilliant_Rock
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DirtCheapDiamonds is also in the DC metro area -they have very nice signature series stones. I believe they will meet customers by appointment... might be worth checking out.
 

lmurden

Ideal_Rock
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Thanks. I work in DC about 5 blocks from that jeweler.
 

diamondsbylauren

Brilliant_Rock
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Oct 18, 2003
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HI everyone-
I just had to comment after reading a few things in this thread.
1) to the guy who says " We will beat any price"- That is an out and out falsehood.
How could you possibly beat the price of a diamond being slod by another dealer? Please don't try to say that your stone is identical in every way becasue it's "Ideal Cut"- every diamond is different.

2)mrmarius- Are you going to give you walk around with that little piece of pink plastic for the life of your diamond? Will you show people the stone and have them look thru the little plastic ting to show them how beautiful diamond is?
I suggest believing what your naked eyes tell you more than anything else.

I'm not suggesting in any way that you should buy a poorly cut diamond.
I'm merely agreeing with Garry who stated
"There is a lot of marketing hype out there folks"
There are many people who prefer H&A or "Ideal Cut" diamonds.
And there are also plenty of folks that prefer diamonds cut to slightly different proporions. Although these other, less costly, well cut diamonds do not fall within the category of "Ideal" let's remember again the word Garry used- "hype".
 

Rank Amateur

Brilliant_Rock
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Letting your eyes be the final judge is good advice, but use all the tools at your disposal to make your selection.

If most amateurs relied solely on their eyes, they will end up overpaying for lesser goods. Vendors have been taking advantage of this fact for ages. Whenever a vendor wants to minimize the input and effect of the tools it makes me think that they are hoping to pass subpar goods at premium prices. Good for the profit margin but not so good for the consumer!
 

valeria101

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Now, why say that these scopes show how beautiful diamonds are? A red & black & white 2D "chart" is definitely nowhere nearly close to what a diamond looks like.

The Ideal scope tries to rank diamonds according to their brilliance. The Harts on Fire, Leo and others charge a pemium for their goods on the ground that their diamonds are the most brilliant. It sounds fair that the claim of any brand should be possible to question. It may not be worth to check on every little thing one buys, but diamonds are rarely all that unimportant.

Surely it is nice to walk into a shop and be able to price diamonds with no tools at all.


Of course I have my own idea about when using any cut grading tool is downright silly. What is yours ? Anyone ?
9.gif
 

Garry H (Cut Nut)

Super_Ideal_Rock
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David the value of the ideal-scope in this exercise is that you can walk from store to store and compare diamonds with your own lighting enivronment, not the different stores lighting.

And you can remeber the simplified patterns and rate them more easily for light return and symmetry better than you can remeber "sparkle" and the other beauty factors.

The ideal-scope does not limit you to table sizes and depth %'s. Nice 60:60's will look nice through the ideal-scope. I call nice 60:60's ideal cut.

BTW concerning the store lighting differences David - we are still waiting for you to give us some photographic e.g.'s of you examining diamonds showing the type of lighting etc.
 

diamondsbylauren

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 18, 2003
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If folks find value in a tool, then it is a good thing. It is difficult trying to gauge stones in different, unfamilar lighting situations.
If a store can not take the time to walk the prospecitive clients out to look at the stone in daylight, then I'd keep looking till I found a dealer I was comfortable with.

Does the scope work once a diamond is set?
 

Garry H (Cut Nut)

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Daylight varies too David
sad.gif

Some shops do not have access to it, and some shopping is done at night. Some shops face north, some south etc.

The ideal-scope works OK on set things, but you must have enough light entering the rear of the setting. Ususally you hold the piece up to the lights.

What about the photo's David?
 
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