LGD OEC Help Please

[the_mother_thing]

Happy Saturday & early Mothers Day to all … whether your children have two legs or four.

I’m trying to decide on a lab diamond OEC; I’m hoping to get an idea of how I feel about a larger size OEC before I go the earth-mined route. My current largest OEC is ~1.5 ct.

I think I have it narrowed down to one of these two, but I’m curious if those with more experience searching & seeing them in person can help me understand what I may “see” (or not see) with one vs the other. For example, will the first be more pastel flashes & the second more prismatic? Might one produce more obstruction than the other face-on? I like the appearance of the contrast in the second, but I also like the edge-to-edge chunky pastels of the first.

I suppose I could order both to see in person & return the other, but hoping to eliminate the likelihood I end up just keeping both. LOL So any suggestions, warnings or examples you may have/share are welcomed & much appreciated!

I did a side-by-side screen-record video of both in motion, but can’t seem to upload that; will work on perhaps another way to add it.

OPTION 1:





OPTION 2:

 

[the_mother_thing]

Hopefully this works …

 

[Dreamer_D]

I would exclude 1. The lower halves are too short to support the table size, among other issues, leading the entire under table area to look very flat. The second has more promise though I generally don’t like this style of modern antique style cuts where it’s basically an MRB with some few tweaks. The better examples I’ve seen have higher crowns and smaller tables than these examples.

What’s is the crown height on 2?

 

[the_mother_thing]

I would exclude 1. The lower halves are too short to support the table size, among other issues, leading the entire under table area to look very flat. The second has more promise though I generally don’t like this style of modern antique style cuts where it’s basically an MRB with some few tweaks. The better examples I’ve seen have higher crowns and smaller tables than these examples.

What’s is the crown height on 2?

I don’t have the crown height unfortunately. Sadly, some of these LGD reports have so little info. It used to be that buying old cuts wasn’t about the numbers, but perhaps there are new rules since I last shopped for them (???). It’s been awhile since I did any diamond buying and most of that was choosing my ACAs so it was pretty easy peasy.

I wish I was closer to one of the antique diamond dealers with hella on-hand inventory so I could just see them in person.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Buying old cuts isn’t about the numbers because each was cut by a master to maximize beauty based on the shape of the rough. These modern cuts are cut to try and mimic some vague approximation of notion of a typical old cut, and they are not cut by masters in antique proptions but by cutters of modern stones trying to approximate the look of an antique.

They usually have the basic proportions of a modern round (maybe 15% crown, depth around 60%, table around 5 but they add a culet and cut shorter lower halves. In fact I think they just add a culet and shorten the lower halves on a modern cut stone most of the time. So they neither look like authentic old cuts nor do they perform like modern rounds and sometimes they just are very badly cut. Most of the time they are badly cut — meaning neither looking like an old cut or performing well optically.

My advice about the proportions is based on my decades owning old cuts and evaluating these modern versions. It’s not a recipe. Just a way to communicate what is lacking. A table under 55, a crown greater than 17, a depth greater than 65 will get you closer to an authentic look and the proportions will better suite the short lower halves. But even then of course we evaluate with the eyes. These numbers are just to help explain what’s wrong with most of these antique style cuts.

There are a few sellers who are commissioning what I would consider to be really great looking antique style cuts. Alex Park and Sin City Finds have both offered some great antique style cuts that look authentic and perform really well from what I’ve seen on these boards.

 

[Rfisher]

I think I remember an older thread showing these types of cuts you’ve shown on someone’s hand - I’ll try to find it.

IMO - they are a noticeable ‘flavor’ compared to the alternative source suggestions dreamer gave. But iirc I’ve seen them have close to what these look like at times, too.

I had high hopes for OWD’s line to be more organic