katrina_33
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 445
So, my boyfriend and I went out on a stone / setting scouting trip today. The first place we went was XIV Carats in Beverly Hills, mostly with an eye toward looking at settings. They have a HUGE selection of settings there. They pulled out one stone to show us, a 1.79 GIA H SI1 ex/ex that was nice enough, and I asked to view it under my idealscope. The guy who we were working with had never seen one, but used mine on the stone and was extremely excited about it. He asked to take it to the back with him for a minute, where he presumably showed the store bosses, and when he came back, he said "Yep, we''re definitely getting some of these!" So that was fun.
The second place we went, for stones was European Jewelry Company in the diamond district. When I busted it out there, the guy said "I can''t believe you have one of those, that''s what I use to buy all of my stones with!" He had the expert model and I had the consumer model, but right away he said to me and my boyfriend "If you have one of those and you learn how to use it, that''s all you need." He had a white tray thing with an open bottom that let light through (not a light tray, but a stand with holes for the culets so you could line up lots of diamonds and move the scope from stone to stone. So we finally had a good way to sit the stone so it''s at a straight angle with a consistent light source. He educated my boyfriend about what to look for, with a branded H&A cut with excellent light return vs a stone that had above average light return, but was leaking a little around the table and edges, and my boyfriend finally got it. But, more importantly, both my boyfriend and I easily picked out the naked eye difference between the two stones. He said "Yep, that one is by far more sparkly, from every angle" re: the H&A stone.
So, now I feel totally comfortable with him taking it from here! (Especially if he goes with this vendor, which I hope he does, but even with a different vendor I think he''ll be alright) We got to line up 7 stones in my range of specs, everything from branded H&A''s to EGL "Ideal Plus" designation, to Gia Ex/Ex''s to an EGL stone that wasn''t designated ideal cut but that he still said was well proportioned. We did a blind test, and I picked out one of the branded H&A''s as a clear favorite. There were two stones I didn''t care for too much, one was a GIA ex/ex and one was the EGL stone that wasn''t designated ideal cut. Everything else looked pretty much the same. The branded H&A I picked out was the smallest of the bunch at 1.59, but also an E color vs a G or H which most of the others were. Maybe that had something to do with it, which is weird, because I couldn''t consciously tell a difference in the two side by side, but there was just something I liked more about that one vs even a larger G colored stone of the same H&A brand that looked equally good under the equipment.
I couldn''t see any inclusions with my naked eye in either of the SI2 stones I looked at, and I think this is the way to go for us. The vendor said that he steers people away from SI2''s only because once people see them under the loupe, it usually becomes a "mind clean vs. eye clean" issue - but, he said if I see it under magnification and I''m alright with it, it''s definitely the way to go. I said, or I can just choose not to look at it under magnification! But I really don''t think it would bother me if it wasn''t visible to the naked eye, or even if it was once you knew where to look, but wasn''t readily visible. It''s just not a huge issue to me.
The guy we talked to was super honest on all fronts, and basically confirmed everything I ever learned on pricescope. He said - EGL LA is reliable these days, whereas EGL Europe and Israel aren''t (their brand of H&A are EGL certed because they provide H&A pics on their certs and are cheaper to certify than GIA), he said EGL and AGS provide more cut info on their certs, but that doesn''t mean that the stones are actually cut any better than GIA stones, just that you have more written info about it, but just compare stones side by side and trust your eyes and the idealscope image, he said H&A was really just a marketing gimmick and that the stones just kind of happen to look that way if the symmetry is perfect enough and someone decided to capitalize on it, but really light return is the most important thing to look for rather than H&A per se, he said H was the lowest he recommended his customers go in color, but a great cut masks color and clarity, etc etc.
I just wanted to report back that there ARE good vendors in LA who will educate you about cut quality (people seem to have had a hard time in the past) and that the vendors I visited either are already familiar with the Ideal Scope or are very open to it. I was kind of afraid people wouldn''t like me using it or would just think it was weird that I had it, but it was very well received!
The second place we went, for stones was European Jewelry Company in the diamond district. When I busted it out there, the guy said "I can''t believe you have one of those, that''s what I use to buy all of my stones with!" He had the expert model and I had the consumer model, but right away he said to me and my boyfriend "If you have one of those and you learn how to use it, that''s all you need." He had a white tray thing with an open bottom that let light through (not a light tray, but a stand with holes for the culets so you could line up lots of diamonds and move the scope from stone to stone. So we finally had a good way to sit the stone so it''s at a straight angle with a consistent light source. He educated my boyfriend about what to look for, with a branded H&A cut with excellent light return vs a stone that had above average light return, but was leaking a little around the table and edges, and my boyfriend finally got it. But, more importantly, both my boyfriend and I easily picked out the naked eye difference between the two stones. He said "Yep, that one is by far more sparkly, from every angle" re: the H&A stone.
So, now I feel totally comfortable with him taking it from here! (Especially if he goes with this vendor, which I hope he does, but even with a different vendor I think he''ll be alright) We got to line up 7 stones in my range of specs, everything from branded H&A''s to EGL "Ideal Plus" designation, to Gia Ex/Ex''s to an EGL stone that wasn''t designated ideal cut but that he still said was well proportioned. We did a blind test, and I picked out one of the branded H&A''s as a clear favorite. There were two stones I didn''t care for too much, one was a GIA ex/ex and one was the EGL stone that wasn''t designated ideal cut. Everything else looked pretty much the same. The branded H&A I picked out was the smallest of the bunch at 1.59, but also an E color vs a G or H which most of the others were. Maybe that had something to do with it, which is weird, because I couldn''t consciously tell a difference in the two side by side, but there was just something I liked more about that one vs even a larger G colored stone of the same H&A brand that looked equally good under the equipment.
I couldn''t see any inclusions with my naked eye in either of the SI2 stones I looked at, and I think this is the way to go for us. The vendor said that he steers people away from SI2''s only because once people see them under the loupe, it usually becomes a "mind clean vs. eye clean" issue - but, he said if I see it under magnification and I''m alright with it, it''s definitely the way to go. I said, or I can just choose not to look at it under magnification! But I really don''t think it would bother me if it wasn''t visible to the naked eye, or even if it was once you knew where to look, but wasn''t readily visible. It''s just not a huge issue to me.
The guy we talked to was super honest on all fronts, and basically confirmed everything I ever learned on pricescope. He said - EGL LA is reliable these days, whereas EGL Europe and Israel aren''t (their brand of H&A are EGL certed because they provide H&A pics on their certs and are cheaper to certify than GIA), he said EGL and AGS provide more cut info on their certs, but that doesn''t mean that the stones are actually cut any better than GIA stones, just that you have more written info about it, but just compare stones side by side and trust your eyes and the idealscope image, he said H&A was really just a marketing gimmick and that the stones just kind of happen to look that way if the symmetry is perfect enough and someone decided to capitalize on it, but really light return is the most important thing to look for rather than H&A per se, he said H was the lowest he recommended his customers go in color, but a great cut masks color and clarity, etc etc.
I just wanted to report back that there ARE good vendors in LA who will educate you about cut quality (people seem to have had a hard time in the past) and that the vendors I visited either are already familiar with the Ideal Scope or are very open to it. I was kind of afraid people wouldn''t like me using it or would just think it was weird that I had it, but it was very well received!
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