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More brilliance than fire

Mainer

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
49
I would like a diamond that can collect all the ambient light in a low light situation and then throw it out like a head light. Am I right that what I am looking for is brilliance? I'm not terribly interested in colored flashes. Again that is called fire?

In looking at diamonds that all fall under a 2 on the HCA and have very good to excellent ratings how do I tell which diamond will have an emphasis on brilliance rather than fire. I understand that depth, table and crown and pavilion angles all work together but which parameter defines maximum brilliance at the expense of fire?

Do the crown and pavilion % have any bearing on brilliance. If so, what % offer the most brilliance?

Any help would be appreciated.
 

gr8leo87

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
381
What you need to look for is a well cut diamond that does not have leakage under the table. Usually not so well cut diamond also reflect decent light from the crown.

Right now assuming you haven't looked at both 60-60 or Ideal cut side by side, you don't know which one you want right now.

What you know is that you want a diamond that returns light. And that's all you should wanna know right now before having compared different flavors of well cut diamonds side by side.

All diamonds have fire, all diamonds have brilliance within the TIC (tolkowsky ideal cut range).

On HCA there's BIC (for shallower crowns) and there's FIC (for steeper crowns).

I'd suggest you YouTube and see some videos to actually understand the difference. Diamonds are not head lights and they will not be no matter which 'flavour' of the cut you get. It's premature to tell you what you want is actually a 60-60 or not.
 

gr8leo87

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
381
On your question on parameters for brilliance:

Try crowns lower than 32.5° for a BIC (brilliant ideal cut) grading from the HCA. And try crowns steeper than 35.5° to get a grading as FIC (fiery ideal cut). None of these are readily recommended by the forum members who frequent here.

Pavillions in all cases to be under 41.2° to stay within HCA 2 range for (BICs) . And keep playing with number to see how things change.

However, I would suggest you skip all this and try seeing diamonds with your own eyes first.
 

AdaBeta27

Brilliant_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 7, 2004
Messages
1,077
There are non-hearts-and-arrows diamonds that get AGS) or GIA excellent cut grades. Some of the vendors label them "traditional symmetry." Some of those have large tables in the 60% or greater range, a shallower crown, and might also be a shallow depth like 58% or so. The problem with some shallower diamonds, talking about overall depth, is that some of them look dark when viewed at close range, due to head obstruction. Sometimes the shallower stones are referred to as "pendant stones," because they don't have the head shadow issue when used for pendants or earrings. That said, most people are going to see your ring at arm's length most of the time. I have at least one shallow and spready stone in a diamond ring. I bought them before I joined Pricescope, and I still like them. But after seeing the superideal H&A with 55-56% table and a lot of fire, I now prefer that look. There are threads on here that talk about pendant stones and head obstruction.
 

pyramid

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
4,607
I remember it being written on this forum long ago that Tiffany & Co cut more for brilliance and white light return.
 
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