Carlosthejakal
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 26
Just back from Antwerp. Wow busy 2 days. Firstly anyone from Ireland here in the forums. Forget about everything you have seen at home (with the exception of Precious, I will explain why in a minute) if you know what you are looking for and set up appointments before you get there the selection is amazing. People are great and there is very little hard sell involved.
Started looking at a 1ct SI1 g-h colour, learnt a little - 1.2 VS1 f-g learnt a little more 1.5 D-E VS1 VS2
Anyway I had looked everwhere at home to very little avail. Then I spoke to Eion from Precious.ie . I told him what i was looking for and where i had been looking. He told me to look up a guy called Gary Holloway and the cut advisor and pricescope. This took me in a new direction "hearts & arrows" idealscopes and all the other things needed to buy something beautiful. Not many people trying to sell you a diamond would point you too a site that makes you aware of so much information if they didnt have something great to sell ???
I met Eoin at his offices and he went into loads of detail that others hadn''t with regard to good and bad cuts, good and bad colours. This may all sound simple to you but up to that point i had only seen the little HRD/GIA sheets with colours and sizes . It was nice to see actual stones with real world comparisons.
D - F colour, vvs1 - vs2 etc. Anyway he showed me a beautiful stone really nice hearts and arrows, great idealscope image( saw this in antwerp) but as I had the antwerp trip booked I told him i was going to hold off on buying anything until I came back. " Your going to Antwerp" you should have told me, if you like i can meet you there and get you to see people that the public never do. I thought this was great but i made 5 appointments in total to see everything i possibly could.
I supprised my girlfriend on the Sunday evening and told her we were going to Antwerp tomorrow to buy you an engadgement ring. ( well diamond ring to follow ) lots of tears but hush hush until i ask her father next week.
So arrived in Antwerp, stayed in Hyllitt Hotel very central beside diamond district. Met Paul from Infinity Diamonds who sold me and Ideal scope and portable light. We saw loads of people from Diamondland who advertise all over the internet just typ antwerp diamond into google. They had 3 nice stones one of which I had asked about here firey ideal cut scored a 1 on HCA was beautiful. It did have lots of sparkle and was very beautiful. Went to the Burse with Diamondbrokers again saw some nice stones but nothing jumped out at me.
I know I am just a layman but lots of stones had arrows but no hearts, or had loads of leakage on the table. Day one finished with.
Day 2 met Philippe Harold again he had a beautiful 1.6 D VS2. I''d just like to say a really nice man with a petite shop but the craftsmanship of his work was exquisite. Beautiful rings antique style. Just amazing. We nearly bought the diamond from him beacause of his other work but the diamond wasn''t quite perfect. 12 o''clock Eoin rang and we went around to Hoveniersstraat and handed in our Passports again. You need to do this to getinto any of the Bourses or secure buildings. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one. Eoin had brought his diamond to compare it and they didn''t mind me checking the stats on HCA
on my pda other places were wary of that also they don''t really like you pulling out idealscope they look at it as a toy.
Eoins diamond did look better under the idealscope with one of those perfect red and black arrow pictures you have all seen but the second diamond had a little leakage at the edges. But to the naked eye and directly side by side the second diamond just looked whiter shinier and had alot more fire and sparkle to it.
Under a Hearts and arrows viewer the tips of the arrows were alot more defined/ symmetrical. So after a little panic attack where Olivia couldn''t descide and we had to go for a little walk.
We went back to see Arko in Diamondland as his was the nicest stone until that point. As soon at it came out of the little packet. I knew which one we had to have. I rang Eoin back and told him we would be back in 10 minutes. Even though it was much more expensive
We were handshake done everyone was happy Eoin took the diamond with him as he is making our ring here is what you are all really looking for.
Scores 1.7 HCA
AGS Ideal 0
Light Performance :0
Proportion Factors :0
Finish :0
Polish :Ideal
Symmetry :Ideal
Colour : AGS 0.5 (E)
Clarity : AGS 3 (VS1)
Carat Weight : 1.537
Measurements : 7.39 - 7.42 x 4.59
Oh and it received an Isee2 of 9.8
Will post pictures when I receive the diamond
Anyone thinking of going to Antwerp should put it high on their list if nothing is jumping out at them in their local shops in europe but do plenty of research and make sure you know what you want. If you give them afew days notice they can get you almost anything.
Thanks so far to everyone who has helped me get this far otherwise i would have been another B&M victim.
Sorry for the long post any questions are welcomed.
Now I have to start looking at settings as Olivia is not sure what she would like, I guess I will be on the forum for a while yet
Started looking at a 1ct SI1 g-h colour, learnt a little - 1.2 VS1 f-g learnt a little more 1.5 D-E VS1 VS2
Anyway I had looked everwhere at home to very little avail. Then I spoke to Eion from Precious.ie . I told him what i was looking for and where i had been looking. He told me to look up a guy called Gary Holloway and the cut advisor and pricescope. This took me in a new direction "hearts & arrows" idealscopes and all the other things needed to buy something beautiful. Not many people trying to sell you a diamond would point you too a site that makes you aware of so much information if they didnt have something great to sell ???
I met Eoin at his offices and he went into loads of detail that others hadn''t with regard to good and bad cuts, good and bad colours. This may all sound simple to you but up to that point i had only seen the little HRD/GIA sheets with colours and sizes . It was nice to see actual stones with real world comparisons.
D - F colour, vvs1 - vs2 etc. Anyway he showed me a beautiful stone really nice hearts and arrows, great idealscope image( saw this in antwerp) but as I had the antwerp trip booked I told him i was going to hold off on buying anything until I came back. " Your going to Antwerp" you should have told me, if you like i can meet you there and get you to see people that the public never do. I thought this was great but i made 5 appointments in total to see everything i possibly could.
I supprised my girlfriend on the Sunday evening and told her we were going to Antwerp tomorrow to buy you an engadgement ring. ( well diamond ring to follow ) lots of tears but hush hush until i ask her father next week.
So arrived in Antwerp, stayed in Hyllitt Hotel very central beside diamond district. Met Paul from Infinity Diamonds who sold me and Ideal scope and portable light. We saw loads of people from Diamondland who advertise all over the internet just typ antwerp diamond into google. They had 3 nice stones one of which I had asked about here firey ideal cut scored a 1 on HCA was beautiful. It did have lots of sparkle and was very beautiful. Went to the Burse with Diamondbrokers again saw some nice stones but nothing jumped out at me.
I know I am just a layman but lots of stones had arrows but no hearts, or had loads of leakage on the table. Day one finished with.
Day 2 met Philippe Harold again he had a beautiful 1.6 D VS2. I''d just like to say a really nice man with a petite shop but the craftsmanship of his work was exquisite. Beautiful rings antique style. Just amazing. We nearly bought the diamond from him beacause of his other work but the diamond wasn''t quite perfect. 12 o''clock Eoin rang and we went around to Hoveniersstraat and handed in our Passports again. You need to do this to getinto any of the Bourses or secure buildings. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one. Eoin had brought his diamond to compare it and they didn''t mind me checking the stats on HCA
on my pda other places were wary of that also they don''t really like you pulling out idealscope they look at it as a toy.
Eoins diamond did look better under the idealscope with one of those perfect red and black arrow pictures you have all seen but the second diamond had a little leakage at the edges. But to the naked eye and directly side by side the second diamond just looked whiter shinier and had alot more fire and sparkle to it.
Under a Hearts and arrows viewer the tips of the arrows were alot more defined/ symmetrical. So after a little panic attack where Olivia couldn''t descide and we had to go for a little walk.
We went back to see Arko in Diamondland as his was the nicest stone until that point. As soon at it came out of the little packet. I knew which one we had to have. I rang Eoin back and told him we would be back in 10 minutes. Even though it was much more expensive
We were handshake done everyone was happy Eoin took the diamond with him as he is making our ring here is what you are all really looking for.
Scores 1.7 HCA
AGS Ideal 0
Light Performance :0
Proportion Factors :0
Finish :0
Polish :Ideal
Symmetry :Ideal
Colour : AGS 0.5 (E)
Clarity : AGS 3 (VS1)
Carat Weight : 1.537
Measurements : 7.39 - 7.42 x 4.59
Oh and it received an Isee2 of 9.8
Will post pictures when I receive the diamond
Anyone thinking of going to Antwerp should put it high on their list if nothing is jumping out at them in their local shops in europe but do plenty of research and make sure you know what you want. If you give them afew days notice they can get you almost anything.
Thanks so far to everyone who has helped me get this far otherwise i would have been another B&M victim.
Sorry for the long post any questions are welcomed.
Now I have to start looking at settings as Olivia is not sure what she would like, I guess I will be on the forum for a while yet
300x240.png)