glitterata
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2002
- Messages
- 4,781
After spending a ton of time on this site, I decided I had to own an ideal cut, H&A, high HCA-scoring diamond. I already have an 1.65 carat OEC and a 1.4 carat transition cut, though, which I feel is plenty of financial resources invested in diamonds for one T-shirt-wearing middle-aged fuddy-duddy, so I went for the most diamond I could get for under $250.
That turned out to be a .29 carat J I1 ideal cut from Dirt Cheap Diamonds, sold to me for $189 by the very nice Jennifer. (What a classy business, by the way--they treated me as courteously as if I was spending $18,900.) It scores 1.8, "excellent," on the HCA. Under the ideal scope, it''s nice and red--very little leakage--and it shows arrows, although not the picture-perfect pattern I''ve seen on some of your stones. I asked for a stone with fluorescence, and this one is graded "faint," but under my blacklight it glows pretty powerfully, which I like--the stronger the better, I say. (Very strong fluorescence must be amazingly loud if this is faint!)
As far as the color and clarity go, I couldn''t be happier. It''s nowhere near as yellow as my 1.65 K/L OEC, and although it does look less white than my 1.4 F transition cut, I still wouldn''t call it yellow--more a sort of warm, silvery color. It''s eye-clean to my four-decade-old eyes, but under a loupe it''s easy to see a large smudgy feather on one edge and another long, very narrow white line along the other side: another feather, but seen edge-on from the top. These inclusions don''t bother me a bit. In fact, I find it really cool to be able to see hints of geology in my stone. If I were buying a large diamond, I would definitely want an eye-visible inclusion, as long as it was a pretty one.
Funnily enough, what I like least about the new stone is the cut. I love the large square flashes of color you get from an OEC. The twinkly little needles of light that come from a modern brilliant just don''t satisfy me the same way. The new stone does have more going on than my transition cut, though--that one''s a real leaker, and often rather dull.
So on the whole, I''m happy with my new ideal cut and with my DCD experience, but I prefer OECs.
Any suggestions for setting it? I really bought it to play with, but I guess it might be nice to wear it, too.
That turned out to be a .29 carat J I1 ideal cut from Dirt Cheap Diamonds, sold to me for $189 by the very nice Jennifer. (What a classy business, by the way--they treated me as courteously as if I was spending $18,900.) It scores 1.8, "excellent," on the HCA. Under the ideal scope, it''s nice and red--very little leakage--and it shows arrows, although not the picture-perfect pattern I''ve seen on some of your stones. I asked for a stone with fluorescence, and this one is graded "faint," but under my blacklight it glows pretty powerfully, which I like--the stronger the better, I say. (Very strong fluorescence must be amazingly loud if this is faint!)
As far as the color and clarity go, I couldn''t be happier. It''s nowhere near as yellow as my 1.65 K/L OEC, and although it does look less white than my 1.4 F transition cut, I still wouldn''t call it yellow--more a sort of warm, silvery color. It''s eye-clean to my four-decade-old eyes, but under a loupe it''s easy to see a large smudgy feather on one edge and another long, very narrow white line along the other side: another feather, but seen edge-on from the top. These inclusions don''t bother me a bit. In fact, I find it really cool to be able to see hints of geology in my stone. If I were buying a large diamond, I would definitely want an eye-visible inclusion, as long as it was a pretty one.
Funnily enough, what I like least about the new stone is the cut. I love the large square flashes of color you get from an OEC. The twinkly little needles of light that come from a modern brilliant just don''t satisfy me the same way. The new stone does have more going on than my transition cut, though--that one''s a real leaker, and often rather dull.
So on the whole, I''m happy with my new ideal cut and with my DCD experience, but I prefer OECs.
Any suggestions for setting it? I really bought it to play with, but I guess it might be nice to wear it, too.
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