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Need help to finalize the diamond for my engagement ring!

R

Rotarysaki

Rough_Rock
Joined
May 17, 2017
Messages
11
Hey guys! I've been lurking in the forum quite a while now. Have been doing some research on round diamonds to find the "perfect" one. Narrow down on 2 diamonds before making my moves. ~1.75-1.9 ct range.

Read about colors and clarity for a bit and looks like I'm going for more clarity (>VS1) over color (I / J) at the moment.
HCA < 2 and 3 excellent factored as well. Both of them are priced around 11K. If I can get somewhere under 11K would be my ideal budget.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. I'm not set stone on these 2 but if there are some other ideas, I'm open as well.
Thank you so much!

2017-05-17 10_12_41-Round Cut Diamonds at James Allen.png

0.9 HCA score
2017-05-17 10_11_44-1.80-Carat Round Diamond _ Blue Nile _ Stock Number LD08544885.jpg

1.8 HCA score
 
Tell me your objective for choosing high clarity. You have room to move down there, and could go up in color. For instance, VS2 and I color.

Also, HCA is an exclusion tool. We exclude diamonds over 2. Under 2, we still need to evaluate performance with things like an ideal scope image.
 
whitewave said:
Tell me your objective for choosing high clarity. You have room to move down there, and could go up in color. For instance, VS2 and I color.

Also, HCA is an exclusion tool. We exclude diamonds over 2. Under 2, we still need to evaluate performance with things like an ideal scope image.
Click to expand...

Based on the clarity, it should be able to reflect more light in the diamond right?
I looked up I and J color difference, most of the people cannot really tell from the top down regarding the yellow tint from the diamond. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also from I to J there is a bigger price difference as well. What will be the factor to choose one color grade over clarity grade?
 
Unless you are going with a super idea cut, a J can look yellow to some people. Buttery is more accurate a description. Many do face up warm white, but color can be seen if you stare at it from different angles. So the answer is, it depends on where you are buying the J and what lab graded it.

Cut is what allows the diamond to reflect light. Clarity may or may not. If you go for a super ideal diamond, an eye clean SI1 is perfectly acceptable.

Look at color H, eye clean SI1 even. Or I color eyeclean SI1. Compare all of them. VS2 takes some worry away, which is why I suggest VS2 if you want great clarity and better value.

I have a GIA I pendant and I can for sure tell it has slightly yellowish tint. The reflection in the sunlight is amazing though and so I like it.
 
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Thanks for the great advice. Looks like if I am going for a higher color grade then i have to either take a smaller diamond with a VS1/VS2 or bump up my budget a little more to keep it reasonable.
 
Have a look at I color, VS2.

See what you find.
 
After all the value suggestions. I picked this diamond. slightly above my price but still managed to be reasonable on my end. Anything thoughts?

2017-05-18 10_28_04-Round Cut Diamonds at James Allen.png
 
Rotarysaki said:
After all the value suggestions. I picked this diamond. slightly above my price but still managed to be reasonable on my end. Anything thoughts?

2017-05-18 10_28_04-Round Cut Diamonds at James Allen.png
Click to expand...

i'm sorry... but i think you may have picked a real dud. You can do better! And for the amount of cash you are dropping, you should take a little more time to look and get some input here. the table is huge and it is pretty shallow. :confused: Not within the parameters most here would suggest. Do you have pictures? video? It's also strong blue fluro, did you ask if that had any effect on the stone? sometimes SB fluoro can cause haziness or milkiness in a stone and most stones with SB fluoro are discounted, not everyone likes it. Again, the HCA is not a selection tool. anything under 2 is worthy of a second look but there are recommended parameters to stay within to weed out poor performers.

recommended parameters: (courtesy of ac117)
table: 54-58
depth: 60-62.3
crown angle: 34-35.0 (sometimes 35.5 if the pavilion angle is 40.6)
pavilion angle: 40.6-40.9 (sometimes 41.0 if the crown angle is close to 34)

I found the first stone you posted (1.82 J VVS1) and i actually quite like it. i would pursue that one further before the last I VVS1
 
I agree with farralyn...you could certainly do better!! I happen to love fluorescence (both my original ering and upgrade have it) but I prefer more fire to the lower crown angle/brighter look. Could you please post your budget so we could have a look for you?
 
You definitely have chosen a dud. The CA and PA can work however it looks like you've chosen spread over ideal parameters. The stone is far too shallow with 58% depth.
 
I was doing some research on the depth and table % and not sure what's the ideal.
Thanks for the suggestions. my budget is keep it under 11k if possible, willing to pay up to maybe close to 12k if it is really nice.
 
At most, a 60 table with 60 depth. But around here we usually would say that the table percentage should be kept below the depth percentage.
 
Great info. I am currently also chatting to get more info on the first stone (1.82 J VVS1).
The specialist usually tell me there are no negative effect on the SB fluorescence. I am trying to get the idealscope image as well
 
Thanks ac117. The first stoneyou sent. (1.73ct I VS1) was one that i picked as favorite as well. I will definitely look into it.
 
This is the Ideal scope for the first (1.82 J VVS2) stone. Any thoughts?

ideals.jpg

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Looks like solid light return all the way through. I think you may have a winner potentially here with this stone.
 
VERY nice IS - really beautiful! I'm just concerned about the J color and would personally prefer no lower than I in MRBs.
 
the IS for ac117 first stone (1.73ct I VS1), one of my top picks as well.

2694013.jpg

1.73 carat i color vs1 clarity excellent cut.png
 
that J is a REALLY nice stone!!! :love: Is this for you or someone else? While a lot of people don't mind the tint in the body of a stone, there are also a lot of people that don't care for it. If it's for you, go look at some GIA I and J stones and see what your preference is. If it's for someone else, you really need to suss out whether or not this will bother them.
 
farrahlyn said:
that J is a REALLY nice stone!!! :love: Is this for you or someone else? While a lot of people don't mind the tint in the body of a stone, there are also a lot of people that don't care for it. If it's for you, go look at some GIA I and J stones and see what your preference is. If it's for someone else, you really need to suss out whether or not this will bother them.
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This one will be for my future wife (if everything goes well) :) . i hope she liked it. She once told me that the slight tint in an angle is not a big deal. As long as if you look at it top down it looks white i think it should be good. Not like "lots" of yellow tint compare to lower grade. I went thru some images for I and J, I do not see a real big difference (as a newbie of diamond).
 
ac117 said:
VERY nice IS - really beautiful! I'm just concerned about the J color and would personally prefer no lower than I in MRBs.
Click to expand...

ac117, I think with the SB fluor, it could end up facing up closer to an I. If set in white gold or platinum, it will pick up some of the whiteness from the setting anyway.
 
The IS for the 1.73 I VS1 also looks decent enough. What's the price differential between the 1.73 and the 1.82?
 
The I looks great, as well! It was definitely taken at a slight tilt which is why some of the arrows on the bottom left are a touch shorter than the others. I don't think you could go wrong with either...

The I has the edge for since it's an I w/ SBF, table is a smidge smaller and I'm a sucker for the fatter arrows. But again, the J would be beautiful! What's the price difference?
 
1.73 is about $400 more than the 1.82. about $11500 and $11100.

is the fat arrow better than the narrow one?
 
Arrow width is personal preference. I'm not too fussed either way. However, GIA have measured the I VS1 as having a 75% lower girdle facet percentage. With GIA, you have to allow for +/-2.5% either side of the 75 as they only report LGF measurements in 5% increments. The I VS1 looks like it is probably sitting around the 76-77.4% mark compared with the J VVS2 which although GIA has said 80% for LGF, the arrows look more like what you would expect from a 78% LGF.

In short, the lower the LGF percentage, the larger the pavilion mains (which are what cause the arrow shafts to display contrast from the face up position). The higher the LGF percentage, the smaller the pavilion mains are (and you have thinner arrow shafts).
 
Tough choice! Either will be beautiful....if you're really sure she wouldn't mind a J, that would be a fine choice. Slightly larger, slightly less expensive. Ask JA if they could give you a PS discount and use a referral code for an extra $100 off.
 
The proportions on the I stone are closer to ideal than the J one. But you're looking at almost a whole 0.1mm of additional spread for slightly less cash. So really depends on what you really care about (weight and clarity vs colour and slightly better cut quality based off the numbers).
 
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