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hoost

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
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Hey guys,

I am looking at purchasing my e-ring next week through James Allen. I decided to go with the 0.54ctw common prong setting and now I am searching for the perfect diamond for that band within a budget. My budget for the diamond is no more the 6500USD and ideally around 6300USD. However I consider a bit more for a better buy.

What I am looking for:

-Round Brilliant
-CTW must be greater then 1 carat
-Colour - Not sure and would love to hear the advice from my friends on this board (F-H)??. I knwo the settings side stones are G-H.
-Clarity - VS range however I have been told that there are definetly eye clean SI range stones.
-CUT - I am emphasizing cut since it is the most important factor for me. I want to ensure maximum fire, brilliance and scintiallation. (ID ID ID). I have read alot about the HCA and noticed that any diamond that is below 2 is good. Now does that mean a 0.9 diamond is better then a 1.9. How can you tell if you are purchasing your ring online? Should I stick with the Hearts and Arrows collection to ensure this maximum brillance. I do know there is a significant difference in price for diamonds under the H&A collection. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Now I have searched James Allen tirelessly for diamonds but I am really not sure what I should be looking for given my budget and band type chosen.

Thanks for all the help everyone.
 
Date: 11/12/2009 12:03:14 AM
Author:hoost
Hey guys,

I am looking at purchasing my e-ring next week through James Allen. I decided to go with the 0.54ctw common prong setting and now I am searching for the perfect diamond for that band within a budget. My budget for the diamond is no more the 6500USD and ideally around 6300USD. However I consider a bit more for a better buy.

What I am looking for:

-Round Brilliant
-CTW must be greater then 1 carat
-Colour - Not sure and would love to hear the advice from my friends on this board (F-H)??. I knwo the settings side stones are G-H.
-Clarity - VS range however I have been told that there are definetly eye clean SI range stones.
-CUT - I am emphasizing cut since it is the most important factor for me. I want to ensure maximum fire, brilliance and scintiallation. (ID ID ID). I have read alot about the HCA and noticed that any diamond that is below 2 is good. Now does that mean a 0.9 diamond is better then a 1.9. How can you tell if you are purchasing your ring online? Should I stick with the Hearts and Arrows collection to ensure this maximum brillance. I do know there is a significant difference in price for diamonds under the H&A collection. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Now I have searched James Allen tirelessly for diamonds but I am really not sure what I should be looking for given my budget and band type chosen.

Thanks for all the help everyone.
Click to expand...
Hi Hoost

I will come back to this to try to find some diamonds for you, I just wanted to point out the HCA is used for rejection, not selection and a lower score isn't better than a higher score. All scores below 2 are considered equal, final selection is then done with images such as Idealscope.

You don't have to stick to h&a to have a great diamond, the proportions are the thing and although branded h&a diamonds will normally have excellent proportions and top optical symmetry which results in the h&a pattern, non h&a stones can also be an excellent choice if the proportions are good.
 
If the sidestones are G-H, go for F-G colour in the main stone. Larger stones show more colour due to their larger mass, so G-H sidestones require no lower than G main stone.
VS clarity is a virtual guarantee of eye clean.
SI1 has a good chance of being eye clean at 12", but perhaps not at 6".
SI2 is very variable for eye cleanliness and the eye clean SI2's are sometimes troubled by excessive numbers/size/density of clouds or other issues.

As the HCA scores progress to higher numbers (4,5,6), the stones tend to become less bright and less sparkly. But it's not as if the lights suddenly go out when you move from HCA 1.9 to 2.1; it's a gradual progression of reduced light performance as the HCA score gets higher. But the HCA is only a guide. Sometimes cutters modify the size or alignment of the minor facets that HCA doesn't have as an input value, which can make a HCA 2 perform like a HCA 4, or a HCA 4 perform like a HCA 2.
I have one of these such stones; it's proportions ought to easily qualify for GIA Excellent (slightly steep/deep), but GIA downgraded it to very good apparently because of some painting and digging of the facets.

Ironically, the painting and digging appear to have improved the light performance and this stone is one of the best of the GIA-VG cuts and really performs like a GIA-EX.
23.gif

HCA score of this stone is 4.4. I reckon that it performs like a HCA 2.5 as a result of the small modifications to the basic cut.

The best stones have HCA scores between 1-2 and excellent symmetry can enhance the performance. Polish grade of very good is indistinguishable from excellent.
Next best are stones with scores 0-1 or 2-3.
Even stones with scores of 3-4 are still very good.
 
Date: 11/13/2009 7:58:21 PM
Author: hoost
The diamond doesn''t have to be at JA bc if I might be going with the new setting. What are your thoughts on the two settings

Setting 1 NEW

http://www.ajaffe.com/products/view/139

Setting 2 Orig

http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/settings-with-sidestones/2-2mm-0-54ctw-Common-Prong-Ring.html


Everyone here is amazing with all there knowledge and help, and I really just a noob to all of this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you everyone
Click to expand...
I like both settings, depends on budget and whether you would prefer the branded setting or not.
 
Thanks for the response Lorelei.

While at a B&M jewelry store, I saw the A. Jaffe setting. The salesperson showed me a beautiful diamond I felt maybe since I have never seen a triple 0 diamond. Here was the diamond specs.

1.20 ctw
H
SI1
Excellent Cut
Excellent Polish
VG Symmetry

Depth : 60.3%
Table : 60%
Crown Angle 34.5
Pavillion: 41

GIA CERT

Now when putting the values into HCA, it obtained a Very good for all of the top three (2.5). Says to buy for only a good price. Now the price of the diamond I was told was going to be given to me for a friends and family discount and it was 7150 USD. Do you feel this is a fair price? Should I order online and have them set it in Jaffe setting. I mean it did look nice but would there be a noticeable difference between this diamond and say a triple 0 with table in the 55-57 range?
 
That is a 60/60 cut, some like it some don't. Have you seen a smaller table ideal cut before? At that angle combination, because of GIA averaging and rounding, might be good or worse, so definitely need to see an idealscope image before I would say anything more on the performance.

Price wise, higher by about 400 for stone of similar specs but better cut, I think about the price mark up for a B&M store, not much of a discount that I see.

EDT:
make that 800USD difference. This WF ACA.
http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/Whiteflash-ACA-cut-diamond-2145428.htm#
 
Thank you Stone-cold.

I know you have previously posted diamond examples for me however do you have anymore? In the past I was only looking for James Allen diamonds because I really liked the Common Prong, but not after seing this Jaffe setting, I feel in love with it. Maybe because I was able to see it in real life and the other is only computer generated. That being said, would WF or GOG be a better alternative to purchase a loose diamond. At the B&M store I went to, I was told this was the best cut they carried for my price range. It is more of top end store but I was surprised to hear this.
 
hmm.. depends I guess. Loose stone, you can usually get the biggest stone for $ from JA, their buy back/trade up policy is less attractive than GOG/WF. None are Jaffe dealers though as I do not see it listed, maybe you can call and ask.
 
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