New-ish and in need help

[Lord_Huggington]

Hello hello.

Reading through some of the posts in this forum has reassured me that I am not the only person lost in the woods when it comes to purchasing The Ring. My only experience thus far has been at the local Tiffany''s since one of my aunt''s has a nice ring from there.

I''ve got the basics of what my GF would like: simple setting (she does like the standard Tiffany setting), round cut.
My basics: ~$8k-$9k budget.

From looking at the rings on offer at the store, I realized that color is probably the most important thing since it was about the only thing I could see a difference on.

Basically, I''m looking for a bit of advice on where to buy from - I notice that the on-line sites show more value but some of the settings don''t really compare well to the ones I saw. Or perhaps the pictures don''t really do them justice. And I''m from Dallas if anyone knows of a nice little shop that will do interesting, simple settings. (I recently moved here so I don''t know the area well.)

Thanks for any help!

 

[Kaleigh]

Lord- Huggington,
Hi and welcome to PS. Really the most important C is cut rather than color. You could have a D colored diamond, but if it isn''t cut well it could very well be a dog. There are great tutorials here that you should read, they are very helpful. Good luck in your search.

 

[blueroses]

Agree w/ Kaleigh (A well-cut near-colorless even all the way to a J, is going to be far more sparkly and beautiful (and may face up whiter) than a poorly-cut D.) Tiffany doesn't generally go below a VS2, I think? But you can definitely go into the eye-clean SI range with absolutely no visible effect on the stone, too.

.....read up on CUT (the most important C!!) in the PS tutorial, and then do a cut-quality search to see what you can come up with....you will probably get something great for your budget, and probably about 40% more stone for the $$ than you would at T&Co.

I believe Niceice and supercert both are supposed to do excellent versions of the classic tiffany knife-edge settings. (And there are probably others too....anyone?)

 

[Ducky]

I was also originally going to buy the standard round Tiffany ring from Tiffany''s. However, after much research on Pricescope, I decided to get the exact setting called Tiffany knife edge from Whiteflash. The difference is the price and the quality of the diamond. Tiffany''s claims that their stones are the best of the best but their prices are also very inflated. Also, I think that not all of their stones are of Hearts and Arrows quality. I ended up getting an A Cut Above, Hearts and Arrows diamond with the Tiffany setting from Whiteflash. My stone scores Excellent in all four catagories (light return, fire, scintillation and spread). The Whiteflash folks who examined my stone all said that it''s a "wow" stone. They assured me that I''m going to love it. My order was just placed this week and I can''t wait to receive my ring!!! I''m sure it''s going to be beautiful. So in the end, I decided to go this route because it saves me tons of money and I get a more beautiful stone. Hopefully, this will help you in your decision making process of what to buy and who to buy from.

BTW, the cut of the stone is the most important to look for.

 

[Capitol Bill]

Lord_Huggington,
You''re fortunate that your GF likes the classic Tiffany style setting. You should have no problem finding such a setting (as well as many variations) at just about any brick & mortar or online vendor. So relax and, as the previous posts recommend, concentrate on cut quality first. A well cut stone will succeed in masking apparent color to a large degree. More importantly, a well cut stone will deliver the light performance that will make your GF''s friends envious.
Best of luck,
Bill Scherlag

 

[Ducky]

Hi Lord H,
It''s me again. I just received the photos of my FINISHED ring from White Flash! I thought that you might be interested in seeing how it turned out. What do you think? Is this what your GF was looking for?

 

[SparkleNshine]

C.M Yater is a reputable jeweler in Dallas. My DH was going to get my ring there but he found out that we had a family ring instead! http://www.cmyater.com/

 

[michela002]

Ha! I lied! The links ARE active! How handy!

 

[Skavatar]

ducky, very nice

Lord_Huggington, you could get a H&A cut, 1 ct, vs1-vs2, f g h color.

 

[Mara]

my picks on where to buy from online:

whiteflash.com
dirtcheapdiamonds.com
goodoldgold.com
winkjones.com
niceice.com
exceldiamonds.com (superbcert)

i feel like i am missing someone?!?!?!

anyway...any of the above will have tons of info on their stones as well to help you select something, and in terms of the tiffany setting replica as close as possible to the original..

whiteflash.com
niceice.com
exceldiamonds.com

from what i have seen, superbcert''s may be the closest? it''s so hard to tell from pictures.

i''d start with an excellent cut and figure out what color/clarity/size from there...unless you already have something in mind. aka for $8k on a stone you could get something like a 1.29 H SI1 well cut stone, or if you dropped color maybe a 1.50 J SI1. I have a 1.60 J SI2 and adore it. If you are more sensitive on color, maybe something like a 1.15 F SI1..all of these eye-clean of course.

just some thoughts!!

by the way ducky, the ring is fab!

 

[valeria101]

Date: 6/9/2005 9:51:38 PM
Author:Lord_Huggington


I''ve got the basics of what my GF would like: simple setting (she does like the standard Tiffany setting), round cut.
My basics: ~$8k-$9k budget.

From looking at the rings on offer at the store, I realized that color is probably the most important thing since it was about the only thing I could see a difference on.

Of course Pricescope does not cover all options, but from what is at hand... I''d be looking for G-H, SI1 with the nicest cut and the respective setting in mind.

I am not sure if your mention of "color" refferec to just the color grade, because those diamonds were munted not loose (color grade is best appreciated with the diamonds culet up, when brilliance does not interfere). from the top, brighteness and contrast does interfere nwith color... so a better cut piece would have been brighter "white" than one with higher color but less brilliant cut. Tiffany does not apply a tandard set of proportions to their diamonds.

Thinking of a round diamond below 2 cts, G should be perfectly colorless. Anyway, I am not that senzitive to these things... and I could not tell that many are. It is highly unlikely that anyone would hunt the ring down with a color swatch, and without some refference, there isn''t much to see between D and G a mile apart

Anyway, 9k gives allot of room for choice - including 1.3 cts G SI1 and this (not labeled H&A, AGS0 ideal and...). I would be looking for 1.4-1.4 cts in fact and there are never too many too choose from just below one and a half carats.

 

[Lord_Huggington]

Thanks everyone for the help!

Sounds like I have some homework to do. Luckily, I have an entire day while she is on call. I''ll keep you updated.

 

[Lord_Huggington]

Yes, in fact it is quite like what I am looking for. I''ll have to look into that one a bit more.

Thank you!