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96TL

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 4, 2007
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I went to a jeweler who has been helping me with some Tacori settings recently, and he had a beautiful stone. It didnt score that good on the HCA though. The stone faces up white, and sparkles like crazy. I even checked it out in sunlight and it looked phenomenal. Price is $26K. Here are the specs.

Carat - 3.08
Color - J
Clarity - SI1
Cut - Excellent
Polish - Very Good
Symmetry - Very Good
Measurements - 9.29x9.44
Table - 59%
Depth - 61.4%
Crown - 35*
Pavillion - 41.4*
Girdle - Thin to medium
Fluorescence - Medium blue

Opionions? Thanks a million guys.
 
A J with med. blue would be very nice! This stone is not really ideal cut, but like we always say, if it''s beautiful AND a good price, then why not?! But is it a GIA cert? That would be important to know.
 
Sorry, I forgot to mention it is a GIA cert.

Why does GIA rate it excellent, but the specs are off? Are they not reliable when it comes to the cut?
 
The specs are a little off. However, it''s not terrible. Do you have any images or ideal scope images of the stone? This stone definitely represents a great value with a J color and the flour should help.
 

Hmm, I dont know if I feel comfortable with a stone thats not cut right. It was nice to finally see something in person though. I saw a few others, but I liked this one the best. It got a horrible rating on the HCA. 5.2 I think.



Here is a pic, but the stone is covered in finger smudges (mine
1.gif
). It's sitting on a wax Tacori mold.


Ring324534456.jpg
 
One thing jumps out at me is the diameter measurement, 9.29 x 9.44 is quite out of round, but if you loved it the eyes have it!
 
do you see how you can see the pink through the stone?
 
Date: 5/15/2007 2:37:41 AM
Author: JulieN
do you see how you can see the pink through the stone?
Click to expand...
Roger that.
 
You may know all this already, so ignore me if you do:

GIA has ideal cut stones, so this is a diamond one step below.

Have you seen this diamond compared to GIA or AGS ideal stones in the same sort of range of size? (If you did then ignore below)

I think it took watching the GOG video tutorial and starting to look at diamonds to realize that GIA excellent/very good stones will sparkle, and will look pretty white. Pricescope tends to exagerate where we claim a diamond on the HCA of a 6 will be frozen spit. I hadn''t realized how many people have diamonds that are so poor around me that an HCA of 6 was still significantly better than their stones.

The fact is you can find stones that sparkle even more & more frequently, look even white and brighter, and throw light around a room like no other.

Now you may not care, i.e. as long as its good for me...who cares if there are better ones out there...especially if it''s bigger!
And if you do, then forget comparison shopping and go for it! But we''re here to tell you that there are diamonds out there, that will draw your eye into it even more and not just sparkle but flash at you from across the room.

 
Date: 5/14/2007 9:23:59 PM
Author:96TL
I went to a jeweler who has been helping me with some Tacori settings recently, and he had a beautiful stone. It didnt score that good on the HCA though. The stone faces up white, and sparkles like crazy. I even checked it out in sunlight and it looked phenomenal. Price is $26K. Here are the specs.

Carat - 3.08
Color - J
Clarity - SI1
Cut - Excellent
Polish - Very Good
Symmetry - Very Good
Measurements - 9.29x9.44
Table - 59%
Depth - 61.4%
Crown - 35*
Pavillion - 41.4*
Girdle - Thin to medium
Fluorescence - Medium blue

Opionions? Thanks a million guys.
Click to expand...
Well that is the main thing, you can actually see this diamond and love it then that is all that matters. Granted the pic isn't the best, but perhaps it looks better in reality. As long as you love it and think it is worth the money that is what is important. Due to the numbers, it might actually look better than the HCA predicts possibly.
 
I may have to pass on this stone too. I still have time to search, and I want the best cut I can get. It may have looked great to me in person, but what do I know? A truly ideal cut stone will probably blow me away.

Thanks guys.
 
I think it is a wise decision. Take a look at some others and check out some Superideals too. If you need to stick to that budget for a 3 carat then you might need to up it for a better cut or go smaller, but it will be worth it to get a great cut. The diamond you posted looks as if it doesn't make the most of the available light hitting it - it could leak light and lose performance as a result. Of course you have seen it and know best, but it looks as if you could do better.

Check this one out as an example, excellent cut, might not be eyeclean though, this can be risky in SI grades of a large carat weight, you would have to ask the vendor regarding that, but this is more the sort of diamond to look for.

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamond.asp?b=16&a=12&c=77&cid=131&item=1047586
 
Looks good except for the feather right on the front, but James Allen will charge me tax since I''m in NY though. It''ll have to be from WF most likely if I buy it off the net. I found 2 stones that look promising. I''m waiting to hear back from them today.
 
No worries, that diamond is just an example of what is out there. Let us know how you get on with WF!
 
Date: 5/15/2007 5:55:24 AM
Author: peridot83
You may know all this already, so ignore me if you do:


GIA has ideal cut stones, so this is a diamond one step below.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify: GIA''s highest rating for cut is "Excellent."
 
Date: 5/15/2007 2:00:06 PM
Author: shel

Date: 5/15/2007 5:55:24 AM
Author: peridot83

You may know all this already, so ignore me if you do:


GIA has ideal cut stones, so this is a diamond one step below.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify: GIA''s highest rating for cut is ''Excellent.''
Click to expand...
right. and to clarify further, gia ''excellent'' and ags ''ideal'' are not the same across the board.
 
I bought a pair of earrings a while back. Both are GIA excellents but they have very different HCA scores, one is around 2 and the other 5! I didn''t know about the HCA when these were purchased, but I find it VERY difficult to notice a difference in sparkle. It takes me at least 5 minutes of twisting and tilting in different lighting to notice which is the 2.

That said, for such a large purchase personally I would want the best (HCA <2) . Even if it doesn''t necessarily look different, I would feel better knowing that it was one of the best cut diamonds in the world
emsmile.gif
 
sorry sorry, it was late and I got confused in my wording...I hope I didn't lead you astray with that comment about GIA Ideal!!! =/. I meant to say, compare with an AGS0 ideal and see which look you like better. You may genuinelly like how the GIA diamond you pick looks more than the AGS0 ideal.

AGS & GIA as Belle mentioned above have different criteria on grading a diamond.

Here's a nice GOG page about how while the idealscope & HCA will pick awesome diamonds, it will also discard some excellent ones =) It also briefly mentions some differences between GIA & AGS

http://www.goodoldgold.com/4Cs/NewCutGrading/GIAExAGSIdeal/
 
Date: 5/15/2007 8:34:24 AM
Author: 96TL
I may have to pass on this stone too. I still have time to search, and I want the best cut I can get. It may have looked great to me in person, but what do I know? A truly ideal cut stone will probably blow me away.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
This isn''t it, so I''d move on.
 
Date: 5/14/2007 11:34:29 PM
Author: 96TL

Hmm, I dont know if I feel comfortable with a stone thats not cut right. It was nice to finally see something in person though. I saw a few others, but I liked this one the best. It got a horrible rating on the HCA. 5.2 I think.




Here is a pic, but the stone is covered in finger smudges (mine
1.gif
). It''s sitting on a wax Tacori mold.
Click to expand...
That photo is an excellent example of why you would avoid selecting a diamond with HCA of 5.2 - you can see the pink wax - which means the stone leaks and when you are wearing it those parts of the diamond will never return light to your eye.

The same parts of the diamond will appear white thru an ideal-scope. Any diamond with a bad HCA score will have a problem like that.

Arguably HCA at 2 is a bit tough - 3 might be a good rejection level if it helps broaden a search - but remeber HCA is a rejection - not a selection tool.
 
Date: 5/15/2007 5:55:24 AM
Author: peridot83

You may know all this already, so ignore me if you do:

GIA has ideal cut stones, so this is a diamond one step below. GIA have not ever used the term ''ideal'' and have stridently argued against such terms.

Have you seen this diamond compared to GIA or AGS ideal stones in the same sort of range of size? (If you did then ignore below)

I think it took watching the GOG video tutorial and starting to look at diamonds to realize that GIA excellent/very good stones will sparkle, and will look pretty white. Pricescope tends to exagerate where we claim a diamond on the HCA of a 6 will be frozen spit. I hadn''t realized how many people have diamonds that are so poor around me that an HCA of 6 was still significantly better than their stones.

The fact is you can find stones that sparkle even more & more frequently, look even white and brighter, and throw light around a room like no other.

Now you may not care, i.e. as long as its good for me...who cares if there are better ones out there...especially if it''s bigger!

And if you do, then forget comparison shopping and go for it! But we''re here to tell you that there are diamonds out there, that will draw your eye into it even more and not just sparkle but flash at you from across the room.

Click to expand...
GOG videos are mostly shot in GIA''s Diamond Dock which has been debunked as a grading and a lighting source here http://journal.pricescope.com/Articles/50/1/Letter-to-the-Editor-of-the-Australian-Gemmologist.aspx

GOG have not addressed this issue, but choose to represent video''s filmed in this environment as being definitive. It is easily demonstrated that one can better grade the appearance diamonds in the diamond dock with the lights turned off than with the lights turned on.
 
I realize my comments may not have much merit after screwing up above. Also 96TL already stated he wanted an excellent cut diamond so these comments do not really apply to him either =)

However, I would say that even in the GOG videos of diamonds outside; it was still true that my first reaction was oh! well both diamonds seem very sparkly!

This also occurs when I was looking at diamonds today in person. It's like oh...this diamond seems very sparkly, look at the pretty colors. It takes comparison to a diamond of superior cut quality to realize the true potential.

That's all I meant by exaggeration. If a person who hasn't really looked at any diamonds, and come to this site. They may leave this site thinking that if a diamond scores an HCA score of 4 it's going to look like glass. Then they go to a B & M store, where they only have a selection of diamonds in the 3-6 range, and a consumer may go...those pricescopers don't know what they're talking about; this diamond is plenty sparkly! More so then most of my friends diamonds.

This occured when I went diamond shopping with my sister today. I was like wow! did you see the difference between those two diamonds! Her response "yea....but the not so good one looked sparkly enough for me, doesn't it make sense to go with the cheaper one or get a bigger one for the price?" IMHO, If you have a significant other who wants a big diamond, that sort of reaction is important to keep in mind.
 
Date: 5/16/2007 3:24:08 AM
Author: peridot83
I realize my comments may not have much merit after screwing up above. Also 96TL already stated he wanted an excellent cut diamond so these comments do not really apply to him either =)

However, I would say that even in the GOG videos of diamonds outside; it was still true that my first reaction was oh! well both diamonds seem very sparkly!

This also occurs when I was looking at diamonds today in person. It''s like oh...this diamond seems very sparkly, look at the pretty colors. It takes comparison to a diamond of superior cut quality to realize the true potential.

That''s all I meant by exaggeration. If a person who hasn''t really looked at any diamonds, and come to this site. They may leave this site thinking that if a diamond scores an HCA score of 4 it''s going to look like glass. Then they go to a B & M store, where they only have a selection of diamonds in the 3-6 range, and a consumer may go...those pricescopers don''t know what they''re talking about; this diamond is plenty sparkly! More so then most of my friends diamonds.

This occured when I went diamond shopping with my sister today. I was like wow! did you see the difference between those two diamonds! Her response ''yea....but the not so good one looked sparkly enough for me, doesn''t it make sense to go with the cheaper one or get a bigger one for the price?'' IMHO, If you have a significant other who wants a big diamond, that sort of reaction is important to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
That is all valid Peridote, and of course all diamond and most other quality issues are relative.

Forget about cut quality for a minute - Some people buy a 1ct D Flawless yet for about the same money they could buy a 3ct H I1.
No one is wrong.
Just different
 
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