Opinions for a newbie

[Circky]

Hello everyone,

I came upon this community forum as I was looking for help with finding a diamond for a ring. I've read as much as I could online today and wanted to get your opinions on a diamond I'm interested in. I'm not sure if my attachments are shown properly but it's a 2.02ct, E colour, SI1 clarity, faint fluorescence, triple excellent and was told it would be eye clean by my jeweller.

From what I've researched so far, the pros for this diamond is that the inclusions are not right in the middle, they are feather inclusions, and if there are any discounts, the faint fluorescence should be visually negligible and this would be considered a high SI2.

The couple of down sides is that while the feathers are on the outter areas, some people bring up concern of durability as its close/runs over the girdle. What are your thoughts on this? Only one feather inclusion looks "large" and it's further away from the edge.

I also just found out about the HCA tool, and based on the dimensions, it unfortunately is well above the suggested basement threshold of 2 and is somewhere along the lines of 4.3 (table 60, depth 61.6, crown 35.5, pavilion 41) Is this a huge red flag and should stop looking further for this diamond? I brought up HCA tool to the jeweller and he personally doesn't put much factor of this metric as he believes it's flawed with the exclusion of key parameters. Thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TreeScientist]

The optical performance of this diamond is going to be off. You can even see it in the pictures, as the arrows are misshapen and there appears to be light leakage under the table. The inclusion plot looks good for an SI1 though.

Is the price on it good? If you're just going for size alone, this wouldn't be the worst choice, as it would still look OK. If it's at a significant discount compared to ideal cut stones, then may be worth it.

Have you compared prices at the online retailers that are frequently posted on this site? You said "your jeweler" so I assume you're looking at a brick and mortar store. With the size of stone you're looking at you will likely save a significant amount of money (like, thousands of dollars) by purchasing online, while also getting a better stone.

If you post your budget and desired size, people on this forum can help you.

 

[Circky]

The optical performance of this diamond is going to be off. You can even see it in the pictures, as the arrows are misshapen and there appears to be light leakage under the table. The inclusion plot looks good for an SI1 though.

Is the price on it good? If you're just going for size alone, this wouldn't be the worst choice, as it would still look OK. If it's at a significant discount compared to ideal cut stones, then may be worth it.

Have you compared prices at the online retailers that are frequently posted on this site? You said "your jeweler" so I assume you're looking at a brick and mortar store. With the size of stone you're looking at you will likely save a significant amount of money (like, thousands of dollars) by purchasing online, while also getting a better stone.

If you post your budget and desired size, people on this forum can help you.

Thanks for the quick reply. While yes, it is from a brick and mortar, it is a very small shop and they claim to compete with online stores. I only tried a couple of comparisons and it seemed like a fair comment. I am based out of Canada, so need to factor in FX, but the diamond was for 32Kcad or 26KUS. My budget is to get everything done for under 40K (including taxes) with a size of 2ct.

 

[TreeScientist]

40k USD?

OK, well here's 2 examples of stones with ideal optical proportions that will look much better than the diamond you selected. Not sure if the 2 carat weight is set in stone for you (no pun intended ), but you'll save a significant amount by going right under the 2 carat mark (there's huge jumps at the 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 etc. levels) and no-one is going to be able to see the difference between, say, a 1.85-1.9 carat and a 2 carat.
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...h-color-vs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-3762446
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...rat-h-color-vs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-4297772

If you're really set on going with a colorless stone, this one is on the upper end of your budget and looks good. HCA score is 2.6, but sometimes HCA scores in the 2-3 range can be perfectly good stones. Need to be evaluated on an individual basis. When buying a stone at this price range, never purchase one without asking for the IdealScope image first and checking here to get the opinions of the community.
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...e-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4266635

And finally, this is my favorite. Absolutely beautiful stone with ideal proportions. I think you'll get much more stone for your money going with a G or H (which is what most people recommend on here):
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...rat-h-color-vs1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-3824109

 

[TreeScientist]

Would also like to add this one from Whiteflash. If you're looking for a Super Ideal cut diamond, can't go wrong with them. This is the most perfectly cut stone of the lot, but whether you could tell the difference between this one and, say, the James Allen true hearts in real life is another story. Still, plenty of people on this site love their ACAs (short for A Cut Above, WhiteFlash's signature cut).

https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3947725.htm

 

[tyty333]

You need to be paring a 35 or 35.5 crown with a much lower pavilion angle like 40.6 ish. The cut on the above stones is not that great. I would keep
looking.

The WF stone posted above would be a great option.