Oval Diamond - Help in choosing

[Husker]

After doing some searches on the internet for an Oval engagement and looking at some in local stores, I have settled on several choices. Any thoughts or recomendations on which would be the better or best diamond to go with. These 4 are representative of the price and criteria I''m looking for in an engagement ring. Thank you in advance for your help!

http://www.afishman.com/search/stonedetail.asp?stock=O-0810A&ppc=3299.99975585938
http://www.angara.com/diamond-details.do?pID=693076
http://www.angara.com/diamond-details.do?pID=693109
http://byo.diamond.com/create_your_own/ring/stones.php?stone=257306

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 7/12/2009 3:37:13 PM
Author:Husker
After doing some searches on the internet for an Oval engagement and looking at some in local stores, I have settled on several choices. Any thoughts or recomendations on which would be the better or best diamond to go with. These 4 are representative of the price and criteria I'm looking for in an engagement ring. Thank you in advance for your help!

http://www.afishman.com/search/stonedetail.asp?stock=O-0810A&ppc=3299.99975585938
http://www.angara.com/diamond-details.do?pID=693076
http://www.angara.com/diamond-details.do?pID=693109
http://byo.diamond.com/create_your_own/ring/stones.php?stone=257306

Welcome Husker!

Ovals can't really be bought just by numbers, that is really buying blind in my opinion. Photos and ASET images if you can get them are really essential, photos at the very least. Ovals can vary tremendously in shape and appearance, thus the importance of images when buying online.

Having said that, the diamond in the first link looks very nice by the photo - you can see the bow tie, just a suggestion, did you want very high clarity? If so thats fine, just so you know you could lower this to VS comfortably and still have a completely clean diamond, but if you prefer VVS then of course no problem!

I don't know if Angara offer photos, you could certainly ask them if they can do so. It is cut which is so important in order to find a well cut oval, you can't really tell much just by depth and table as this only gives a chalk outline of the stone.

Ideally you want a vendor who has in house diamonds and can provide photos and ASET as above and also run a Sarin which gives detailed measurements of the diamond to get the crown height.

Here is a page which explains ASET and Idealscope

http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=education-performance

Also ovals can show an effect called a bow tie, this is a dark area across the centre of the diamond which quite literally looks like a bow tie. A vendor who has the diamond in their possession can advise to what extent a diamond shows this.

Also although you can't buy a fancy shape just by numbers alone, they do give you a point of reference so you can use this chart in order to help you weed out the ones which obviously don't have good proportions, but images are the deciding factor.

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/fnc3.asp

Also here is a very useful shape selector you can use to see various length to width ratios.

http://www.gemappraisers.com/shapePickerNew.asp

And a few tips to use when searching.

Look for ovals which have the table percentage less than the depth generally
If you can try to avoid girdle extremes such as thin to very thick etc, although you often see wider girdle variance in fancy shapes where possible try to look for slightly thin to slightly thick, thin to medium, thin to thick is acceptable.
Always ask the vendor about any bow tie on a particular diamond.

Also some of us have a great interest in ovals, if you give us an idea of budget for the diamond itself and your requirements, we might be able to suggest some diamonds you might like?

 

[tyty333]

Ditto everything Lorelei said.

You can look at the James Allen web site for ovals and see the different looks you can possibly get. Most of the looks are probably not what you
want. You really have to see pictures and aset images to see the personality of the stone and determine if its what you like or not.

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/advanced-diamond-search.asp

 

[Husker]

Lorelei,

Thank you for your help and helpful suggestions. Below is what I''m looking for in an engagement diamond. I''m lean more towards quality than size.

Cut: Oval
Cut Classification: Premium to Ideal
Carat: .75 - 1.00
Clarity: VS2 - VVS1
Color: D - H
Polish/Symmetry: Good - Excellent
Depth: 59.0 - 63.0
Table: 55 - 61.5
L/W Ratio: 1:33 - 1:66
Budget: 3000 (diamond)

I hope this helps.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 7/12/2009 10:50:02 PM
Author: Husker
Lorelei,

Thank you for your help and helpful suggestions. Below is what I''m looking for in an engagement diamond. I''m lean more towards quality than size.

Cut: Oval
Cut Classification: Premium to Ideal
Carat: .75 - 1.00
Clarity: VS2 - VVS1
Color: D - H
Polish/Symmetry: Good - Excellent
Depth: 59.0 - 63.0
Table: 55 - 61.5
L/W Ratio: 1:33 - 1:66
Budget: 3000 (diamond)

I hope this helps.

Ok I will have a look for you this morning to see what I can find!