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Oval Diamond help

Zamonster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
26
Hello - for our next anniversary my husband and I are looking to 'upgrade' my ring. My current ring is an oval sapphire and that would become my RHR and I'd like a oval lab diamond, either solitare or 3 stone.

I don't know much about diamonds and honestly I'm pretty intimidated. I want to do my research to 'get it right' but I'm not quite sure where to start. From the little research I've done it seems like bowties are something that I need to be concerned about. Does anyone have any advice on how to pick out a good oval? I'm thinking I'd want 1.25-1.5 carats, should I be looking for certain dimensions, depth, table, girdle numbers?

Lastly, I know for rounds cut is the most important thing for sparkle, however, ovals don't seem to have the same grading on cut? Is that right or am I really missing something? I guess I'm just confused because I was browsing a website and the only cut they had was 'very good' is that actually good for an oval? I thought anything less than excellent for rounds would be disappointing sparkle wise so I'm just so confused.

Sorry this post is all over the place, any advice, links, info, etc. on how to pick a good oval would be so appreciated.
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
58,547
You have to choose an oval by the magnified images of the stone. With mined diamonds, you sometimes can get an ASET image showing light return. But I don't know if that would be provided by any LGD vendors or not. My suggestion is to find some you are interested in and post them here for feedback. I think I can select good diamonds, but you can't choose a fancy cut diamond by numbers. They have to be seen. I look for organized, balanced facet patterns, for one thing. I'll also suggest aiming for one stone. I have found it quite difficult to find two well matched rounds, and those are far easier to find than matching ovals. There is no cut grading on ovals.
 

Zamonster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
26
You have to choose an oval by the magnified images of the stone. With mined diamonds, you sometimes can get an ASET image showing light return. But I don't know if that would be provided by any LGD vendors or not. My suggestion is to find some you are interested in and post them here for feedback. I think I can select good diamonds, but you can't choose a fancy cut diamond by numbers. They have to be seen. I look for organized, balanced facet patterns, for one thing. I'll also suggest aiming for one stone. I have found it quite difficult to find two well matched rounds, and those are far easier to find than matching ovals. There is no cut grading on ovals.

Thank you so much for your advice. I have been looking at magnified images but I also wasn't sure what to really be looking for so this is helpful. I wanted to have a little better feel of diamonds before posting links because it's highly likely I'd be looking at pretty bad ones and wasting everyone's time.

Do you have any websites you'd recommend for starting my search? I've looked mostly on rare carat and vrai (however I have heard of some brown tints on theirs and I'm going for more colorless as I already have a sapphire). Are these sites at least a good start or would you recommend steering clear from one or both?
 

monipod

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 25, 2019
Messages
1,041
Rare Carat is a really nifty, well thought out website so it's a good start, keeping in mind that it doesn't show the full inventory of its listed vendors. Use it as a good tool to see what's out there and which vendors have a good range of stones. With lab stones, I am finding that the lab specific vendors provide good value for money as opposed to JA, Brilliant Earth etc. that carry mainly mined stones. With Clarity has a lot of nice stones.

As for ovals, just make sure you go with a vendor who provides high quality videos so you can assess any bow ties. You can't avoid them entirely (unless you get an Elyque by Distinctive Gems - Rhino might cut lab Elyque) but you certainly don't want one with obvious ones.

Unfortunately the lab thread may not get frequented by PS trade experts so much so have a search for past topics about bow ties to give you an idea of what to avoid in terms of numbers/cut. Personally I think the right oval will sing out to you. Enjoy the search!
 

Zamonster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
26
Rare Carat is a really nifty, well thought out website so it's a good start, keeping in mind that it doesn't show the full inventory of its listed vendors. Use it as a good tool to see what's out there and which vendors have a good range of stones. With lab stones, I am finding that the lab specific vendors provide good value for money as opposed to JA, Brilliant Earth etc. that carry mainly mined stones. With Clarity has a lot of nice stones.

As for ovals, just make sure you go with a vendor who provides high quality videos so you can assess any bow ties. You can't avoid them entirely (unless you get an Elyque by Distinctive Gems - Rhino might cut lab Elyque) but you certainly don't want one with obvious ones.

Unfortunately the lab thread may not get frequented by PS trade experts so much so have a search for past topics about bow ties to give you an idea of what to avoid in terms of numbers/cut. Personally I think the right oval will sing out to you. Enjoy the search!

Wow I had never even heard of Elyque by Distinctive Gems before, I just checked it out and those are super interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about them as there isn't a bowtie, bit the center just doesn't really look like an oval. It would be nice to see one in person though. It also doesn't appear that they're cutting any lab ovals like that, unfortunately.

Thanks for your advice. I have been searching the site and will probably be for the foreseeable future :lol:
 

123ducklings

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 10, 2020
Messages
914
You’ve gotten great advice already. You also might want to checkout this guide:

https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/oval-cut-diamond

And you can use the search function to look through past oval threads on the forums and gather more info there. Research and numbers can help, but I honestly think the best way to shop (especially for fancy cuts) is with your eyes.
 

Zamonster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
26
You’ve gotten great advice already. You also might want to checkout this guide:

https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/oval-cut-diamond

And you can use the search function to look through past oval threads on the forums and gather more info there. Research and numbers can help, but I honestly think the best way to shop (especially for fancy cuts) is with your eyes.

Thank you for that link- super helpful and I have bookmarked it :) I'm a numbers person so I think that's part of what is making this so difficult for me. I wish I could drop the numbers in a calculator and it'd tell me if it was perfect. Having at least a guide for the numbers is helpful, as I'll be able to rule some out based on that and then try and find the perfect oval from a smaller pool
 

OoohShiny

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 25, 2014
Messages
8,228
Wow I had never even heard of Elyque by Distinctive Gems before, I just checked it out and those are super interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about them as there isn't a bowtie, bit the center just doesn't really look like an oval. It would be nice to see one in person though. It also doesn't appear that they're cutting any lab ovals like that, unfortunately.

Thanks for your advice. I have been searching the site and will probably be for the foreseeable future :lol:

Drop Jon/Rhino a line as I believe he can cut to order :)

(Don't forget to confirm any T&Cs attached to any purchase, though, as they may be non-refundable!)
 

Zamonster

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
26
Drop Jon/Rhino a line as I believe he can cut to order :)

(Don't forget to confirm any T&Cs attached to any purchase, though, as they may be non-refundable!)

Oh, I'll have to reach out when I'm closer to purchasing one. I looked at their regular lab diamonds and they seem a little more expensive but to my untrained eye I thought they looked really nice! Thank you for mentioning them as I doubt I would of ever found them on my own!
 
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