overall percentage of well-cut diamonds in the world?

[xstormcloud7x]

just a question to quench my curiosity.. i guess it applies mostly to jewelers, but responses from everyone are welcome!

what do you think the percentage is in the WORLD, or just your own experience, of "well-cut" (as in ranging from GIA premium to AGS 0) diamonds? or just in the US? with all the maul-stores out there, and uninformed people who haven''t had the pleasure of joining/lurking in PS (or those who even actually care), i''m pretty certain the number is quite small, but i''ve never seen any actual statistics on the subject...

 

[xstormcloud7x]

no one at all?

 

[Dreamer_D]

The number that is ofter tossed around is 1% -- true top quality H&A diamonds are about 1% of the diamond inventory in the world. I suspect even less.

 

[Lula]

I know the number is very small as a percentage of all diamonds. But I have no way of knowing how many diamonds are sold without certificates and how many diamonds are sent to GIA and AGS. So it''s really hard to even put a ballpark figure on it.

 

[kenny]

I was going to guess 1%.

And I''ll bet most of those are sold to PSers now.

 

[Andelain]

I'm with dreamer on this one, probably well under 1%. When you consider all the diamonds sold in the mall, online places like ebay, you can even rent to own some really bad diamonds but they all sell so many. Then a company like Eightstar turns out around 1000 stones in a year....

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 3/30/2010 7:12:44 PM
Author: kenny
I was going to guess 1%.

And I''ll bet most of those are sold to PSers now.

yep, that''s the # we all been hearing.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

That is not right IMHO.
From what I see offered today compared with what was offered 10-15 years ago - and using my buying experiance based just on my rejections using an Ideal-scope (not H&A''s) I would say I rejected around 95% of stones 10 years ago and today it is around 80%.
Of the 20% that pass, depending on the manufacturer between 5% and 1/3rd have reasonable hearts and arrows.
That gives about 3% as hearts and arrows, and there will be stones that I rejected with the ideal-scope that would also have been hearts and arrows.

 

[Tmissy]

Since we are speaking of H & A stones would that approx. 1% include fancy cuts? Are H & A category only for rounds? Or am I mistaken?

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 3/30/2010 8:02:57 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
That is not right IMHO.
From what I see offered today compared with what was offered 10-15 years ago - and using my buying experiance based just on my rejections using an Ideal-scope (not H&A''s) I would say I rejected around 95% of stones 10 years ago and today it is around 80%.
Of the 20% that pass, depending on the manufacturer between 5% and 1/3rd have reasonable hearts and arrows.
That gives about 3% as hearts and arrows, and there will be stones that I rejected with the ideal-scope that would also have been hearts and arrows.

Interesting. But Garry, is your original sample from which you select the whole kit and kaboodle, or has a preliminary narrowing of the field happened prior to your selection? Are you really selecting from the same sample that maul stores might use?

 

[kenny]

Date: 3/31/2010 12:51:31 AM
Author: dreamer_d

Date: 3/30/2010 8:02:57 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
That is not right IMHO.
From what I see offered today compared with what was offered 10-15 years ago - and using my buying experiance based just on my rejections using an Ideal-scope (not H&A's) I would say I rejected around 95% of stones 10 years ago and today it is around 80%.
Of the 20% that pass, depending on the manufacturer between 5% and 1/3rd have reasonable hearts and arrows.
That gives about 3% as hearts and arrows, and there will be stones that I rejected with the ideal-scope that would also have been hearts and arrows.

Interesting. But Garry, is your original sample from which you select the whole kit and kaboodle, or has a preliminary narrowing of the field happened prior to your selection? Are you really selecting from the same sample that maul stores might use?

I was also thinking, who is going to offer the inventor of the Idealscope their most poorly-cut diamonds?
I'll bet what is offered to Garry is not representative of all diamonds sold throughout the world.

I'll bet they see him coming and hide their junk.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 3/31/2010 12:55:01 AM
Author: kenny

Date: 3/31/2010 12:51:31 AM
Author: dreamer_d

Date: 3/30/2010 8:02:57 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
That is not right IMHO.
From what I see offered today compared with what was offered 10-15 years ago - and using my buying experiance based just on my rejections using an Ideal-scope (not H&A''s) I would say I rejected around 95% of stones 10 years ago and today it is around 80%.
Of the 20% that pass, depending on the manufacturer between 5% and 1/3rd have reasonable hearts and arrows.
That gives about 3% as hearts and arrows, and there will be stones that I rejected with the ideal-scope that would also have been hearts and arrows.

Interesting. But Garry, is your original sample from which you select the whole kit and kaboodle, or has a preliminary narrowing of the field happened prior to your selection? Are you really selecting from the same sample that maul stores might use?

I was also thinking, who is going to offer the inventor of the Idealscope their most poorly-cut diamonds?
I''ll bet what is offered to Garry is not representative of all diamonds sold throughout the world.

I''ll bet they see him coming and hide their junk.

Hi - In parceled stones there are different assortments of color / clarity, but rarley assortments based on cut quality. So it is likely that the +G VS goods I use will have a better cut quality than say TLB knats (top light brown heavily twinned goods) that find their way to mall stores.
So, no, they do not change their assortments because i walk into their offfice.

However I usually travel to India for main buying trips with the chain store operators my wife worked with for many years as a buyer. I did so 2 weeks ago, even though Drena did not come this year, and I helped them source several hunderd brownish SI1-SI3.9 1/2ct plus princess cuts. And I could have selected well over 50% with an ASET scope as being very good performers. None would ever be sent for grading - they are just diamonds in rings.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Interesting Garry.

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

The original question is very difficult to answer. It is highly depended upon what one can observe and upon personal feelings what one considers well-cut.

Garry''s figures are interesting, but I do think that still most cutting-facilities sort their production in two to three cut-qualities before offering them for sale. Grade C will be reserved for specific customers.

Also, the lower the clarity, the lower the cut-quality generally will be.

Finally, in numbers, the smaller stones are a much higher number, and my personal selection-level for melees would be a lot wider.

All in all, I suspect that it is safe to assume that cut-quality overall has improved in the past years for various reasons. On the other hand, I observe the opposite trend at the very top-level, where less are being cut. There, more and more cutters understand the minimum-levels of the rejection-tools and obviously use that leeway.

Live long,

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 3/31/2010 6:35:21 AM
Author: Paul-Antwerp
On the other hand, I observe the opposite trend at the very top-level, where less are being cut. There, more and more cutters understand the minimum-levels of the rejection-tools and obviously use that leeway.

Live long,

This is true - I believe the amount of ''gaming'' to achieve rounds with GIA X cut grade and X symmetry has now become a major play for many companies.
Triple XXX has become the hot product in all the new Asian markets - no one does more than read the report.

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Triple XXX is the latest move in this direction.

An older example of the same, reported about 10 years ago by Todd Gray of NiceIce, was how cutters of H&A moved towards a minimum-level of H&A.

Live long,