Please help...which radiant would you buy?

[radiantlover]

Hi!

My BF and I just got back from a short trip to NYC and met with Jon from GOG, Mark from ERD and David from DBL. They were all great to deal with! We spent over 1hr with each of them and really appreciated all the time they spent with us.

For those who don't know, we are on a quest to find the best square shape radiant within our budget ($6500) and came across a few so far:

Radiant #1
GIA cert
1.23ct
H / SI2 (eye-clean)
Depth 64.3%
Table 74%
Girdle x-thin to very thick
Culet none
Polish very good
Sym good
Fluor none
6.18*6.02*3.87
Ratio 1.03
$4450

Radiant #2
GIA cert
1.24ct
F / SI1 (eye-clean)
Depth 62.6%
Table 68%
Girdle medium
Culet none
Polish very good
Sym good
Fluor none
6.69*6.12*3.83
Ratio 1.09
$5800

Radiant #3
GIA cert
1.27ct
E / SI1 (not sure if it's eye-clean)
Depth 65.4%
Table 64%
Girdle slightly thick to thick
Culet none
Polish very good
Sym good
Fluor strong blue
6.49*6.10*3.99
Ratio 1.06
$5619


My BF and I have seen Radiant #1 and 2 and they both sparkle like crazy

BUT there are certain things that I don't love about them:

Radiant #1 => in certain lighting I can slightly detect the yellow and it's smaller than I wanted (wanted at least ~6.3mm)
Radiant #2 => not that square...not sure if it will bother me...

As for Radiant #3, I haven't seen it and not sure if the strong blue fluor will make the stone look milky???

Everything else about the 3 stones are great though...please help me!!!

I'm sooo confused...my BF and I had a small argument over this. He's leaning towards Radiant #1 because of the price (and he doesn't see the yellow)...but I don't want to regret this decision.

Should I just wait since I don't love everything about them??? Everyone I spoke to told me that it's hard to find a square shape radiant with my budget and requirements (needs to be as white as possible, eye-clean and have a diameter of at least 6.3mm). My BF feels that we shouldn't wait (even though we only started searching 2 weeks ago!) and choose one now.

What should I do???

Radiantlover

 

[belle]

you need to find something that you love. if you don''t you will always wonder if you should have waited.

btw...strong blue rarely makes a stone milky. if you are concerned at all, take it out in strong sunlight to view it.
(that stong blue would be at the top of my list!)

 

[radiantlover]

Thanks Belle! I've sent a note to the vendor of Radiant #3 and hopefully it's eye clean and the strong blue doesn't have a negative effect on it!

I forgot to mention that there's another 'contender':

Radiant #4
GIA cert
1.23ct
F / SI1 (eye-clean)
Depth 65.2%
Table 69%
Girdle medium to thick
Culet none
Polish very good
Sym good
Fluor none
6.36*5.97*3.89
Ratio 1.07
$6xxx

I haven't seen it in person yet.

Belle -do you still think #3 is the 'best' one??

 

[belle]

hold up! i never said #3 was the best one

i don''t even want to try and guesstimate which of those is better. fancy shapes are a tricky critter. i like strong blue fluorescence very much, so i would want to look at a stone with that characteristic is all.
i would suggest you see as many stones as you can. there will be one that you can''t deny.

 

[radiantlover]

Hey Belle,

Sorry, I misunderstood but thanks for the advice!

Radiantlover

 

[Rhino]

Hi radiantlover!e

It was a pleasure to meet and serve you and your fiance last week. If its possible to get Sarin's with 3d models any of the folks here with DiamCalc can generate a file which would let people here see more details about the appearance of the stone. belle is right ... judging radiants by numbers alone is very tricky. belle has diamcalc too. With the model we can see the relfector views I showed you and your fiance. Remember ... there was a certain view that jumped out at both of you more than others. We gave radiantlover and her fiance a pepsi challenge. That was fun correllating the reflector images with the diamonds eh? btw radiantlover and her fiance, before we even looked at the stones under LightScope, we looked at them in diferent lighting and picked the right goods each time. Fun test and good job rl. The F colors sound promising. I agree with belle ... get what you want but then I know how guys are and can sympathize with your fiance. decisions decisions

If we can be of further assistance or if you can get a model which could be posted I will be glad to offer my thoughts on it for you, even if not from us, we're here for ya and good luck on your hunt.

All the best,

 

[radiantlover]

Hi Rhino,

It was a pleasure to meet you too...I really appreciated all the time you spent with us (almost 2hrs!!!).

Well as a matter of fact, there is a radiant that I''m interested in from you, it''s was one of the radiants on the list you printed out for us before we left (1.27ct E/SI1). I just sent a note to Tim asking for more information.

Radiantlover

 

[coda72]

Based on the numbers alone, my favorite out of all the ones you listed is #3. I think you''re right, #1 will be too yellow. I saw an H colored radiant, and it looked very yellow next to my F. I wouldn''t buy an H in a fancy shape; they tend to show more color than an ideal cut round will.

#2 has a larger table than depth, and personally I like smaller tables on radiants. I''m not sure about it not being square, but since you saw it, you would know best. My radiant is a 1.07 ratio, and it still appears square. But maybe the closer you get to 1.10, it will appear more rectangular.

#3 is my favorite because the specs are very close to mine, and I love mine. My depth is right around 65% and the table on mine is 63%, and mine is a very sparkly, nice diamond. An E is a very bright white, and strong fluourescence usually doesn''t cause milkiness. It is usually not visible at all except under a blacklight. The most I''ve heard people say about fluorescence is that it causes a bluish appearance in sunlight, but to me that''s not bad, since blue is my favorite color. I would like to own a diamond with fluorescence someday.

#4 doesn''t seem bad to me, but there''s nothing special about it that would make me spend more money on that than #3. It also has a larger table than I like on radiants.

Hope this helps.

 

[radiantlover]

Thanks Coda72 for your feedback!

I spoke to the vendor and I should have some pics of Radiant #3 by Monday. I really hope the strong blue will not have any adverse affect on it. Keeping my fingers cross that this is the one!!!

 

[diamondsbylauren]

Hey Radiantlover,
It was also our pleasure to meet and spend time with you guys!

You''re always welcome.


If stone # 3 turns out to be to your liking, it''s a great value!

 

[radiantlover]

Hi David!

Thanks again for making an exception and allowing us to see the radiants at your office...especially since you don''t usually have clients visit you!! It was much appreciated.

I LOVE the fancy light yellow radiant you showed us!!!

That''s my dream RHR!!!! It was gorgeous!

radiantlover

 

[cinnabar]

I don''t like the girdle on #1, I don''t like x-thin girdles on any diamond but I don''t like the idea of "x-thin to very thick" in particular.

If you can see color in it and it bothers you, it will always bother you. Men are often less sensitive to color.

 

[diamondsbylauren]

cinnabar- of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion- but I never let such a mention of ex-thin girdle bother me on a Radiant Cut Diamond.
It could be a concern, in a particular diamond , but in many cases it presents no concern at all.
Remember, the girdle of a Radiant Cut diamond turns corners- so if it''s thin in one spot and thick in another, that does not indicate problems in every case.

 

[valeria101]

From DBL and GOG, aren't there pictures ?

... not to mention the other 1000 perks given away online by these two god guys

for people to talk about.


If you seen these, then you know allot more about the stones than the respective numbers can tell - so much more than the poor stats are barely relevant by comparison

 

[radiantlover]

Hi Valeria101!

As a matter of fact I do have some pics of the radiants I've seen in NYC:

Here's Radiant #1 (H / SI2):

Here's Radiant #2 (F / SI1)...there's a better pic in the 4th picture:

And here's an Original Radiant Cut diamond that I mentioned in a previous post (I / VS1):

Here's a fun pic that I took at at one of the PS vendors office (from L to R: cushion, Radiant #2 and 2 other radiants):

Hopefully I'll have pics of Radiant #3 on Monday and I will post them in a new thread.

BTW I decided not to go for Radiants #1 and #2. I'll let you know if Radiant #3 is the ONE (I hope so!!!)...if it's not, then I'll have my vendor take a look at Radiant #4.

Radiantlover

 

[Ann]

Oh, those pics are really neat.

And they look huge!

Love the cushion.

 

[radiantlover]

Hi Ann!

Yes the cushion was beautiful and full of life but I much prefer the radiant cut over them (my BF prefers the cushion like you).

The diamonds probably look big because my ring size is only a 2.75....my BF is very happy about that fact!

 

[allycat0303]

2.75??? Oh GRRRRRRR. That''s totally not fair. That radiant is going to be mammoth on you, they all look so beautiful.