Pointed Culet

[allygirl]

What is good concerning CULET? I saw a few diamonds today and they were marked as pointed. IS this good or bad? They were all AGS000, one with the newer AGS certificate andone with the old certificate. The third did not have a certificate available at the time, but they are getting it. Ranging from 1.26 to 1.65. Two were VS2 and one was SI1...the SI1 looked better under the scope than the VS2. The larger VS2 looked almost flawless! HOWEVER, the certificate was not available for me to see but as I said, it is going to be available tomorrow or Saturday. Any thoughts?

 

[JohnQuixote]

The culet is a tiny flat facet that may be polished onto the bottom of the pavilion of a diamond, parallel to the table facet at the top of the crown.

A pointed culet - also described as no culet or closed culet - is desirable. Most modern round diamonds have either no culet, a very small, or small culet. Large or extremely large culets were common in diamonds cut in the early part of this century, such as the Old European or Old Mine Cut. However, such large culets are rarely seen today. For many years all diamonds had the culet facet added to protect the tip of the pavilion from being chipped or damaged. Diamonds used to be set very low in jewelry and often the pavilion actually contacted the skin of the wearer’s finger, thus greater risk of damage to the exposed tip. A culet of medium size or larger may adversely influence light return, since such a facet is effectively a hole in the center of the diamond.

Modern jewelry styles raise the pavilion of the diamond. The setting itself usually provides sufficient protection for the pavilion from impact and wear, so there is no need to add a culet. Any culet medium or larger is now rare.

A traditional round brilliant with no culet (and no extra facets) has 57 facets. A round brilliant with a culet has 58.