Polishing''s effect on carats?

[Fletch]

I was told that instead of buying a 1.00 carat diamond, it can be good to get a bit over (like 1.05) so that if you ever need to polish it, it will still be over a carat. I am buying a 1.02 carat diamond and want to know if I should be concerned that the carats would drop below 1.00 if the diamond were scratched and needed to be polished. Basically I have no idea how often a diamond might be polished and how much material is taken off when that happens. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Sunni79]

I would think that it would be hard to scratch a diamond but it guess it would make sense that you may lose a slight amount of carat weight if the scratch had to be polished out. I don''t think I would worry too much about it.

 

[DiamondExpert]

Not a sensible reason to buy just over 1ct., but there can be a money saving reason to buy just under 1ct., IF you can find the stone!

 

[Antwerpman]

what are you going to scratch it with? unless you intend rubbing other diamonds against it I dont think you need to worry about scratches. Diamond is HARD and will not scratch in normal circumstances.

As Diamond Expert said, better to get a diamond of just under 1ct as the price difference can be significant for going over that 1ct mark, and for all practical purposes you cannot tell the difference in size between a 1.01 and a 0.99 if they are polished with the same proportions - you CAN however tell the difference in the weight of your wallet after purchase

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

And then if you ever decide to have it repolished to make the latest cut grade - you will not drop below a critical weight