Questions re: Natural Sapphire Co

[curlyq_hw]

I''m a newbie looking for some advice/help. I''m interested in purchasing an sapphire engagement ring from Natural Sapphire Company, which seems to get a lot of recommendations from PSers.

I took a look at their site and really like these two rings:

http://thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/nscnet/expandjwelery.aspx?jwelery=J162

http://thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/nscnet/expandjwelery.aspx?jwelery=J173

Does anyone happen to own either the oval-cut or cushion-cut style of this ring? How is the workmanship/quality?

Also, how are the sapphires weighed at NSC? I tried to find out this information on their tutorial, but no mention is made of whether or not the carat weight of sapphires is similar to that of diamonds. I''m trying to figure out what the carat weight of a sapphire should be if I am trying to purchase one that is in the .50-.75 carat weight range. Are there certain measurement guidelines that will help me figure this out on my own?

Any help is appreciated! Sorry for all the questions, I just didn''t know where I could find out this stuff on the NSC website.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Hi there! The rings that you link to are lovely, and if you search the threads I believe you''ll find that NSC has a very good reputation on this board.

Sapphire weight is represented in carats, like diamonds are. But keep in mind that sapphires are a bit denser than diamonds and sapphires are generally cut differently than diamonds so a sapphire of say 1 ct will usually appear smaller face up than a 1 ct diamond.

Here is a thread where a little more info is given on the topic: link

 

[curlyq_hw]

DeeJay,

I am so, so horrible at math. You cannot imagine how bad I am at it!

I read this in the link you helpfully gave to me: "If you consider face surface (what we perceive as size), sapphire will be 8.2% smaller"

Does that mean I should take a carat weight of a sapphire and... multiply...divide... the percentage? I just am trying to figure out what sapphire carat weight range I should be looking at in order to have a center stone that''s the same carat weight equivalent as a diamond. Can someone gifted with math help me out? I write for a living, so the arithmetic portion of my brain has atrophied!

 

[Kaleigh]

I have a blue sapphire cushion with diamond cushion sides from them. It's gorgeous!! Highly recommend them!!

 

[MustangFan]

find a mm chart for diamonds and compare sapphire that way, if it helps

6.5mm round is a 1 carat diamond "look"

my stone is a 3.17 pear and it appear to have to look of a 2-2.3+carat diamond

 

[Dee*Jay]

Date: 3/5/2007 3:21:53 PM
Author: curlyq_hw
DeeJay,

Does that mean I should take a carat weight of a sapphire and... multiply...divide... the percentage? I just am trying to figure out what sapphire carat weight range I should be looking at in order to have a center stone that''s the same carat weight equivalent as a diamond. Can someone gifted with math help me out? I write for a living, so the arithmetic portion of my brain has atrophied!

To answer your question in the absolute simplist way, you would take the sapphire ct weight and divide by 1.136 to accommodate for the density of sapphire at 4 and the density of diamond at 3.52.

BUT, you need to take the cutting into account too. Sapphires are deeper and have more of a bulge factor, so, give you an example sticking with the same figures, even if you took a 4 ct sapphire, using the divisor 1.136, it would still look smaller than a 3.52 ct diamond. Am I making any sense or am I just making it worse by trying to help you, LOL?!

I think your best bet is to use mm sizes as your guide, keeping in mind that you will have to consider each sapphire individually because they can be cut in a range of depth.

Do you have a specific diamond size that you''re trying to match? Maybe we can help you more that way.

 

[curlyq_hw]

Hi,

The math you gave is very helpful, thank you! I guess my original post wasn''t too clear... I was originally looking at a center diamond between .50-.75 carat weight. But my fiancee and I like the two rings I posted in my original thread, so now I am trying to find out what size sapphire would be equivalent to a diamond carat weight range of .50-.75

Does that help? I am partial to round sapphires as well, but don''t know if TNSC could set a round in the ring as shown.

 

[Dee*Jay]

A .5 ct diamond should be 5 mm and a .75 diamond should be .6 mm. So, if you back into it, a sapphire THAT WAS CUT THE SAME AS A WELL CUT DIAMOND would be .57 and .85 cts respectively. That being said, you are going to be much better off looking at mm size rather than sapphire ct weight because there is not a direct translation due to the cutting. So, go look for a .5 to .6 mm sapphire and I think you should be all set!

 

[curlyq_hw]

Thank you Dee Jay... we are shopping online at this point, because sapphires at a local B & M were ridiculously priced, not to mention blah in terms of cut and color.

All of this is a wee bit scary, since the company is in NY and I am in CA. Is there anything wrong with choosing the setting and having TNSC setting a blue stone in it for me, if I trust them to choose one that meets my specs? Or is that a bad idea and we should have a couple of stones shipped to us for inspection? No clue what we''re doing over here, can you tell? LOL

 

[Kaleigh]

Call at talk to Steven Bliss. He was a pleasure to work with.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I don''t think I''d have a stone set without seeing it first.