Radiant question

[Clemson]

I''m getting ready to purchase a 1.0 - 1.3 ct radiant cut diamond for an engagement ring. It will be rectangular shaped, and somewhere around a F/G SI1. I''ve read most of the previous posts on radiants. I do still have one question. I''ve only seen two stones (one from Kwiat, and one I don''t know, both with GIA certs.). One of the diamonds had a 62% depth and 66% table I believe.

Looking at the attached picture (which I modified from a previous post), will the east and west triangular sections on rectangular radiants always look to have less brilliance or facets than the north and south sections?

 

[eks6426]

Clemson--The more rectangular a stone the more likely you are to get the "bow-tie" effect (black triangles) but not all rectangular radiants have this as much. Some are barely noticible and some are very pronounced. I picked out a radiant with a 1:1.24 ratio and it has almost none of the bow-tie effect. If I were you, I''d get my hands on as many radiants as possible and take a look. I drove my jeweler nuts by asking to see more radiants...but when it was well worth it to me. I have a great stone that is brilliant without the dark triangles! Good luck!

 

[valeria101]

Date: 2/28/2005 8:40:30 AM
Author:Clemson

Looking at the attached picture (which I modified from a previous post), will the east and west triangular sections on rectangular radiants always look to have less brilliance or facets than the north and south sections?

ACtually, that one in the picture is not too bad at all - allot more of a "bow tie" is possible. On square stone you even get two bow-ties (one N-S, one E-W) ! It's all in the cut I am affraid - and table & depth alone don't tell anything about these effects.

As much as I know, there's always going to be some "V" pattern in square and rectangular cuts because the corner breacks come at a different angle than the pavilion facets... but this doesn't mean that those "V"'s have to be less brilliant. An Ideal Scope picture would halp tell which patch of pavilion is doing what.