SI diamonds in melee!

[mellowyellowgirl]

Anyone use it? How do you find it? Can you even see any difference from VS melee?

It's so weird but I've been conditioned to use VS but when I think about it, melee is so small. Is there any visible disadvantage to SI?

 

[CaseyLouLou]

Anyone use it? How do you find it? Can you even see any difference from VS melee?

It's so weird but I've been conditioned to use VS but when I think about it, melee is so small. Is there any visible disadvantage to SI?

My personal opinion is that SI is fine for melee for the reason you mentioned. Cut is much more important. The red spinel ring I just put together with a preowned setting has all SI melee but they are incredibly sparkly because they are cut so well. For custom projects I have been sourcing ideal cut melee and SI look great.

 

[LilAlex]

Is there any visible disadvantage to SI?

Just thinking out loud(ish), an inclusion on the brink of eye-visible in a tiny stone could meaningfully affect the performance, right? Like it would need to be blocking half the table to be eye-visible...?

Am I off-base on this? Is the inclusion grading scale up- or down-adjusted for super-tiny stones?

 

[Autumn in New England]

@LilAlex brings up a good point. Here's my take on the issue. The size of the inclusions should be proportionate to the size/weight of the diamond when we're talking clarity grades. So a 3ct./9.5mm SI diamond's "flaws" might preclude the SI designation if they were found in a .03ct./2mm stone. In that case, the melee stone might grade as an I2, etc. Does that make sense? I have found true SI melee diamonds to be eye clean in many cases. So I feel like this clarity grade gives you the most bang for your buck and is perfectly acceptable. Naturally, if you put SI diamonds next to VS diamonds, the difference in brilliance will be visible.

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

Great explanations everyone!

We shall see if I'm brave enough to dip my toe into SI one day!

I do love a super sparkly diamond melee......

It is subtle but now that I've got so many rings I'm starting to notice the difference between certain melee from certain vendors. All VS but there are some that significantly more fiery than others.

 

[CaseyLouLou]

Great explanations everyone!

We shall see if I'm brave enough to dip my toe into SI one day!

I do love a super sparkly diamond melee......

It is subtle but now that I've got so many rings I'm starting to notice the difference between certain melee from certain vendors. All VS but there are some that significantly more fiery than others.

The difference is likely due to cut, not clarity. Like I mentioned, the cut is most important so if I’m doing custom I source my own.