Surface Grain Lines

[30yearsofdiamonds]

From time to time I have seen comments with regard to a diamond's clarity, i.e. a VS2, and the report happens to have a surface grain line comment and eventually someone will bring attention to the comment and its relation to the clarity. For all that have or might come across this, surface grain lines have little affect on the diamond's clarity other then to remove from the Flawless grade. It is simply an identifying characteristic and is confined to the surface of the diamond, as you can see from the photo. It is usually a straight line that crosses over several facets, which will not happen with polish lines. A diamond with surface grain lines can still attain an excellent polish grade no matter how many surface grain lines there are.

So with regard to clarity it should not be a concern when seen on a diamond grading report.
This particular photo shows several lines extending across the pavilion of a princess cut diamond. The view is from the pavilion side,but the lines would also be visible with a loupe through the table.

 

[Karl_K]

Hi Dan,
While what you say is true from the labs prospective.
I have seen grain lines that were eye visible face up particularly when the the diamond is dirty that interfered with the diamonds light return. They should not have had vvs or vs ratings if the labs were doing it the way I feel they should.
They are not always harmless especially if they are on the crown or worse the table.
My wife's diamond has one that is harmless but they are not all that way.


How does gia handle internal graining in regards to clarity grading?

 

[30yearsofdiamonds]

Internal graining is a whole different situation. It is a very misunderstood and is extremely difficult to explain to even the most experienced diamond buyer/trader/grader. The clarity grade can be anywhere from VVS1- I1, when you see the comment on the report. There is also forms of internal transparent graining that is of the type that can be Flawless or IF. There is whitish, reflective and colored graining(brown,Green, rainbow). Reflective graining is not surface grain lines that reflect, it is surface grain lines that extend into the stone and look like a sheet of saran wrap inside the diamond. The worst type is usually whitish graining, this can be milky, smokey or cloudy looking, but there are many different forms less describable, like "rain like", "venetian Blind""satin like" "silvery".

 

[WinkHPD]

I once owned a light pink pear shaped diamond that I bought as a one carat with out a GIA certificate. (This was back in late 1978 when it was not common to have everything certified.) I bought it from C.A. Kiger, a well respected house and it was probably the finest pear shape that I have ever owned.

When I sent it in to get a GIA report some years later it came back as a 0.99ct light brownish pink. I sent it back for a weight check as it showed 1.00 on my Voland diamond balance, once considered to be a good balance. Turns out on the new fangled digital balances that its weight was 0.998 cts and needed only 0.001 more carats to have been 0.999 and thus rounded to 1.00cts. An incredibly small amount that cost me a LOT of money down the road.

It also had some graining that was not shown on the diamond grading report and the grade was IF.

It was purchased by a client who lived in Japan and who paid me to fly to LA to meet him and his fiance' when they flew in from Japan for her to meet his parents. He saved a LOT of money because it was only 0.99 cts and three weeks later Bennifer happened and the price of pinks, and light pinks, tripled and more almost overnight.

I hope she still treasures her diamond as much as I cherish the memory of being careless enough to fly to meet complete strangers in another town to show her several diamonds. We ended up having to leave the terminal since I could not get into the International terminal to where we could sit down together, and they could not get past security to the terminal where I was flying back out to sit down together there. I actually got into their rental car and drove to a near buy restaurant to show them the diamonds and then because of the heightened security alert status we spent nearly an hour just getting back into the airport to drop me off.

My wife nearly skinned me alive when I told her that part, and I have only once ever considered doing that again when a client who had been working with me for almost a year bought me a ticket to deliver a custom cut 2.09ct D-IF Crafted by Infinity to him. While there I got to hear his wife play her Stradivarius violin after first playing her previous concert violin. The sound really IS that much different! It was incredibly richer and fuller and the memory of hearing that Stradivarius played in their upstairs family room is something that I will always treasure.

Wink

 

[AnneinGA]

Wink, I swear you have the best stories...

 

[WinkHPD]

LOL!

Thanks. I have lived a great life. I grew up in an exciting time, and times just seem to keep getting more and more exciting so the stories just keep piling on.

To paraphrase one of my old heroes, Paul Harvey, "Stand by for MORE!"

Wink

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Wow, Wink! A 2 ct D IF Infinity and a Stradivarius!!!

 

[OoohShiny]

Internal graining is a whole different situation. It is a very misunderstood and is extremely difficult to explain to even the most experienced diamond buyer/trader/grader. The clarity grade can be anywhere from VVS1- I1, when you see the comment on the report. There is also forms of internal transparent graining that is of the type that can be Flawless or IF. There is whitish, reflective and colored graining(brown,Green, rainbow). Reflective graining is not surface grain lines that reflect, it is surface grain lines that extend into the stone and look like a sheet of saran wrap inside the diamond. The worst type is usually whitish graining, this can be milky, smokey or cloudy looking, but there are many different forms less describable, like "rain like", "venetian Blind""satin like" "silvery".

Thank you for this post, it seems to detail exactly the kind of internal 'flaw' that a retailer I am considering using for my setting mentioned to me in an email, which I was putting down to a sales tactic to try and get me to buy a stone off them.

I am intrigued how an IF diamond can have, technically, imperfections within it that render it unflawless - is this just an inadequacy of the GIA/AGS/etc grading system? Is it a rare flaw? How would the recommended vendors describe it if the GIA/AGS report has nothing to say on the matter?!

 

[OoohShiny]

Wow, Wink! A 2 ct D IF Infinity and a Stradivarius!!!

I am clearly in the wrong job!!

 

[30yearsofdiamonds]

Many diamonds have what is called transparent graining,it is just part of the internal structure and may often be seen in a cubic structure,but it as it says clear/transparent. When this graining becomes colored or white or sheet-like that is when it becomes a flaw.

 

[30yearsofdiamonds]

Later I will post a photo of a VVS1brown grain line.

 

[30yearsofdiamonds]

Brown grain lines;