The Moscow conference...............

[aljdewey]

Hey, I seem to recall that Brian and others were going to fill in some details from the cut conference in Moscow.




Did I miss that thread? Anyone.....Bueller?

 

[BrianTheCutter]

Aljdewey:
Thanks for asking, my plate is rather full at the moment with Vegas just over, high prices of rough and not such great availability and getting ready to embark on a trip back to Africa to see what some new Diamond mines hold for us and a little vacation in between!!!
Moscow conference was very interesting in many areas, some which I will elaborate on very shortly in greater detail stay tuned “Its all in the Hearts”
Oh yes lots of pictures too!

 

[BrianTheCutter]

Moscow at night from my hotel room

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

I think that you have missed the thread, and a lot of the small print in various other threads.

Anyway, to sum up what I would consider the most important points:

1. The concept of 'contrast', next to brilliance, fire and scintillation is fully recognized as a major component of the beauty of a diamond.

2. Fire is not the enemy of brilliance. It depends on the light conditions.

3. AGS has studied cut in more detail, and agrees that its current grading system is incorrect. They will introduce a new system in the first half of 2005, together with a grading system for princesses.

Then, there are of course studies and developments, that will still need a lot of work in the coming months and years. It never stops.

Live long,

 

[Dancing Fire]

----------------
On 6/15/2004 4:59:48 AM Paul-Antwerp wrote:

I think that you have missed the thread, and a lot of the small print in various other threads.

Anyway, to sum up what I would consider the most important points:

1. The concept of 'contrast', next to brilliance, fire and scintillation is fully recognized as a major component of the beauty of a diamond.

2. Fire is not the enemy of brilliance. It depends on the light conditions.

3. AGS has studied cut in more detail, and agrees that its current grading system is incorrect. They will introduce a new system in the first half of 2005, together with a grading system for princesses.

Then, there are of course studies and developments, that will still need a lot of work in the coming months and years. It never stops.

Live long,----------------

Paul
so today's ags 0 cut may not be ideal cut when the new grading system comes out next year? any hint on what proportion they are looking for? i think there will be a lot of upset consumers if they purchase a diamond today as an 0 cut and pay extra premium, and next year it's no longer a 0 cut.

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Indeed, today's AGS-0 will not be tomorrow's AGS-0. A small part will be, but definitely all the steep-deep-combinations will get a lower grade.

Future AGS-0-combinations will follow the same line as the MSU-studies, and probably the HCA, but with the whole look of the stone and all the minor facets entering into the equation.

Also, with the importance of the contrast-pattern, I think that it will be unlikely that you will still have round AGS-0 without H&A-pattern.

My estimate is that of today's AGS-0's, about 70% would not make the grade next year.

Live long,

 

[Yupi]

So what will happen to those ppl who got AGS 0 already and what is going to happen to the credibility of AGS ?

 

[oldminer]

Paul:
"My estimate is that of today's AGS-0's, about 70% would not make the grade next year."

That's quite a devastating percentage. I have always proposed more stringent standards for top cut quality although I certainly recognized that some variation, even from my own standards, will be part of the future, performance based, cut standards that major labs will adopt.

While I have no true idea if your 70% figure will hold up, I would think the number of AGA 1A graded rounds that won't remain fully top grade under any proposed changes to be less than 5%. This is because AGA standards were meant as absolute top standards rather than a commercial version of "good enough to be rated as fine". The latter is what diamond dealers and AGS retailers wanted, a standard that was commercially acceptable with looseness that made a few liberal allowances. Eventually the piper must be paid. There are going to be a lot of believers in AGS standards that will be terrifically disappointed if your prediction is correct. Truthfully, even I will be disappointed if 70% are not top quality, because my assistance to consumers often is based on telling them the diamond meets AGS 0 cut standards and that the stone is not AGA 1A, but the trade only cares about AGS grades....It makes me pleased to have been right and sad to have bought into the fiction if such proves to be the case. Not good news for consumers, at all.

This could serve to damage the credibility of the major and minor labs along with the reputations of major vendors, too.
I am left wondering how the trade will respond to so many consumers who have placed their trust in diamond reports and the sales pitches based on those reports.

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

I may have exaggerated with my estimate of 70%.

However, we should realize that there are a number of big factories, producing high number of AGS-0-stones, only based on getting the biggest possible stone from a rough stone. These are almost all steep-deep.

We saw an example of such a factory in the Moscow Conference, who did nothing but go for the biggest possible stone within AGS-0-proportions. Thousands of stones per month.

Only AGS can say what percentage will stay 0, but I am sure that it will be high.

Live long,

 

[Dancing Fire]

----------------
On 6/16/2004 4:57:21 AM Paul-Antwerp wrote:

Indeed, today's AGS-0 will not be tomorrow's AGS-0. A small part will be, but definitely all the steep-deep-combinations will get a lower grade.

Future AGS-0-combinations will follow the same line as the MSU-studies, and probably the HCA, but with the whole look of the stone and all the minor facets entering into the equation.

Also, with the importance of the contrast-pattern, I think that it will be unlikely that you will still have round AGS-0 without H&A-pattern.

My estimate is that of today's AGS-0's, about 70% would not make the grade next year.

Live long,----------------

paul,
give me an example of what you mean by steep-deep combo. you just recut a stone for me that ags cert says 34.1 crown and 40.8 pav. will this still make the 0 cut grade next year?

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

A steep-deep combo is a stone with the deepest pavilion and the steepest crown, and which would still be within AGS-0. An example would be a stone with 41.2 pavilion and 35.5 crown.

The stone, which I cut for you, will make next year's 0-grade too, not only because of its 40.8 pavilion and 34.1 crown, but also because of all its other facets, its contrast-pattern, so briefly, because of its light performance. This is the same for all our stones.

Live long,

 

[Dancing Fire]

----------------
On 6/17/2004 4:12:14 AM Paul-Antwerp wrote:

A steep-deep combo is a stone with the deepest pavilion and the steepest crown, and which would still be within AGS-0. An example would be a stone with 41.2 pavilion and 35.5 crown.

The stone, which I cut for you, will make next year's 0-grade too, not only because of its 40.8 pavilion and 34.1 crown, but also because of all its other facets, its contrast-pattern, so briefly, because of its light performance. This is the same for all our stones.

Live long,

----------------

Paul
thanks for the information,loved the new edge to edge sparkle. is this the first time you experienced losing 22% of the weight after a recut?

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

Losing 22% in a re-cut is indeed exceptional. It all depends on how good the original cut was.

I do not understand the original cutter anyway. If he had made slightly more concessions, he would have kept the weight above 1.50 Ct, and this would have meant a tremendously higher value for the original stone.

Thank you for this new term: edge-to-edge-sparkle. I really love this description.

Live long,