The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit?

[Sagefemme]

Long time lurker, etc. Shopping for a diamond for 30 year anniversary "new" engagement type ring (I think, although a right-hand ring is also a possibility). I was looking on JA and found this one:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/2.58-carat-k-color-vs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-98683

I THINK, if I plugged the numbers in correctly, it's HCA 1.5. And more than 9 mm seems much bigger than average for this carat weight. I'm new to this. Any of your expert opinions on this one, or recommendations for other stones to look at, would quell my anxiety about potentially spending this kind on money for a bauble to wear on my finger.....

My budget is around $20K, I don't care about color, would like eye clean, but what I'm really going for is fire fire fire and sparkle sparkle sparkle. If I'm eating dinner in a nice restaurant I want the people across the room to be tempted to come over and ask to see my ring I'll take all the help I can get from you experts.

 

[ecf8503]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit

It's shallow, which is why it's a bit spready - if you like it ask for an idealscope image.

ETA: nevermind - I just needed to zoom out on the cert. HCA = 1.5 for me. Still need to ask for an idealscope.

 

[solgen]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit



Kinda a low crown. Not sure how well it would perform in low light settings and if it gives up some fire or scintillation. The patterning doesn't look that great and you notice a lot of dark areas in that stone. Low crowns can be more prone to object obstruction and causing it to look darker.

 

[Gypsy]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit

Crown is really low. Not to my taste

 

[Sagefemme]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit

Ok, low crown, but when you say not to your taste, what exactly is the (bad) effect of the low crown? What would we see if we were looking a low-crowned diamond? (just trying to learn something here!). I guess a good HCA doesn't guarantee anything. Any suggestions for how to prioritize/weed through the thousands of stones at James Allen and some of the other big vendors online? Or should I look elsewhere, somewhere where the picking has been done for me?

The bargain hunter in me was hoping that I could find something great in the category one down from the perfect H&A stones, but maybe I can't learn enough on my own to pick a winner from there.

Open to any suggestions of specific stones to consider.

Thanks!!

 

[marymm]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit

Ok, I also ran that diamond on the HCA tool - it came up "1.5 - Excellent within BIC range" - here's more info on BIC diamonds (http://www.diamond-cut.com.au/23_bicfic.htm) -

when you ran the HCA tool did you notice how the white X for this diamond fell outside the solid white outlines for AGSO candidate diamonds? and it fell in a slightly orangey-yellow area of the graph? These are indicators the performance of the diamond will be a little different from Tolkowsky ideal-cut diamonds (https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/tolkowsky-ideal-cut-diamond)

roughly, BIC diamonds exhibit a bit more brilliance (white light return) due to the large table/low crown (as compared to Tolkowsky and FIC diamonds), and BIC diamonds exhibit somewhat less fire (colored light return) due to the large table/low crown (as compared to Tolkowsky and FIC diamonds).

If you are looking for spread (face-up size) and brilliance, a well-cut BIC diamond is a great choice. But if you really want fire, then you may want to stick to Tolkowsky cuts which have a great balance of brilliance and fire, or for lots of fire try to find an FIC cut (harder to find).

 

[Sagefemme]

Re: The spread on this one seems too good to be true! Legit

Thank you marymm, that is very helpful and well-explained. I of course would choose the bigger spread if two stones were otherwise equal, but fire is really what I want, more than size. I guess I didn't know the definition of "fire" before (colored light return). I also wonder whether a three stone ring with three excellently cut 1 carat stones would have the same impact, in optimal lighting, as one great 3 carat stone. I have also been wondering what is the optimal setting to show a well cut stone to its best effect--I am partial to bezels but I imagine prongs and an open design is better. But how much better (if at all)? So many decisions. It gets a bit overwhelming.