Thoughts on this diamond?

[Frozensun]

Hi, I'm planning on proposing to my gf of 4 years this summer, and have been researching diamonds. I found this one at James Allen that seems very good. For some background, I know she likes princess cuts, and she likes rings that are really shiny, so I went for higher cut and clarity over size. My budget for the entire ring is about $8k, and about $1-1.2k will probably go towards the setting. She likes pave settings, and I'm strongly leaning towards this one if I end up choosing the diamond I linked or another from James Allen. From everything I've heard and researched the specifications are pretty much exactly what I'm looking for, and the price seems right around average for a similar diamond. How did I do so far, are there any obvious alternatives that I'm missing?

Also, it'd be great to hear about opinions between white gold or platinum for the setting. I had previously intended to get fully platinum or white gold band with platinum prongs, since my gf works in an area where she might bump the setting occasionally. But further research says that platinum isn't as durable as I thought, especially with bending, and 14k white gold is actually fairly durable. I know that white gold will have to be re-plated after a while to keep from turning yellowish, but I also heard that platinum also dulls over time. So over time it seems a white gold band with platinum prongs would end up having different colors, which could look bad. Do you guys have any preference/opinions between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help! This rabbit hole has been much deeper than I expected and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PintoBean]

You have a big enough budget to look at ideal cut princess cuts:
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamonds/diamondsearch/princess

 

[Frozensun]

The diamond I linked is an ideal cut. I realize that the definition of "ideal cut" differs from seller to seller. I looked through princess cuts for Brian Gavin, and a lot of them say N/A for cut, even when I narrow the search parameters to show only ideal cuts. Should I assume that these are ideal cut?

 

[flyingpig]

The diamond listing is wrong (which is actually not uncommon at JA). There is no such thing as GIA Ideal Cut Princess. In fact, GIA does not grade any fancy cut diamond. See the report itself and there is no cut grade.

Instead, you want to narrow your search to include AGS stones only (advance option). From there, you want a stone with AGS Platiunum Report (with ASET light performance diagram) with AGS 0(ideal) cut grade. At JA, most of these stones are marketed as True Heart.

 

[PintoBean]

For BGD, Make sure to uncheck the virtual selection. Their signature and bg blue and advance selection are signature super ideal.

 

[Frozensun]

Thanks for the advice guys. I followed through with what you suggested.

@flyingpig, I looked through the AGS Ideal stones on JA. The selection was understandably much smaller than when I had GIA included. There were a few that still fell within my budget and had the specifications that I wanted though. However, now I'm trying to learn how to read ASET reports, and I'm a little lost. This was one that looked pretty good, one concern is the thin to medium girdle, since my gf might bump her ring and I heard thin girdles can get chipped easily. The ASET map looks pretty good to me, good mix of red and green and looks fairly symmetrical. In comparison, this one has a thicker girdle, but the ASET map looks a lot messier to me. Am I reading these correctly?

@PintoBean I looked through BGD as well after unchecking virtual selection. It seems like their prices are a decent bit higher than James Allen or Blue Nile. Here is one that is the same price and has similar specs as the diamonds I listed above, but it is about 0.2 carats smaller. The ASET report looks similar to me to the first one diamond from James Allen I listed above, but again it might just be because of my untrained eye. Is this higher price because their gems are of higher quality than the other sellers? Here is another one that looks a lot similar to the ones from JA, this time it's only .05 carat smaller, but there is a lot more blue in the ASET report, and much more red than green. I'm not quite sure if the blue is a good thing or a bad thing, but as I understand it you want about an even balance between red and green. Does that analysis seem accurate?

 

[flyingpig]

1. Buying a fancy cut diamond is not easy. You will have to do alot of research.
This is a great read on princess cut
http://www.whiteflash.com/about-diamonds/diamond-education/agsl-diamond-cut-grading-the-princess-cut-1449.htm
Browse Whiteflash's inventory. Check out A Cut Above Princess and Expert Selection diamonds. Learn how to interpret the ASET and IS images.

2. Princess Cut diamonds are prone to chipping because of pointy and sharp corners. Many don't recommend princess cut for this very reason.
Squarish options include asscher, emerald, cushion, and radiant cut diamonds.
Check out different fancy cut diamonds. Ask your gf if she's interested in other shapes, if chipping is concern.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DiamondInfoMan

3. Premier vendors such as GOG, WF, BG offer more flexible upgrading/trade-in policy, better cut (usually), actual ASET and Idealscope images, and arguably better customer service than JA and BN. Of course, these come at a premium, as you noticed

 

[tyty333]

Request an aset image of that first stone from JA. If it's in the NY area they can usually get it. Post the image so we can have a look.

I can't look now but will check later to see if there are other JA stones that will fit your specs that look nice. Unless you are looking for Super Ideal, JA is a good vendor for fancy cut stones because they have pictures/videos of them.

To be honest, for a princess cut I would not drop down to an I color and I'm not the color sensitive. I personally would stick to an H or above even if I had to do down in carat weight a little.

 

[tyty333]

These look like they might have potential. I didnt see one that stood out above the others. You can ask JA for their opinions on the
stones and try to get Asets on the stones. I usually like my tables to be smaller but these all have larger tables.
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/?CaratFrom=1.18&CaratTo=30&Color=H,G,F,E,D&Clarity=SI2&Cut=Ideal,Excellent,TrueHearts&PriceFrom=200&PriceTo=7000&Sort=Carat%20desc,%20DefaultOrder&ViewsOptions=Images&TabSelected=3&advancedParameter=Lab&showAdvanced=show&DiamondID=1013277,479392,990247,511826&Polish=&Symmetry=&Lab=AGS&Flour=&DepthFrom=45&DepthTo=80&TableFrom=50&TableTo=83

Whiteflash has this one...the symmetry on the aset looks off to me. Some areas are red but show up green/black/blue
in other quadrants. You'll need to ask WF if this shows up in person or it's just a matter on the images.

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3608537.htm

You could do with this setting (I dont like it has much as the JA setting).
http://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/diamond-settings/flush-fit-diamond-engagement-ring-42.htm
or
http://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/diamond-settings/inara-pave-diamond-engagement-ring-by-vatche-1653.htm
or
http://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/solitaire/ritani-1rz2487-diamond-engagement-ring-3911.htm

You can also check out Enchanted Diamonds...take their cut scores with a big grain of salt for fancy cuts
https://enchanteddiamonds.com/diamonds/search?shape=Princess&make=Excellent,Ideal&color=D,E,F,G,H&clarity=VVS1,VVS2,VS1,VS2,SI1&grading_lab=GIA,AGS&our_price=1000.00-7079.46&carat=1.19-10.00&has_image=true&vp=3
Ask for asets on any you are interested in.

 

[Frozensun]

I requested ASET images from JA. They have a limit of 3 stones, so I requested the original diamond I posted along with the 2 I liked the most from the search you gave. They said they'll get back to me in 3-5 days, will post the images when I get them.

I will take a look at the other sites you listed when I have time. When you say you like your tables smaller, what percentage are you thinking? Most that I've seen are in the 70-72% range.

And yeah I agree, I like the JA setting the most out of any of the sites I've looked at so far. If I end up buying the diamond from a site other than JA, I might consider finding a local gemsetter to make a similar setting.

 

[Frozensun]

While I'm waiting on ASET reports from JA, can I get your opinions on these three diamonds from Whiteflash?

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3568726.htm#

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3620433.htm#

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3644847.htm#

The first one is smaller than the others but size from the top is almost identical because of the lower depth%. The ASET pics look pretty symmetrical to me (the first one slightly less than the other 2).

If I end up buying from Whiteflash, I really like this setting. I asked my gf's best friend for her opinion and she approves.

http://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/diamond-settings/ritani-modern-diamond-engagement-ring-2249.htm

 

[Frozensun]

@tyty333 I got the ASET images back from James Allen today. Anyone help from you (or anyone else who would like to chime in) on interpreting these images would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the ASET image for diamond #1.

Here is the ASET image for diamond #2.

Here is the ASET image for diamond #3.

FWIW, the person from JA recommended 3>1>2.

I'm also considering 2 from Whiteflash.

#1: http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3620433.htm#

#2: http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-3568726.htm#

These already came with ASET images since they were AGS graded.

 

[gr8leo87]

1. GIA does not grade cut proportions on Fancy shape.

2. GIA does not give out Ideal cut grade.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk