Twin diamonds - Can you see the difference...?

[Dancing Fire]

Let''s say I have two identical diamonds, and all the specs are identical. Angles, clarity, color, etc... Everybody says every diamond performs differently and you can not buy base on specs. But if it''s identical, shouldn''t it look identical in real life?

 

[squirerad]

By "identical in real life," do you mean visual performance-wise?

From my limited experience (n = 2)of searching for identiful side stones for a 3-stone setting, I encountered two .5's w/ identical ct weight, table, polish/sym, fluorescence and almost identical measurements (5.15-5.17x3.13 versus 5.16-5.18x3.16), crown angle (34.4' vs 34.3'), pav angle (40.7' vs 40.8') whose Bscopes were both VH+, VH+, H/VH.

The second set of side stones I am considering are even more identical (except crown angle, 34.7 versus 34.9) and their Bscopes are identical.

So to answer your question: I don't believe that you can see the difference if two stones are exactly alike. The human eye is not built for that level of precision.

 

[Magnum]

When you say the specs are identical: angles, color, clarity, etc., are you talking about the average angles off an AGS or sarin report? If you are, there's more information to consider when you say two stones are "identical." even if you just look at the pavilion angle, there can be a large variation in two stones whose pavillion angles are, say, 40.7 degrees. I remember looking at one on whiteflash's site, and the eight different pavillion angles that averaged out to 40.7 ranged from around 40.3 to 41.2 degrees, give or take a little. I just remember that it was pretty extreme. Even though there might not be a huge difference in appearance, I'd definitely say there is some difference between that stone and one where all eight pavillion angle measurements vary between 40.6 and 40.8, but still average out to 40.7 degrees. On top of the fact that you're talking about an average of eight different pavillion angles and eight different crown angles, there are still all the other minor facets to consider, and there can be a big difference in the appearance of the stone if the minor facets are cut differently. there was a recent thread that talked about a stone with unusually large lower girdle facets that the cutter created to reach the 1 carat mark, or someother magic carat number, but it adversely affected the appearance of the stone. And it wasn't something that could be inferred from an AGS report. I think it was posted by "MDX" if you want to look it up. Assuming every single facet of two stones were exactly the same size and shape, and at exactly the same angle, then yes, the stones should appear exactly the same. However, like snowflakes, it's nearly impossible to cut two "identical" diamonds. Until Oconus' new Helium device came out, I don't think Sarin-type machines could even measure accurately or precisely enough to determine if two diamonds were close to identical. Numbers, just like the HCA, are a good place to start in a search for a diamond, but should be verified by other tools, like an Idealscope, H&A images, brilliancescope, ISEE2, the eyes of an appraiser, or your own eyes.