What is the best measurement & proportion of the diamond
- Thread starter saiie
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miraj
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To look for the exact specs check out the links in the menu above:
Knowledge > AGA CUT Grading Chart > [different specifications for different cuts]
Only consider diamonds that meet the specifications of class 1A or 1B.
Only consider GIA Excellent-cut diamonds or AGS Ideal cut. Do not look at diamonds with certificates other than GIA or AGS -- it's too much of a hassle to not know exactly what you're getting.
The GIA Excellent cut still means that it might not have great sparkles (which makes it a pretty misleading name). So in order to make sure it has the best sparkles, people on PS will demand an ASET image (or at least an IdealScope image), which shows how good the light return is.
Most places that you'll be speaking with won't provide an ASET image, so you'll have to request to look at the diamond, take the ASET image yourself, and post it here for people to critique. Note that you'll have to buy an ASET scope to do this. (Also, most of these diamond vendors won't know what an ASET image is. They will try to show you a hearts & arrows image, which isn't the same thing. And they will likely think that you are a weirdo -- you now know more than they do, so embrace it.)
Without an ASET image, you should post the certificate/angles to be reviewed here, which doesn't mean it will actually look good, but it is better than nothing. Because angles on certificates are averaged and rounded, it's possible that diamonds that look good on paper actually result in some poor performance when the actual angles don't complement each other. Check out the HCA tool and AGA/NAJA Cut Grade tools linked on the toolbar as a way to easily reject stones that will probably be bad (but they can't guarantee the stone will be good). Do post stones you are considering than have an HCA < 2.0 and cut grade of 1B or 1A.
Look for stones that are just shy of a major number of carats (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5). As soon as a stone crosses a major carat mark, it's price per carat jumps up. So buying a 1.96ct has a lower cost per carat than a 2.00 ct even though visually you can't tell them apart. The same applies but to a lesser extent for tenths of a carat as well (1.9, 1.8, etc).
Unless to be happy you need to know that the diamond is as symmetrical as humanly possible, I would not pay the premium for the superideal diamonds that are sometimes recommended on PS.
One more piece of advice is that if your SO is closely involved in the shopping process, buy sooner rather than later. DSS (Diamond shrinkage syndrome) can hit people as they are trying on different rings and soon you're looking at more carats than you expected.
The shortcut to all of the ASET and number stuff is to use the vendors that are PriceScope-recommended. They tend to provide ASET images. Some have better prices than brick-and-mortar stores, while others charge a premium.
Knowledge > AGA CUT Grading Chart > [different specifications for different cuts]
Only consider diamonds that meet the specifications of class 1A or 1B.
Only consider GIA Excellent-cut diamonds or AGS Ideal cut. Do not look at diamonds with certificates other than GIA or AGS -- it's too much of a hassle to not know exactly what you're getting.
The GIA Excellent cut still means that it might not have great sparkles (which makes it a pretty misleading name). So in order to make sure it has the best sparkles, people on PS will demand an ASET image (or at least an IdealScope image), which shows how good the light return is.
Most places that you'll be speaking with won't provide an ASET image, so you'll have to request to look at the diamond, take the ASET image yourself, and post it here for people to critique. Note that you'll have to buy an ASET scope to do this. (Also, most of these diamond vendors won't know what an ASET image is. They will try to show you a hearts & arrows image, which isn't the same thing. And they will likely think that you are a weirdo -- you now know more than they do, so embrace it.)
Without an ASET image, you should post the certificate/angles to be reviewed here, which doesn't mean it will actually look good, but it is better than nothing. Because angles on certificates are averaged and rounded, it's possible that diamonds that look good on paper actually result in some poor performance when the actual angles don't complement each other. Check out the HCA tool and AGA/NAJA Cut Grade tools linked on the toolbar as a way to easily reject stones that will probably be bad (but they can't guarantee the stone will be good). Do post stones you are considering than have an HCA < 2.0 and cut grade of 1B or 1A.
Look for stones that are just shy of a major number of carats (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5). As soon as a stone crosses a major carat mark, it's price per carat jumps up. So buying a 1.96ct has a lower cost per carat than a 2.00 ct even though visually you can't tell them apart. The same applies but to a lesser extent for tenths of a carat as well (1.9, 1.8, etc).
Unless to be happy you need to know that the diamond is as symmetrical as humanly possible, I would not pay the premium for the superideal diamonds that are sometimes recommended on PS.
One more piece of advice is that if your SO is closely involved in the shopping process, buy sooner rather than later. DSS (Diamond shrinkage syndrome) can hit people as they are trying on different rings and soon you're looking at more carats than you expected.
The shortcut to all of the ASET and number stuff is to use the vendors that are PriceScope-recommended. They tend to provide ASET images. Some have better prices than brick-and-mortar stores, while others charge a premium.
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