What to look for in a princess cut diamond?

[ss_book]

I have been looking at engagement rings for the past few months with an engagement coming in late October. My girlfriend recently dropped a hint that she likes princess cut. Before she said that I had always been looking at round cut and have learned a lot about them, but I do not know that much about princess cut or what I need to look for.

I am hoping that the community could teach me what I need to look at for a great princess cut ring (table, depth, clarity, etc.). Also, any information that provides a quick tutorial to princess cuts would be great.

Lastly, it would be great if someone could show me a few examples of some excellent princess cut diamonds. My budget for the diamond alone is $2,000 to $3,200 with a minimum carat size of .75. As for clarity I am looking for VS2-IF and color D-H. I would prefer more clarity and sparkle out of a diamond at the expense of size, as long as it doesn''t go below my minimums.

I want to get a platinum setting so please let me know if my color parameters are outside of what I should be looking at.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FB.]

Flawless and VVS grades are unnecessarily good - and expensive. VS clarity grades offer near-certainty of eye clean and excellent light transmission, combined with better prices than FL/IF/VVS grades.
You are highly unlikely to see a difference in sparkle once you're into VS clarity and above.
Likewise, D and E colour are unnecessarily good for most people. Similarly to VS clarity, F colour is near-certainty of being undetectable by eye.
Colours in the near-colourless range (G-I) and inclusions within the SI clarity range have some chance of being detected by the human eye. I regard them as the "fuzzy area" where nothing is guaranteed to be "white" or "eye clean" - although perfectly satisfactory to most people. Even face-up and mounted, I can often tell the difference between D and H, but not between D and F.
Although H "faces-up" colourless when well cut, there are some occasional lighting situations where you will be able to see a trace of colour - often in low-light conditions when there isn't enough light to make the stone shine bright white light back at you.

Regarding the cut.....

Beware of:

Large tables
Deep cut
Shallow crown
Feathers in corners
Position of chevrons on pavilion

But that does not guarantee that a stone with a smal table, shallow cut and steep crown will be a top performer - they are just guidelines.

 

[stone-cold11]

For me, buying a princess, in terms of cut, I would want to see an ASET image of the stone at the very least. More about ASET here. http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=education-performance So I would stick to a vendor that provides these images. If not, a princess graded AGS0 in cut by AGS will probably be a good bet to buy blind, just from a grading report but you will be taking a bigger gamble.

Princess is one of the cut that hide inclusions well. I would go down to SI1/2 as long as it is eye-clean. If you can''t see it, you can''t see it even if it is a SI2 or IF.

 

[diamondringlover]

I have a princess it is a SI2 and it has a pretty large inclusion on the side of the diamond, but you cannot see it from the top (I can because I know where it is) princess cuts due to tend to hide flaws pretty well in the facets

 

[ss_book]

Thanks for that information on the ASET and inclusions Stonecold and diamondrnglover. What jewelers offer the ASET and/or idealscope for princes cut diamonds? Is there a dealer that specializes in princes or are they all relatively reputable?

What kind of a range on proportions on the table and the depth should I be looking at?

Lastly, if anyone is interested in searching around can someone please possibly pick out a few diamonds that meet the specifications I listed above?

 

[stone-cold11]

This is the only one I found within your budget and specs.

http://www.whiteflash.com/princess/Princess-cut-diamond-2182408.htm#

An AGS3 due to a GD in symm grade but the light performance is AGS0.

 

[stone-cold11]

If you are willing to go down to SI1, this might be good. Give Todd a call to check if it is eye-clean.

http://www.niceice.com/certcopies2007/ags0008841802/index.htm