why would some people prefer a brilliant stone over a stone with a lot of fire?

[Dancing Fire]

is there an advantage for a stone that is more brilliant under cetain light conditions? i thought everybody would want their stone to be on fire all the time,i know thats not possible

 

[aljdewey]

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On 7/1/2004 2:54:05 PM vtigger86 wrote:





why would some people prefer a brilliant stone over a stone with a lot of fire?
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For the same reason that some people prefer vanilla over chocolate......sheerly personal preference.

Some people are turned on by lots of colored rainbows (fire); others prefer the bold flashes of white light (brilliance).

 

[oldminer]

I belive Vtigger may not understand the limited meaning of "fire" in the context of describing diamond light behavior. Fire in diamonds equates to the break-up of white light into a spectral display of spearate color flashes. This is rather inherent in diamonds and exists to some extent in nearly every diamond. Fire in a diamond does not directly correlate to the amount of brilliancy or to a subjective scale of beauty.

Fire in diamonds can be touted as highly important and I won't say that it is of no importance, but how important could be argued forever without resolution. I believe it is rather minor. The 8* diamond is said to enhance fire and that is one of its attributes. That is special case because then fire becomes part of that Brand's image and marketing.

Every diamond reacts differently in different lighting. Sparkly jewelry store lighting makes a stone very different than direct sunlight or low level incandescent lighting. No diamond sparkles the same all the time. I never saw one sparkle in the dark....It takes light to generate light return.

You can have a lively diamond in one lighting scenario and much less lively in another. This will be true for every diamond regardless of cut quality.
The better the cutting, the less you may notice the change, but it could be measured scientifically and you'd find out that only part of what goes in comes back to your eye even in the very finest diamond.

 

[Nicrez]

Answering your question, because I have a stone that is more brilliant than fiery. It's got a shallower pav, so it won't have as much rainbow sparkles in regular light than a depper stone would. I like it because it allows the stone to sparkle tiny flashes of white light and it's so absolutely white compared to other stones, that I just love it! It lacks the major scintillation and fire, compared to a RB, but that's what drew me to it in the first place...




RB's for me are too chunky with their rainbow flashes and dark spots of scintillation. Just NOT my cup of tea. Being the color snob I am, I like the stark white sparkles that radiat from this bad boy. However, in low lighting, the rainbow sparkles shoot out like mad, and blind you. So the character of my stone is lacking fire (compared to RBs) in the daylight, and going nuts on it's own in low light (and candle light) WOW!!

As Al said...Chocolate vs. Vanilla...

 

[pyramid]

I have two half carat modern RB diamonds. One of them cost about double what the other did. The more expensive one (no brand name not even certificated) has a smaller table and shows lots of colored light with some white light. The cheaper one only shows some colored light around the perimeter of the stone and although not shallow has a large table, I think over 65%. I think this stone may be a bit nailhead, although there is no dark I can see the pavilion facets through the table and it is a bit greyer there. This stone however is very brilliant, so much so that I think I like it as much as the more expensive one although I always feel that one is probably the best in terms of what is termed good cut. If I was buying them now I would probably choose the more expensive one over the other but I do not know if this is because I have read they are more sought after or because it is more expensive so feels better. I would probably miss the colored flashes if I only had the other. It is hard sometimes to just make up your own mind and this shows the power of hearing professional opinions and promotion by vendors.

I had always noticed the cheaper one in daylight when a mirror reflected it, I could see it from across the room whereas the more expensive one did not show really, remember they are both half carat size. However, when I really noticed the brilliant one was one time I came out the bathroom door and all diamonds shine under the light in there, especially the more expensive one showing off all its color. Anyway as I came out the door into the passageway where there was no light on the light from the bathroom just caught the cheaper ring and it gave off an almighty wide expanse white flash which the other diamond does not do in the same place. I have never seen such a wide area of flash from any diamond before like this. I always go and look at the ring there now and that is what I love about it. Since I saw this I can say that I appreciate this ring about 80% more. I know when I look in the mirror it is probably like the light reflecting of a window pane so this may be termed glassy but when it flashes off the ring in the passageway it looks like a giant flash and does not remind me of anything but beauty.

By the way the price difference is more than just cut as the more expensive one is a G SI1 the jeweller said but the other one I would say is definitely an I1, a big crystal under the table which reflects in some lights and the color is definitely lower probably a J or lower even but does not look yellow from the top.

 

[quaeritur]

I personally love the fire. I'd put myself on the opposite end of the spectrum from Nicrez, while agreeing with Al that it's a matter of preference. However, I can see considering more brilliant (I'm assuming that by this term you're referring to shallower crowns, less dispersion, but lots of white light return) for different pieces of jewelry. Where I can see the stone, like in a ring, I want big, bold, colorful flashes, and find it less important to have it show the white sparkle Nicrez talked aobut. But for stud earrings, I've been thinking about maybe getting more brilliant stones, since I don't look at them, and maybe the whiteness will be more noticeable than the occasional fiery flash when partially obscured by hair and at that angle. Knowing me, I'll probably still go for the fire, but I've at least considered the more brilliant option...

 

[Dancing Fire]

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On 7/1/2004 4:47:32 PM oldminer wrote:

I belive Vtigger may not understand the limited meaning of 'fire' in the context of describing diamond light behavior. Fire in diamonds equates to the break-up of white light into a spectral display of spearate color flashes. This is rather inherent in diamonds and exists to some extent in nearly every diamond. Fire in a diamond does not directly correlate to the amount of brilliancy or to a subjective scale of beauty.

Fire in diamonds can be touted as highly important and I won't say that it is of no importance, but how important could be argued forever without resolution. I believe it is rather minor. The 8* diamond is said to enhance fire and that is one of its attributes. That is special case because then fire becomes part of that Brand's image and marketing.

Every diamond reacts differently in different lighting. Sparkly jewelry store lighting makes a stone very different than direct sunlight or low level incandescent lighting. No diamond sparkles the same all the time. I never saw one sparkle in the dark....It takes light to generate light return.

You can have a lively diamond in one lighting scenario and much less lively in another. This will be true for every diamond regardless of cut quality.
The better the cutting, the less you may notice the change, but it could be measured scientifically and you'd find out that only part of what goes in comes back to your eye even in the very finest diamond.----------------

Dave
have you ever had a client complainnig that their stone has too much FIRE ?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Did you know the further you are from a diamond the more fire you see and the less brilliance

Try this experiment.


Sit a diamond down under a spot light (not diffused light) so it shows lot of fire. Look at it from a foot or two away and identify a very bright white sparkle- then back away on the same line of sight so you can see the same sparkle. If you can get a few paces away you may be able to move your head from side to side or up and down and see the same sparkle change through the rainbow.




Let me know how it works

 

[valeria101]

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On 9/8/2004 4:19:43 AM Garry H (Cut Nut) wrote:

..Let me know how it works.

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It works in reverse for me: further away white flash shows; colored flashes start showing close up.

I know that on paper the opposite should be true (since from a distance the probability to end up in the cone of just one color of light from the dispersed ray is greater). But I cannot convince myself of it in practice.

Could it be that some other effect blurrs the results of such experiment ?... For example, the intensity of colored light could be much less than the white reflected light, so with a not very strong or focused light source, the resulting difraction colors could be just too week to show at a distance. At about 1 meter away, all I get is reflection off the crown facets (off the table, really) and the flash of contrast brilliance.

Haven't tried with a larger diamond though, but that I cannot do asap

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 9/8/2004 4:19:43 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)


Did you know the further you are from a diamond the more fire you see and the less brilliance

Try this experiment.


Sit a diamond down under a spot light (not diffused light) so it shows lot of fire. Look at it from a foot or two away and identify a very bright white sparkle- then back away on the same line of sight so you can see the same sparkle. If you can get a few paces away you may be able to move your head from side to side or up and down and see the same sparkle change through the rainbow.




Let me know how it works

cut nut
so what you are saying is the person across the room would see more fire on my diamond than i would ?