Would You Buy This .85 Carat Diamond?

[KeithT]

Round Brilliant
Measurements: 5.90 - 5.95 x 3.80 mm

Carat Weight: 0.85 carat
Color Grade: E
Clarity Grade: I1
Cut Grade: Good

Proportions
Depth: 64.2%
Table: 61%
Crown Angle: 36.5°
Crown Height: 14.5%
Pavilion Angle: 41.4°
Pavilion Depth: 44.0%
Star Length: 55%
Lower Half: 80%
Girdle: Medium to Very Thick, Faceted (6.0%)
Culet: None

Finish
Polish: Good
Symmetry: Good
Fluorescence: Faint

 

[Christina...]

Is this for an engagement ring? I personally wouldn't purchase this stone for several reasons, it's not going to be eye clean, it's very deep so it's going to face up quite small, it will have a lot of leakage so the optics are going to suffer. If you want though we can help you find a great stone in your budget.

 

[KeithT]

Yes this is for an E-ring

I have seen this stone and can tell you...it looks MUCH nicer than most stones I have seen in my range. Even after seeing under a 20X? LUPE i had a hard time noticing any of the inclusions.

The E Color(which the local jeweler had as a D color stone) is something i am really happy with

The I1(which he had as a SI2) i am obviously not happy with

But the 6% girdle is that important?

Also what makes this a deep stone?

 

[Christina...]

Here this might be helpful...
https://www.pricescope.com/wiki/diamonds/diamond-grading-chart-round

We recommend that you stay with a GIA EX or AGS ideal only. Cut is the most important aspect of diamond and is what gives it's beauty, sparkle, fire, and life. A J SI1 ideal cut will out perform a D IF good cut every day of the week. You would do better to go down in color and up in cut. There are eye clean I1's out there and perhaps you've found one, but I would still pass on this stone.

Diamonds shouldn't be cut too deep, it can interfere with it's optics and make the stone look small for its ct weight. You will be paying for diamond weight that you can't see. We recommend a stone with a max depth of 62.3.

I just did a quick search and found tons of better options for you. Are you opposed to buying online from a trusted vendor with a great return policy? Their prices are typically much lower than a BM store, and they typically have much better return, upgrade and buy back policies. If you'd like to share your budget we can make some better suggestions for you.

edit: sorry I forgot to address the girdle question...yes it's very important, this is another place that weight is hidden, making the stone face up even smaller. For a RB you would want a girdle in the thin-sl thick range. any thinner and their could be durability issues, any thicker and face up size becomes an issue. GIA lists girdle width from the thinnest part and the thickest part, so it's possible that a tiny amount it thick and the rest is thin, or the opposite may be true....but 6% is too thick and weight is being hidden.

 

[KeithT]

My total range is as close to 4K as possible but i have up to 5k to spend

I am not against the online route and especially now that i have a GIA report and understand what it means I might be able to find a better stone in my range

I have a $790 platinum wedding band (4 prong) to set the diamond in

 

[Christina...]

My total range is as close to 4K as possible but i have up to 5k to spend

I am not against the online route and especially now that i have a GIA report and understand what it means I might be able to find a better stone in my range

I have a $790 platinum wedding band (4 prong) to set the diamond in

Oh my goodness, we can find you a much much nicer stone with that budget!!!! Give me an idea of what is important to you and in what order..

 

[KeithT]

you show me what i should be looking for

im not picky

 

[Laila619]

No. It will be leaky because of the crown and pavilion angles. Light performance will suffer as Christina mentioned. We can help you find a much better stone!

 

[Christina...]

you show me what i should be looking for

im not picky [/quote

Ok, well I'm not particularly color sensitive, but I do want my diamonds to be eye clean. So, I would sacrifice some color for size so long as I stayed within the near colorless range. For me personally the premium you have to pay for a DEF isn't worth the price, when I know that once the stone is set it will be very difficult to tell the difference between a F and an H. But you mentioned that you really liked that the stone was graded E, so it sounds like color may be important to you. Keep in mind though that a ideal cut H will look whiter and brighter than a poorly cut E. Anyway, I'll make some recommendations and you can disregard them or keep them as we make them and we can narrow down your parameters from there...

I

 

[Christina...]

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2792432.htm

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2792448.htm this one is listed as eye clean, but it looks like you may be able to see that crystal under the table, you should ask that it be evaluated.


http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1493120.asp

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1495919.asp

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1505081.asp


these ones you will have to call for images, but Brians blue line is amazing and I'm sure these will be too.
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamonds/diamond-details/0.830-h-vs2-round-diamond-ags-bl-104059901018
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamonds/diamond-details/0.855-g-vs1-round-diamond-ags-bl-104059901017
http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/diamonds/diamond-details/0.823-i-vs2-round-diamond-ags-104055121019#!prettyPhoto[gallery2]/1/


You could also go larger if you dropped the color and clarity and bit more, but I thought we could start with these and you could decide what you liked or didn't like about each of them and we can narrow the search from there..

 

[KeithT]

whoa prices are way way up there

i meant 4k total including the 790 ring

 

[Christina...]

whoa prices are way way up there

i meant 4k total including the 790 ring

I'm so sorry! I thought that you had already purchased the setting, my next question was going to be what size head it had. Ok, we can still find you something better, that's no problem. let me do another search. For the diamond alone you are looking for something in the 3000-3500 range correct?

 

[milton333]

whoa prices are way way up there

i meant 4k total including the 790 ring

Earlier, you said "as close to 4k as possible, but I have up to 5k to spend." Christina's suggestions are in line with that budget.

No, I would not buy the ring you posted originally. I have a .818 ideal cut diamond, and it has a larger diameter than your .85, so you're not only getting poor light performance, you're paying for size that you can't see (i.e., more for the carat weight, when what counts to a woman observing the size of the diamond is the diameter or "spread" of the stone).

You're going to be looking at about a .7 ideal cut to keep you under $4k (you should pay about $3k-3,200 for around an F/G ideal round cut, VS2-SI1, which is where I'd be on color and clarity). There's a price jump at .75, so to stay under $5k with an ideal, F/G/H VS2-SI1, you're not likely to get much bigger than .75. You'd be stretching it to get to .80. If you're looking at larger stones at higher colors for less, then they are poorly cut. Cut is key, it's far more important than color or clarity.

 

[Christina...]

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/J-SI2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1464800.asp

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1505077.asp
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1486187.asp
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-SI1-Excellent-Cut-Round-Diamond-1490769.asp

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2812393.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2812395.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2794537.htm

both white flash and james allen offer discounts to PS members, so the price that you are seeing probably isn't accurate. Let me know if it says PriceScope member price beside the price, if not I will go back and enter the actual cost for you. You would also get an additional wire price and white flash will give you $75 off your first order.

edit: These selections are lower in color and clarity, but should be eye clean (as for them to be evaluated) and will appear whiter and brighter than the E that you viewed in person. Color is evaluated upside down on a white background in controlled lighting, once the diamond is turned face up and set in a ring, it becomes much more difficult to evaluate. Most people can't tell color differences in set rings until you get down to around H. In the I J range they tend to be more easily seen, especially through the pavilion (side of the diamond). However when these lower colors are cut to ideal proportions the color is even less evident and the observers tends to see all the bright white and color being reflected from the stone and the actual body color of the diamond is less obvious. A poorly cut stone doesn't have the same reflected light so the body color remains evident. I wouldn't discard any of the suggestions based on the color alone, all of them will perform better than that one you posted initially.

 

[KeithT]

the whiteflash diamonds all have pointed cutlet's ....isn't that bad? don't you want none?

 

[Christina...]

a pointed culet is none. AGS and GIA list them differently. AGS top cut is ideal GIA is EX GIA lists a stone with no flourescence as none and AGS calls it negligible, it all means the same thing, it's just reported with different terminology.

Most antique cut diamonds have culets and people find them very attractive, most modern RB do not, however I have seem them with a small culet before and I believe that it has little impact on the performance. someone else can answer that better I'm sure. But in general all most all modern RBs will NOT have a culet.