Diamond Basics: How to Pick the Perfect Diamond
Before you start diamond shopping, you want to have an understanding of what you are buying. This guide simplifies the Four C’s
of diamonds: cut, color, clarity, and carat weight, so you can select
your diamond based on the same criteria professional jewelers use to
grade them. After reading through this guide, you’ll be ready to choose
a quality diamond that’s right for you.
Harris Michael Jewelry carries only the highest grade of diamond
cut, color, and clarity, and many sizes to go with any budget. Harris
Michael Jewelry can halp you:
- Learn how to choose the right diamond cut with the most brilliance for your budget
- Learn how to choose a diamond with no color noticeable to the unaided eye
- Learn how to choose the right grade of clarity for your diamond
- Learn how to balance diamond quality with the size of your diamond
Cut
The cut of a diamond has the greatest effect on its brilliance,
or sparkle. Sometimes cut is confused with shape, but the cutting grade
is determined by the effort to minimize the refraction of light during
every stage of the fashioning process. Shape is simply a matter of
taste and does not effect quality. The most brilliant or fancy cut is
made of 58 carefully angled surfaces, called
facets, whose placement will effect the fire, brilliance, and ultimate
beauty of your diamond. Even if the diamond has perfect color and
clarity, a poor
cut can make it look dull. Harris Michael Jewelry carries only the
highest grades of diamond cut for the most sparkle.
Color
A little color can diminish a diamond’s brilliance; diamonds with very
little color are the most highly valued and are priced accordingly.
Color grading is standardized using the GIA color grading system: the
scale begins with D and ends with Z, for white stones. Color
in a diamond is more accurately describes as “lack of color.” Most
diamonds occur in nature having impurities causing them to have a
slightly yellowish cast. To help
you choose the most brilliant diamond, Harris Michael Jewelry offers
diamonds with the highest grades of color.
Clarity
Diamonds with few flaws, or inclusions, are very rare and highly
valued. Inclusions effect the clarity, or the way that light is
reflected through the stone. An inclusion can be a bubble, spot, or
line which occurred while the diamond was being formed deep in the
earth, though most inclusions are not visible to the naked eye. Clarity
is graded based on the number, location, size, how visible the
inclusions are, and type
of inclusions found in the diamond, from “imperfect” to “flawless.”
Harris Michael Jewelry has some of
the clearest diamonds available.
Carat Weight
The weight of a diamond is measured in carats. The word “carat” is
derived from “carob,” the tree whose seeds became the standard for
measuring diamonds. One carat equals 1/5 of a gram or .007 of an ounce.
Carat weight is further divided into decimals: exactly 1/2 carat is .50
and expressed as 50 points. Therefore, a one carat diamond is made up
of 100 points. Since larger diamonds are more rare than smaller
diamonds, diamond value tends to rise exponentially with carat weight.