The
Four C's: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat-Weight.
The
Four C's: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat-Weight.
Cut - refers to the specific proportions of a diamond,
and has an enormous impact on its beauty, and therefore its value. The brilliance
of a diamond rests upon the way light reflects and refracts from the gem
to the eye. When light enters a diamond, proper faceting causes that light
to bounce around and ultimately find a path back out through the top of the
diamond. Every movement makes the light dance and the prism-like effect creates
a rainbow of colors that flash from the diamond. Most round, brilliant-cut
or fancy-shaped diamonds possess 58 carefully angled flat surfaces, called
facets, whose placement will affect the fire, brilliance and ultimate beauty
of your diamond. In all diamonds, all the colors of the rainbow are reflected
back to your eye. A maximum colors and life is returned if the stone was
cut with the right angles of reflection. The beauty of the diamond depends
on how well the stone was cut. Cut direct relates to the craftsmanship of
cutting and polishing the individual diamond.The more properly proportioned
the diamond, the greater will be the percentage of light entering the diamond
that will reflect back through the top to your eye. When a diamond is cut
too shallow, or too deep, or without correct symmetry, some light entering
the stone will spill out of the sides or be lost through the bottom of the
stone, thereby reducing the diamond's brilliance and beauty. This precise
cutting can actually make a smaller diamond more expensive than a larger
one which is not cut to proper proportions. The extra care taken in cutting
means you will have a diamond that is more beautiful... and more valuable.
Color
The most prized diamonds are colorless diamonds, because of their rarity. When speaking of "white" diamonds, we're actually referring not to color, but to its absence. While the majority of gem diamonds appear to be colorless, others can contain increasing shades of yellow to brown, some of which are referred to as champagne diamonds. Other diamonds of exceptional color--red, blue, green, pink, and amber--are known as "Fancies."
The color grading scale varies from totally colorless to light color or tinted. The difference between one grade and its neighbor is very subtle.
The following is a table of how the Gemological Institute Of America grades colors of diamonds. This method as become universaly accepted.
| D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorless | Near Colorless | Faint Yellow | Very Light Yellow | Light Yellow | ||||||||||||||||||
Clarity
Few things in nature are flawless, and the diamond is no exception. Minute crystals of diamond or other minerals are contained in almost all diamonds, a diamond that is virtually free of inclusions and surface markings will be judged as flawless. In these diamonds, nothing interferes with the passage of light or spoils the beauty. But these diamonds are extremely rare and will command a high price.
To determine a diamond's clarity grading, it must be examined under a 10x magnification by a trained, skilled eye. What minute inclusions there may be make every diamond unique. These are, in fact, nature's fingerprints and do not mar the diamond's beauty nor endanger its durability. Without high magnification, you may never see these inclusions. However, the fewer there are, the rarer your diamond will be. It is the degree to which such inclusions interfere with the passage of light through the diamond that affects rarity, beauty and the quality and value of a diamond.
Carat Weight
As with all precious stones, the weight and size of a diamond is expressed in "carats". The word carat originated from a natural unit of weight, the "carob seed". Carob seeds were used as a gem weight in ancient times. Diamonds were traditionally weighed against these seeds until the system was standardized and one carat was fixed at 0.20 grams (1/5 of a gram). The weight--and therefore the size--of a diamond is expressed in carats. One carat is divided into 100 "points" so that a diamond of 25 points is described as a quarter of a carat or 0.25 carats.
About
Colored stones
About
Gold
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