The Diamond Guide
Diamond Cut
Cut is not shape. Round, oval and pear are shapes. Cut is how well the stone was made: its proportions, its symmetry, and its polish. Of everything that determines whether a diamond looks alive, this is the one that matters most, and it is the one most people shop for last.
What the cutter is trading away
Rough diamond is expensive, so there is always pressure to keep weight. A cutter who keeps too much leaves the stone too deep, and light entering the top escapes through the bottom instead of coming back to your eye. Too shallow does the same thing in the other direction.
A stone cut for weight can grade beautifully on paper and still look flat.
Brilliance, fire, scintillation
Three different things. Brilliance is the white light returned. Fire is the split into colour. Scintillation is the flash as the stone or the light moves. Good proportions give you all three, and no clarity or colour grade compensates when they are missing.
Where to spend
If something has to give, give on clarity and colour before cut. An eye clean, near colourless stone that was cut properly will outshine a flawless, colourless stone that was not, in any room either of you will ever stand in.
See it for yourself.
Albert goes through the stone and the grading report with you, under magnification, before anything is decided. By appointment, downtown Toronto.
Request Appointment