Besides being a significant contributor to a gem's beauty and appeal. Observing flashes of brilliance is extremely important.
For in those flashes of brilliance we see the true hue, tone and saturation .. and even get a strong clue about clarity.
- Hold the gem with tweezers and about 45 degrees to the light path
- If the gem is not round, only half will normally show brilliancy in the illustrated orientation
- First observe the lower half[Item 1] on [a] half of the gem
- Rock the gem a few degrees to get the best play of brilliance
- Note: When moved, the brilliancy flashes will seem to trade places with similar areas of extinction
- Mentally estimate the total area of brilliance and extinction as a percentage for that half of the gem
- Caution: Don't rock the gem more than about 15% or the entire gem will appear washed out
- Exclude any areas of the gem (table and crown) that never show brilliance
- Rotate the gem 180 degrees and repeat the procedure [Item 2] on [b] that is now the lower portion of the gem
- Rock the gem slightly to find the maximum % of brilliance
- Estimate the percentage for that half of the gem
- Average the two percentages to get a total percentage of brilliancy
If 100% of the gem shows brilliancy in both positions when rocked it is considered 100% brilliant
Note: A gem can never show 100% brilliancy in all areas at the same time
Other things that observing brilliance can tell us
- Fuzziness - heavily included gems can diffuse the transmission of light
- Dead areas - due to the masking of light transmission
- Dimness - limited transparency
- Weakness of points of brilliance - in a clean stone usually indicates a poorly proportioned gem
- Imbalance - in the areas of brilliance in a clean stone normally indicates poor symmetry
- 10% = 1, 20% = 2, 30% = 3, 40% = 4, 50% = 5, 60% = 6, 70% = 7, 80% = 8, 90% = 9, 100% = 10
- Deduct 1 if the brilliancy areas are not crisp
- Deduct 1 if the brilliancy areas are unbalanced