Diamonds-Engagement Rings

Diamond Quality is Job 2

Diamond Size vs. Quality

This is a tough call but it has to be made. Are you going for size or beauty. If you're talking both, you're looking at serious money. I always recommend quality - your wife will never have to apologize for it.

Most everyone is immediately awed by a big sparkler. But that awe is often forgotten if, on closer examination, a diamond is severely included.

Diamond Spread

Spread is a term that refers to the observed dimensions of a diamond, i.e., the diameter, or the length and width. Some cutters are charged with getting the maximum carat weight from a rough diamond crystal.

Spread usually = "dead". In a diamond cut mainly for spread, significant light won't return to the eye. Angles of facets will let light pass through the pavilion of a diamond rather than reflecting back toward the crown and table.

A well cut 2-carat diamond won't appear to be twice the size of 1 carat. Why? Because diamonds are 3 dimensional and need to have a proportionate depth to diameter ratio.

A confused explanation follows. A well-cut round brilliant diamond of

• 1 carat will have a diameter of 6.5 mm
• 2 carat will have a diameter of 8.2 mm
• 5 carat should "look" about 2 times as large as a 1 carat and will have a diameter of 11.0 mm
• To get "twice the diameter" - a 13 mm will be 8.35 carats! Of course it will "look" about 4 times the size of a 1 carat.

So where does all the confused "look like" nonsense lead?

If you can buy a .90 carat VVS2 for anywhere near the same price as a 1.00 carat Vs1, you get a higher quality diamond, that falls just under a pricing threshold, and appear to be very slightly smaller.

The .90 carat will be 6.2 mm, compared to the 6.5 mm of the 1.00 carat. That is a difference of only 0.3 mm!

Of course it is likely that you will pay a bit more for a .90 carat VVS2 than for a 1.00 carat Vs2 ..

But if you shop better, you may not.

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Diamonds