When is a diamond considered a diamond?

A diamond is, in fact, a diamond that has been shaped by a jeweler through cutting. This form maximizes the natural shine for which everyone loves it so much. From French, the word “brilliant” is translated as “brilliant, sparkling.”

System “4C”

A diamond has 4 indicators by which their quality is assessed. The system is called “4C” after the first letters of each indicator: “cut” (cut), “clarity” (purity), “color” (color) and “carat” (carat weight of the stone). These parameters make it possible to determine how ideal the stone can be called. It is a mistake to believe that any diamond can be considered a diamond. Only stones that have been cut can be called diamonds. Let’s take a closer look at each of these indicators. The main indicator when evaluating a diamond is its cut and its quality. Are the faces proportional and is there symmetry? In the International Diamond Grading System (GIA). Diamonds with an ideal cut are designated as “Excellent. And then it goes in descending order of quality: “Very Good”, “Good”, “Fair”, “Bad”. If you come to a jewelry store in Russia and look at the tag of any jewelry with diamonds, then you will see a slightly different abbreviation: “A” (ideal cut), and then in descending order comes “B”, “C”, “G” . Clarity is also a significant indicator of the quality of a diamond. Diamond clarity is graded by whether inclusions are present or absent within the diamonds. A diamond without inclusions or flaws is called a “pure diamond” and is highly valued. A carat is a unit of change in which the mass of stones (not just diamonds) is expressed. 1 carat is equal to 0,2 grams. Another important feature of a diamond is its ability to illuminate under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.

Diamond cuts

Until about the beginning of the 20th century, all cutters tried to achieve the effect of radiance without any calculations and “blindly” reduced the weight of jewelry to achieve this effect. And in 1919, they were able to calculate the ideal parameters for cutting a diamond, which take into account all optical and physical properties. Currently, there are 8 main diamond cuts. Currently, more than 80% of diamonds sold are round cut and this is the most popular diamond shape. Circle cut has 57 facets and truly highlights the natural beauty of diamonds. Diamonds with this cut are used for inlaying almost any jewelry, earrings, rings, pendants and bracelets. Chic gold earrings with cubic zirconia can be viewed in our catalog. “A princess” – the second popular diamond cut. This cut is considered the best solution for engagement rings due to its unique shape and indescribable sparkle. As the legends say, the name of the diamond “Marquis” came from the brilliant smile of the Marquise de Pompadour. King Louis XV, King of France, wanted to give the Marquise, his favorite, a diamond that resembled her smile in shape. Marquise cut diamonds most often use elongated diamonds. Due to the fact that the diamond is boat-shaped, this cut allows you to preserve a large original mass of the stone. Pear shape I got it because of its appearance and its shape really resembles a pear. Diamonds of this shape can often be found in earrings and pendants. Gold ring earrings have a favorable price only in our jewelry store. Oval shape have been in the jewelry industry for over 50 years. Cutting occurs in the same ways as when cutting a round shape. An oval diamond sparkles and plays in the light just like a round one, but is visually superior in size. Heart cut got its name because the diamond, after cutting, really looks like a heart. Because of its shape, it is considered the most romantic form and jewelry with this stone is often a favorite for romantic holidays. Heart-shaped diamonds are quite difficult to make, but what does it look like! Emerald cut has truncated corners and has an octagonal outline. Most often, such a diamond is used in rings, but every year it is increasingly used in other jewelry. “Radiant” is a wedge-shaped cut of a square or rectangular diamond that has an octagonal outline. The radiant shape is very suitable for refining colored diamonds.

How can you distinguish diamonds from fakes?

There are several ways to check what kind of stone is in front of you. 1. If you hold a stone up to the light and look through it. Inside the diamond you will see a cluster of light in the form of a point. 2. Take a magnifying glass and look at the diamond in front of you. A real diamond will have visible inclusions in the form of crystals and various cracks. Analogues will have visible channels and needles. 3. Take the diamond and slide it across the glass. If you have a real diamond in front of you, it will undoubtedly leave a scratch on the glass. In the network of jewelry salons GEMS, you will find the diamond jewelry that you like. And thanks to our “Video Presentation” service, you can purchase jewelry without leaving your home. Diamond is the king of precious stones: it combines exceptional hardness, high light refraction, strong dispersion (the decomposition of white light into a spectrum) and brilliant brilliance. Diamonds (rough diamonds) that are mined today were formed 1 to 3 billion years ago along with the formation of the Earth. With the cessation of the formation of the earth’s crust, the growth of diamonds also ceased, and currently no diamonds are formed. This is why the value of diamonds is constantly rising and they are a good long-term investment. This seductive and valuable mineral was formed in the earth from carbon at a depth of about 200 kilometers, at a temperature of over 10 thousand degrees Celsius, and a pressure of 50000 atmospheres. Diamonds are brought to the surface by magma during volcanic eruptions. These eruptions form conical tubes in the ground that expand upward, filled with kimberlite rocks that act like an elevator, lifting diamonds from great depths to the surface. As a result of soil erosion, the top layer of the cone is removed and diamonds begin to appear. Some of them are washed out by water and subsequently end up in rivers. Walking between the rows of jewelry in a jewelry store, you would hardly think that a diamond is such a rarity. But here’s a fact: you need to mine and sift 250 tons of ore (4.5 freight cars) in order to get 1 carat (0.2 g) of natural diamonds. Then, during cutting, rough diamonds lose another 40%-60% of their weight, which means that all the efforts that were made resulted in the extraction of only 0.5 carats of cut diamonds, which you see on the shelves of jewelry stores. When you also realize that only a quarter of all natural diamonds are cut, then you will begin to appreciate the rarity and uniqueness of each diamond. The quality and, accordingly, the cost of diamonds depend on four main characteristics of the diamond: the quality of the cut, the color of the diamond or its shades, the presence or absence of natural inclusions and, of course, the size.

The quality of cut.

A cut diamond is called a diamond. It was first polished in Europe in the 15th century. Since then, the shape of the diamond has undergone many changes in accordance with the development of understanding of its optical properties and developments in processing technology. The quality of a diamond’s cut is the most important factor in determining its brilliance and beauty. Today there are many types of cuts, the most common of which are: round (diamond), and fancy – oval, pear, heart, marquise, emerald and princess. When they talk about the quality of the cut, they mean the proportions of the diamonds, their symmetry and the quality of polishing. We sell diamonds only with cut group A, the highest possible cut quality for round diamonds, and group B, the highest possible cut quality for fancy cut diamonds. Ideally, diamonds are cut in such a way as to best reflect and refract the light that passes through them. Therefore, the better the cut, the more the diamond dazzles us with its beauty. As you can see, a well-proportioned diamond will more effectively refract light entering it through its top edges. With a poorer cut, most of the light comes out through the bottom of the diamond. Certificates issued for large diamonds show the ratio of the depth and size of the diamond table compared to the diameter of the diamond, expressed as a percentage. The cut is considered good when the size of the table is 53-64%, and the depth is 58-64% of the diameter of the diamond. If the values ​​are outside this range, the diamond is considered either too deep or too shallow. If a diamond is cut too deep or too shallow, most of the light entering the crown will escape through the bottom of the pavilion, resulting in a rather dull-looking diamond. A perfectly cut diamond, on the other hand, will return most of the light that entered it back through the crown, giving it more sparkle and sparkle. Remember, diamonds are more valuable if they are cut perfectly, and deviations from the proportions lead to a decrease in their value.

Color.

After cut, color is considered the second most important characteristic when choosing a diamond. This happens because the human eye notices the shine first and tries to determine the color second. The color of diamonds is due to the absorption of part of the transmitted light by atoms of foreign inclusions in the atomic structure of the diamond. The most common element that causes colorless diamonds to turn yellow and brown are nitrogen atoms. As you know, white light is a mixture of rays of all the colors of the rainbow. Nitrogen atoms in the structure of a diamond absorb rays of the blue and blue spectrum, as a result of which, at the output, the remaining rays mix and turn into yellow or brown shades of varying intensities. Therefore, the fewer nitrogen atoms in a diamond, the more colorless it is. When atoms of other elements are present, the colors of diamonds can be red, green, blue, purple and pink. Color grading is typically done by comparing diamonds to color samples in a professional laboratory that includes diamonds of all colors from 1 to 9 (colorless to brown). We only sell diamonds with colors ranging from 1 to 6, when the color shade is still weak. We recommend rings with diamond colors ranging from 1 to 3, but understand that sometimes clients’ budgets do not allow for this. According to our statistics, the vast majority of our clients buy diamonds with colors from 3 to 5.

Purity.

The process of diamond growth in the bowels of the Earth occurred unevenly. At various stages of crystal formation, pressure, temperature and cooling time did not always remain unchanged. As a result of a change in crystal growth conditions, the capture of neighboring elements or slower-growing diamond crystals, various deposits and small cracks, which are called “inclusions” in diamonds, could appear in it. All of these inclusions often serve as diagnostic identification marks and indicate the natural origin of the diamond. A diamond’s clarity represents the number, type, and size of inclusions it contains. Thus, the fewer obstacles in its path the light passing through the diamond encounters, the better the diamond will sparkle and sparkle. The clarity of diamonds is determined at 10x magnification. All inclusions that can be detected at higher magnification according to generally accepted rules are considered non-existent. Diamonds with a clarity of 1 or 2 are very rare, and are almost always expensive. The fewer obvious inclusions that do not block the passage of light in a diamond, the more valuable and expensive it becomes. The most important thing to remember when it comes to the clarity of a diamond is that inclusions should not be visible to the naked eye, and they should not be so excessive that they affect the strength of the diamond itself. Below is the diamond clarity scale. Note: Diamonds shown at 10x magnification.

Weight in carats.

The weight of a diamond is perhaps the most well-known characteristic. The weight of a diamond is measured in carats. The word “carat” comes from the name of the carob seeds, which have almost the same weight, which in past centuries was used to measure the weight of precious stones. In 1913, the carat was standardized and adapted to the metric system. 1 carat is equal to 200 mg or 0.2 grams. Therefore, for example, a 1.25 carat diamond will weigh 250 milligrams. Large diamonds are more expensive in part because large diamonds are found much less frequently than small diamonds. This means that the price of diamonds will increase exponentially as the size of diamonds increases. All things being equal, one 2-carat diamond will always be worth more than two 1-carat diamonds. A common misconception is that a 2 carat diamond will look twice as big as a 1 carat diamond. Since a diamond’s weight in carats is related to its weight in grams, a 2-carat diamond will not be 2 times larger than a 1-carat diamond (the diameter of a 2-carat diamond is about 8.2mm, while the diameter of a 1-carat diamond is only 6.5mm), but it will be twice its weight.

Luminescence.

Another important characteristic of a diamond, which must be indicated in certificates and affects the color of the diamond, is luminescence. Luminescence (or fluorescence) is the ability of a substance to emit light when exposed to ultraviolet rays. The ultraviolet glow is caused by the nitrogen content in the diamond’s atomic structure. The higher the content of nitrogen atoms, the stronger the glow in ultraviolet light. The color of the glow can be different: blue, yellow, orange or greenish with varying intensities. Blue luminescence, depending on its intensity, can affect the color and, accordingly, the value of diamonds. Diamonds of high colors (from 1 to 6) in the presence of weak luminescence in sunlight acquire a gray tint, and in the presence of strong luminescence they become yellower. On the other hand, low-color diamonds with a pronounced yellow tint (from 7th and below) become whiter in the presence of luminescence in sunlight. This is because sunlight contains an ultraviolet component which, when sunlight hits a diamond, causes a glow that enhances or, in more rare cases, absorbs the yellowish tint of the diamond. Understanding the importance of this characteristic, we sell diamonds without or, in rare cases, with weak luminescence.