If you need some advice on buy a diamond engagement ring or more specific, any diamond at all, then here is a brief outline of what to look for when you hit the high street.

A diamond has three basic parts which are the crown, the girdle and the pavilion. Each is faceted differently but in the end, they compliment the whole diamond and produce the best possible sparkle. You want the facets to be of excellent symmetry.

When buying a diamond, you need to know about the four C's which are cut, color, carat (weight) and clarity.

The cuts which make up the facets are what bring out the best in a diamond or the worst in some cases. The cuts cause the fire or brilliance of a stone to be brought out, which is all done by hand. When a stone that has a pavilion that is too deep or a crown that is too shallow, then the light will be reflected everywhere except the direction you want it to and make the stone look dim. You want an idea cut.

Stones come in many different cut varieties. There are many shapes other than round that can be cut. There are square, marquise, trilliants, oval, pear etc... The list goes on and these are all considered to be fancy cut stones. These are a little more unusual, for those that want something unique and not the traditional style stone.

The clarity of a diamond factors whether the stone has inclusions or not. The difference between inclusions and blemishes is that an inclusion is an internal flaw and a blemish is external which is on the surface. The grade of clarity that you should pay attention to are flawless (FL), internally flawless (IF), Very very slightly included one and two (VVS1 & VVS2), Very slightly included one & two (VS1 & VS2) and you can stretch to slightly included one, two and three (SI 1,2&3) which are not too bad most of the time.

Depending on where the inclusions are within a stone and depending on the types of inclusions there are, if they are blemishes or inside the stone, it can effect how the light is reflected within the stone and back out. Sometimes inclusions can be beneficial though, if you go to insure your stone, the inclusions can act like a finger print to which you can ID it.

The ideal color for a colorless stone is classed as a "D", which means there is no tints or hues and it is absolutely white, D, E & F are the most ideal colorless diamonds, G, H, I and J are tinted slightly and anywhere beyond that and you are looking at a yellow diamond and going into brown as you move along the chart to Z.

When dealing with carat (weight), bigger is not always better, you have to take into consideration an important factor. For example, if you are looking at a 1.25ct diamond next to a 1.0ct diamond and they both cost the same price and are the same color but the cut on the larger 1.25ct diamond isn't the most ideal cut to allow the light to be used to its full potential as I've written before and so the smaller 1.00ct is the better option as the light will be utilized better by the stone and create the "fire" look, which the dazzle is so commonly referred to as, when the light is reflected out. You'll be aiming for very good to excellent cut and remember, size doesn't always matter.

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next