Rings - What is there to know?
Elegant or eccentric, sparkly or subtle? From the ever popular round brilliant to the more unusual Marquise cut, diamonds come in all shapes and sizes and there is sure to be one to suit every taste and style.
Diamond certificates are issued to confirm a stone’s technical characteristics, value and identity, but it is important to know and understand the differences between the grading bodies as they operate on difference standards.
Pretty things may come in small boxes, but what’s in those boxes better be big. That is, yes, size does matter. However - carat weight is not the same thing as size - how large a diamond appears is also dictated by other factors such as shape and cut, so it is important to understand carat weight beyond the value it is generally and often mistakenly ascribed.
Far more than simply what shape a rough diamond has been polished into, the cut is the most important determiner of a diamond’s brilliance and light dispersion. Diamond cutting is an art requiring meticulous precision, and knowing how it all works is essential to making the right choice.
Almost all diamonds have small impurities or “inclusions,” but they are not always visible to the naked eye. The size and location of the inclusions play a significant role in determining the price of a diamond so it is important to understand clarity grades in order to make the most suitable choice.
Colour grades actually refer to a lack of colour in a diamond, with the whitest grade being D, and that’s D for most desirable. However, even experts sometimes fail to tell the difference between some clarity grades, so unless it’s important for you what the letter on the certificate reads, you can often get away with lower grades.
