How Diamonds Are Cut

In their most natural form, diamonds are –
well – quite ugly. They have no luster or shine,
 and in fact, look like nothing more than
broken glass. A diamond must be cut, and
then polished before it actually becomes a
thing of beauty.

Diamonds are cut with saws, into round
shapes. From the rounded shape, other
shapes may be cut, such as heart shapes
– but the shape is less important than the
quality of the cutting that is being done. If
the diamond is poorly cut, it will lose light,
and it will not sparkle and shine very well.
Each facet of the diamond must be
carefully cut into the geometrical shapes
that allow the diamond to sparkle and
shine, then the entire diamond is cut into
a specific shape, such as an emerald cut
or a princess cut diamond.

Once the cut is done, the diamond is put into
a dop, which resembles a cup with another
diamond – only a diamond is strong enough
to smooth the edges of another diamond.
Once the diamond has been cut and shaped,
and had the edges smoothed in the dop, it is
polished on a scaif or a diamond polishing
wheel.

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Famous Diamonds

Among the most well known diamonds is the
Hope.   This 45.52 carat steel blue diamond
is currently on display at the Smithsonian.
The legends of the ill-fortune and curse
bestowed on the possessor of the Hope
Diamond are many.  This diamond was
donated to the Smithsonian in 1958. The
Hope was originally a rather flat, blocky
110-carat rough.

The Dresden Green stands out among the
natural colored diamonds. It is the largest
green diamond in the world weighing
40.70 carats. This diamond is historic, large
and has a natural green color with a slight
blue overtone.  These facts make it virtually
priceless.

The Conde Pink is a pear shaped and
weighs 9.01-carats.  This pink diamond was
once owned by Louis XIII.

The Tiffany Yellow diamond a beautiful
canary-yellow octahedron weighing 287.42
in the rough (metric) carats discovered in
either 1877 or 1878 in South Africa.  The
gem after cutting boasts the extraordinary
weight of 128.54 carats. And until recently,
was the largest golden-yellow in the world.

The Koh-I-Noor  ( Mountain of Light )  is now
among the British Crown Jewels.  This
diamond weighs 105.60 carats.  First
mentioned in 1304, it is believed to have
been once set in Shah Jehan‘s famous
peacock throne as one of the peacocks eyes.

The Agra is graded as a naturally colored
Fancy Light Pink and weighs 32.34 carats.
It was sold for about 6.9 million in 1990.
Since this sale, it has been modified to a
cushion shape weighing about 28.15 carats.

The Transvaal Blue is pear cut.  This blue
diamond weighs 25 carats. It was found in
the Premier Diamond Mine in Transvaal,
South Africa.

The Great Chrysanthemum was discovered
in the summer of 1963, in a South African
diamond field.  This 198.28-carat fancy
brown diamond appeared to be a light
honey color in its rough state.  However,
after cutting, it proved to be a rich golden
brown, with overtones of sienna and burnt
orange.

The Taylor-Burton Diamond is a pear-shaped
69.42 carat diamond.  Cartier of New York
purchased this diamond at an auction in
1969 and christened it "Cartier." The next
day Richard Burton bought the diamond
for Elizabeth Taylor. He renamed it the
"Taylor-Burton”.   In 1978, Elizabeth
Taylor put the diamond up for sale.
Prospective buyers had to pay $2,500
each to view the diamond to cover the costs
of showing it.  Finally, in June of 1979, the
diamond was sold for nearly $3 million dollars.

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Diamond Grading Reports

You’ve been told that having a certificate or
a diamond grading report is important, and
as a responsible consumer, you get one –
unfortunately, you probably won’t understand
a word of what is on that diamond grading
report, unless you are a jeweler.

On the color grading scale, D, E, and F
mean that the diamond has no color. G, H,
and I means that it has very little color. J, K,
and L means that the diamond has a slight
yellow color. P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, and X
means that the diamond is a darker shade
of yellow. Z means that the diamond has a
 fancy color – other than white or yellow.
On the color grading scale, D is the most
valuable, and X is the least valuable –
however diamonds that get a Z rating are
 the rarest and most expensive diamonds
in the world.

There are many aspects to a grading report.
Figuring it all out can be very confusing. You
should talk to a jeweler you trust, and have
them explain everything on the diamond
grading report to you.

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Diamond Certificates

A diamond certificate is also known as a
Diamond Grading Report. This report comes
from the Gemological Institute of America
(GIA), and you should require this report
when you are purchasing a diamond.

With a diamond certificate, you can verify
the color, cut, carat, weight, and clarity of the
diamond. You don’t have to worry about a
diamond dealer telling you anything less than
the truth, because the certificate comes
from the GIA – not the dealer. You may be
required to pay for the certificate, but the
cost is usually low, and in many cases, it
will help you negotiate a better price on the
diamond – or keep you from purchasing a
lower quality diamond altogether.

If you buy a high quality diamond, and then
later decide to sell the diamond, you will
need to have the certificate, or you will have
a hard time selling it to someone else.
Furthermore, you can use the Diamond
Grading Report to look up the wholesale
value of the diamond in question. Use the
guide that is used by the diamond cutting
industry.

With the Certificate, or Diamond Grading
Report, there won’t be any doubts when you
are trying to purchase a diamond. You can
easily find out what the diamond is worth.
This will prevent you from overpaying, and it
can prevent a seller from under-charging as
well.

A copy of the Diamond Grading Report
should be given to your insurance company
as well, when you insure the diamond. This
provides absolute, unquestionable proof of
the value of the diamond should it be stolen
in the future. Insurance companies cannot
argue with the report.

Avoid diamond dealers who seem reluctant
to provide a certificate! Also avoid sellers
who tell you that a certificate diamond will
cost you more – the only additional cost
should be the cost of the certificate, which
is low. If the dealer doesn’t want to provide
a certificate, then you don’t want to do
business with that dealer.

Don’t accept certificates from Gemological
Laboratories other than GIA. There are many
fly-by-night Gemological labs these days, but
in the end, GIA has been established as the
most respectable and trustworthy – not to
mention oldest – of the lot. So avoid dealers
who don’t want to use GIA for certification
purposes as well.

Don’t buy an expensive diamond without
paying the extra cost of the certificate. If a
dealer tries to convince you to make the
purchase without the certificate, or if they
want to use a company other than GIA, you
can be sure that the dealer has probably
greatly inflated the price of the diamond –
they have something that they are hiding
from you.

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Diamond Brands and What They Mean

Diamonds are one of the few products that
simply cannot be ‘branded.’ Even though
there are different cuts, different grades, and
different values placed on each and every
diamond in existence, no diamond is any
specific brand – just as gold is not a specific
brand.

Branding is actually based on who owns the
diamond. For instance, if DeBeers owns the
diamond, it is a DeBeers Diamond – but it is
still just a diamond. If the diamond was cut by
a specific well known cutter, then it might be
branded in that way as well – but it usually
isn’t. It is still branded based on who owns it
at the time. So basically, when it comes down
to it – diamond brands mean absolutely
nothing at all.

Do not allow a jeweler to try to talk you into
paying an exorbitant price on a diamond
because it is a specific brand. This is a bit
of trickery used by unscrupulous jewelers
when they know that they are dealing with
people who don’t know much about
diamonds. Remember that diamonds are
not actually branded – unless mother nature
has her own brand!

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Colored Diamonds

Fancy colored diamonds are all the rage
these days.  Gemologists have developed
new ways to create versions that are
affordable for the average person - by
treating less desirable diamonds. These
less desirable diamonds are treated with
irradiation followed by intense heat.  This
turns brown and yellowish diamonds into
beautifully colored diamonds that you can
afford.  This produces stunning greens,
blues, yellows, reds, purples and other
colors.  These colors are considered
permanent, but there is a possibility
they could change during repairs if a high
heat is used.

Treatments like irradiation make it possible
for more people to own these vividly colored
diamonds. Most natural colored diamonds
are rare and also extremely expensive. When
shopping for colored diamonds you need to
assume that any affordable fancy color
diamond has been treated.  Ask about the
stones origin and request to view a lab
certificate to verify authenticity.

Synthetic colored diamonds are another
option if owning a colored diamond is
something you desire but cannot quite afford.
They are real diamonds, but they are created
in a lab.

Natural fancy color diamonds get their
coloring from different trace elements present
in the stones, such as nitrogen, which
produces a yellow diamond.  Diamonds can
be colored by exposure to radiation during its
creation.  An example of a diamond affected
by radiation is a Green diamond.

Another way that a natural colored diamond
gets color is by its inclusions.  Regarded as
flaws and undesirable in a colorless diamond,
inclusions give unique tones and brilliant
flashes of color in a fancy color diamond.
Remember that Natural fancy colored
diamonds are very expensive, any colored
diamond labeled to be sold as natural should
be accompanied by a certificate from a
respected grading lab.

A "fancy" diamond is a natural diamond that
has color.  These colors vary from red, green,
purple, violet, orange, blue and pink – and
most shades between.  Fancy color shades
vary from faint to intense.

The most famous diamonds in the world are
Color diamonds.  The Tiffany Diamond,
which is yellow and the Hope Diamond which
is blue are colored diamonds.    Color
diamonds have an amazing financial track
record.  The value has never decreased on
wholesale level in more than 30 years.  Blue
and pink diamonds have doubled every 5
years of a strong economy.   In the 1970’s
you could have bought a very high quality
blue diamond for about 50K and today the
very same stone would be worth between
2 and 3 million.

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Choosing The Cut of A Diamond

There are many different cuts of diamonds
to choose from. The cut essentially refers to
the shape that the diamond is cut into –
unless you are in the diamond or jewelry
business, but this shape has a great impact
on the much the diamond sparkles.

The most popular cuts are heart, marquise,
oval, pear, princess, round, trillion, and
emerald cuts. The shape has an impact on
how much the diamond sparkles, but the
actual cutting itself – when the diamond
cutter actually cuts the diamond into a
particular shape – also matters a great
deal. If the diamond is poorly cut, it will lose
its sparkle.

However, in the diamond industry, the cut of
a diamond doesn’t refer to its shape at all.
Instead, this is a reference to the stone’s
depth, width, brilliance, durability, clarity, and
other aspects of the diamond. Common
cutting problems include a missing or off
center culet, misalignment, a diamond that
is too thick or too thin, cracks, or broken
culets.

When shopping for a diamond, you should
of course choose the shape that you like the
best, but then look at several different
diamonds of that shape to find the one with
the best cut – the one that sparkles the most,
in all types of lighting.

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