Girls' Best Friends: All About Diamonds, Part 1

Making an offer to a lady of the heart, giving a ring with a large diamond as a confirmation of the seriousness of one's own intentions is a rather new tradition for our compatriots, which came to Russia from Europe and the United States. This tradition takes different forms in different countries. For example, in the United States, it is appropriate to give the chosen one a diamond, the value of which is equal to the sum of the donor's income for 3-6 months. Of course, this will be a large stone, usually 1 carat and above. In Europe, everything is much more democratic: for example, in France, rings with diamonds weighing about 0.5 carats are most often presented, and stones of large sizes are considered some bad manners. There is a certain logic in this, since it is assumed that the engagement ring will be worn by the future bride all the time. The huge and sparkling stone on the hand is beautiful, but, you see,not always and not always appropriate (and convenient too).

In Russia, a man who wants to present a diamond ring with an offer finds himself in a difficult situation: there is very little information about diamonds, the choice is rather scarce, and the pricing policy of jewelry stores will require the sale of at least one bud.

I will try to fill this information vacuum a little, and at the same time give a couple of tips on where and how you can buy diamonds while keeping both buds intact.

Diamond cut shape

There are a great variety of diamond cut shapes: round, "princess", cushion, oval, "emerald", "marquis", "heart", "asher", "radiant", "pear" ("drop") and others. Below in the figure you can see how they visually differ from each other.

A detailed description of the features of each cut is not included in my tasks. I will only say that the play and brilliance of a diamond directly depends on the number of facets: the more facets (angles of light reflection), the more the stone shines and shimmers. Therefore, diamonds of a simple emerald cut will lose their brilliance to other, more complex forms - for example, "princess". By the way, the most popular on the market are the classic round cut, "princess" and "cushion": they are able to play and shimmer even in the diffused moonlight.

In recent years, with the development of computer modeling, new cuts have emerged, such as the Star129 (round diamond with 129 facets) and Solasfera, which are a sophisticated variation of the classic round cut with 57 facets. But the labor costs in the production of such diamonds significantly exceed the costs of creating classic shapes using proven technologies, so such diamonds are still rare and cost significantly more than ordinary ones (often at times). The probability of meeting these types of cut in Russian stores is approximately equal to the probability of meeting a mammoth in Red Square.

It makes no sense to talk about which cut is better and more beautiful: it is completely subjective, but, as in the well-known anecdote, "there is a nuance."

Let's say you personally like the round cut (me too, and we will mainly talk about it). But since you are not choosing a diamond for yourself, but are going to present it to a lady of your heart, then you should inquire about her preferences in advance: perhaps she is more dear to the "princess" or "pear"? The cost of a mistake can be expressed not only in a decent amount spent on buying a stone, but also in frowning eyebrows - in response to the Most Important Question. And this is already serious.

Diamond Sizes

Once you have decided on the shape of the cut, the most important parameters are the weight and size of the stone. And they are not the same! The fact is that the weight of a diamond, indicated in carats, is often confused with its size, considering that a carat is a unit of size. Remember the joke about a kilogram of fluff and a kilogram of lead?

The carat weight is the parameter that most affects the value of the stone.

But the size of a diamond is directly related to both the weight and the shape of the cut at the same time: stones of the same weight of different types of cut will have different sizes.

For example, a 1 carat round diamond will have a diameter of about 6.5mm, and a princess cut stone of the same weight will have a side length of 5.5mm. Of course, on the hand (neck, ear) they will also look differently.

To illustrate the difference, let's give an example of a comparative table of diamond sizes from the Blue Nile website:

As you can see, the cut shape of diamonds of the same weight has a very noticeable effect on the physical size and visual perception of the stone. It is believed that the largest in terms of weight are round and cushion diamonds.

But you shouldn't believe the comparative table so unconditionally, despite the fact that Blue Nile is one of the largest sellers of diamonds on the Internet. The perception and actual dimensions of the stone are influenced not only by the shape of the cut, but also by its quality, expressed in the angles and proportions of the facets.

In order not to dive ahead of time into the mathematics of proportions and ratios, I will give an example: a round-cut diamond weighing 1 carat can have a diameter from 6.1mm to 7mm, depending on the proportions of the cut. Believe it or not, these seemingly insignificant 0.9 mm make a huge difference in the visual perception of the stone!

Another thing is also true: a stone cut to achieve its maximum physical size can be perceived as a dull piece of glass if the cutter sacrificed the correct geometric proportions to achieve the maximum size.

And here we come to the next and extremely important (although not easy to absorb) point of our review: the cut quality of a diamond.

The quality of the cut must be indicated in the diamond certificate.

By the way, I almost forgot: every real (natural, not synthetic) diamond must be certified by one of the authorized organizations and has its own passport. A certificate can be issued by many different certification authorities, and, alas, not everyone should be trusted: some of them are famous for attributing inflated characteristics to diamonds. If you do not go into details, I highly discourage purchasing diamonds certified by anyone other than the GIA and AGS, whereas in Russia the most respected is the Gemological Center of Moscow State University. Well, if you are offered to buy a diamond that does not have a certificate, most likely it is a fake: cubic zirconia or musanite.

The main parameters for evaluating the quality of diamonds is a big important topic, and we will discuss it in my next article.

Photo: Getty Images, Press Services Archive