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Diamond Guide
by ALLAN Jewelers
Diamond Guide
Natural Diamonds:Â Purity
The beauty of a diamond is in its appearance. The price of a diamond is determined by its beauty and purity. In our experience, the person buying and the person receiving the diamond are completely fulfilled by the diamonds beauty with little mention of the purity. The technical aspects of a diamond is described by a grading system measuring four characteristics of the diamond. They are its Carat Weight, Color, Cut and Clarity.
Diamond Size Basics
The first thing a person see is a diamond’s size, not carat weight. Size is not just the carat weight of the diamond. Weight is measured in points and carats. There are 100 points in a carat. The benchmark weights are three-quarter carat [.75], one carat [1.00], one and a quarter carats [1.25], one and a half carats [1.50], one and three quarter carats [1.75]…
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Maximize your Carat Weight
As important as the carat weight of the diamond is its diameter, which is measured in millimeters. What do you know about the person if you only know they weigh 200 pounds? Are they 5 feet tall and wide or are they 6 feet tall and lean? A diamond is the same. Is the diamond very narrow or very broad? The millimeter measurement of a diamond will tell you how BIG the diamond will look. ALLAN Jewelers always sells BIG diamonds. 75% of the diamonds cut are too narrow. Remember the diamond is sold by weight, not diameter. Two people could have the same weight and quality of diamond and not look the same. We want you to stand out. The diamonds you buy from ALLAN Jewelers are, 75% of the time, bigger than every other diamond of the same carat weight.
Natural Diamond: Color
The second most noticed part of a diamond is its color. Although people will not be able to tell you, a beautiful diamond dazzles them with its color. Where diamonds are formed underground Nitrogen is often present. Nitrogen tints a diamond yellow. The degree to which a diamond is tinted is graded using a scale beginning at D and moving down the alphabet [E,F,G,H…]as the diamond becomes more yellow until Z. ALLAN Jewelers recommends a D color to assure the diamond is striking.
Natural Diamond: Cut
The third characteristic of a diamond is its cut. This is not the shape, but the way the master diamond cutter as fashioned the diamond. It is the least clearly graded part of a diamond. You need to determine the importance that cut holds for you by comparing one diamond to another. There are many common names given to describe the cut of a diamond. Do not pay attention to the names, just compare diamonds. This is the way we handle cut quality during our diamond buying trips. We line the diamonds up and look.
Natural Diamond: Clarity
Clarity is the fourth characteristic of a diamond. Remember that most people never get past the beauty of a diamond. Clarity is degree to which the diamond shows a flaw(s). 99% of all diamonds have something inside them. ALLAN Jewelers believes that clarity is only important to the extent it is not visible to the naked eye. The flaws become visible at I1 clarities.There is no visible difference between a diamond graded VVS1 and one of SI1 grade. These diamonds are sorted under 10x magnification. A clarity grade of SI1 or SI2 is ideal. A higher clarity costs money without a visible benefit.
Natural Diamond: Certification
Certification is a major factor in the diamond world today. Independent laboratories offer the service of examining individual diamonds and making a document that states the measurements of the diamond and its qualities. The same diamond sent to different laboratories will often produce very different documents with conflicting information. If you are going to compare diamonds according to their documents, be sure they are from the same laboratory.
Diamond Buying: Trust
What most tireless, investigative diamond shoppers come to understand is that they have to trust the person from whom they buy their diamond. The certifications are unable to guide us. You need to compare and talk with an expert while viewing each diamond. This is what we do every time we buy diamonds for the stores.
We are available with our expertise and our attention whenever you are ready to see the magnificent beauty of a diamond firsthand.