Diamond Jewellery - Helpful guide for buying

Diamonds are precious and available in our natural environment in several of sizes, colours, and shapes. All diamonds possess complex combinations of traits that make them exclusive. Adequate knowledge about diamonds before making purchase plan is beneficial for consumers.

Grading system of diamond as expert jewellers use are 4Cs to assess quality. These are:

Colour: The perfect diamond is colourless. A diamond’s colour quality is assessed using a 23 colour grading scale ranging from D to Z. According to GIA diamond colour grading scale, diamond colours can be appraises as:

Ø Colourless (D-F)

Ø Near Colourless (G-J)

Ø Faint (K-M)

Ø Very Light (N-R)

Ø Light (S-Z)

Clarity: This is very important for checking while buying diamond. A perfect diamond has no inclusions or surface deficiencies, while low grade clarity will have inclusions that cannot be marked by an unaided eye and may even have chips or other surface aberrations.

Diamond clarity grades:

-      Flawless (FL) diamonds. It has no inclusions.

-      Internally Flawless (IF) diamonds: It has no internal inclusions but there are slight surface imperfections.

-      Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1) and (VVS2) diamonds: These categories of diamonds have minute inclusions which can be difficult to spot.

-      Very Slightly Included (VS1) and (VS2) diamond: These diamonds have minor inclusions which can be spotted simply under magnification but not by the bare eye.

-      Slightly Included (SI1) and (SI2) diamonds have visible inclusions under magnification.

-      Included (I1), (I2), and (I3) diamonds have noticeable inclusions that can be easily visible to the naked eye.

Cut: This has aesthetic significance. Finely cut diamonds sparkle from all angle. Each diamond is cut as per an exact mathematical formulation. Generally the diamond is cut in the round brilliant, has 58 facets, or small, flat, polished planes designed to produce the maximum amount of light to be reflected back to the observer. This reflection is vital factor in evaluating the quality of a diamond. A poorly-cut diamond will actually loose light and appear dull.

Carat Weight (size): Weight is often related with the quality and value of a diamond.

Diamond designers use myriads of techniques of shapes and setting of diamond jewelleries.

-      Baguette: This is a rectangular-shaped small diamond that is often used to augment the setting of a larger stone.

-      Bezel setting: In this setting, a diamond is entirely surrounded by a precious metal border that resembles a picture frame.

-      Channel setting: This setting technique is done for mounting rows of small, uniformly-sized stones. Technique uses two strips of metal to hold the stones at the sides.

-      Fancy cut: A diamond is cut in any shape. Fancy cuts comprise of baguette, emerald, triangle, pear, princess, oval and marquis.

-      Pave setting: A setting technique for small diamonds in which the stones are set so closely together that no metal shows.

-      Solitaire: The mounting of a single gemstone.

Besides all information and guarantee given by jewellers, consumers must obtain diamond certification, documentation of a diamond’s quality by a third party. This document has numerous security features for ensuring original piece of diamond purchased by consumers from their hard earn money.

Detection of the authenticity of diamond:

To verify real nature of diamond, there are some detecting methods which consumers can use.

One method to detect real diamond at home is newspaper technique. Consumers place the gem over a newspaper. Original diamonds refract light so much that person cannot see any lines, circles or full letters coming through.

Secondly use the fog test. In this procedure, diamond buyers put the stone in front of their mouth and fog it. If it stays clouded for few seconds, it is probably not an original piece of diamond. A real diamond disperses the heat from breath promptly and would not fog up easily.

Another way to authenticate originality of diamond, drop the stone in a glass of water and see if it sinks to the bottom. An original diamond will sink. A fake one will float at the top of the surface.

Above methods are just to test at home but buyers must visit to authorized detection centre to verify their diamond jewellery.

All buyers must know the popular diamond graders around the globe:

-      Gemological Institute of America (GIA)

-      American Gemological Society (AGS)

-      European Gemological Laboratory (EGL)

-      Diamond High Council (HRD)

-      International Gemological Institute (IGI)

-      International Confederation of Jewellery, Silverware, Diamonds, Pearls, and Stones (CIBJO)

Diamond jewellery is delicate, dazzling and sophisticated. People are magnetized to such ornament and prefer to wear in memorable occasions. Therefore it is must to know the details about every piece of ornament before making purchase decisions.