Diamonds: A Rainbow of Colors

Diamonds are made of carbon one of the essential elements for life. They form over millions of years thanks the extreme pressure and heat that is placed upon them deep within the earth condensing and shaping them. Due to the aformentioned conditions if one was to conclude that they often from at volcanic sites, one would be correct. Once formed they are frequently carried to the surface via a steaming stream of magma.

Diamonds are transparent, shiny, multifaceted, and extremely durable. In fact, they're the hardest substance known to man and their name in Greek means "unconquerable". With characteristics like this it's no wonder that diamonds are one of the most prized, if not the most prized, gems in the world.

When it comes to evaluating diamonds the gold standard has been to talk about them in terms of the four c's: cut, colot, clarity, caret weight.

Cut: A diamond's proportions--depth and width--and its facets and the way they interact with light. The better the cut, the better diamonds interact with light. This translates into diamonds that sparkle, a diamond feature that everyone loves.

Not all diamonds are graded on cut; round diamonds tend to be graded on cut.

Cuts are termed as follows:

Ideal cut: Represents roughly the top 3% of diamond quality based on cut. Reflects nearly all light that enters the diamond. An exquisite and rare cut.

Very good cut: Represents roughly the top 15% of diamond quality based on cut. Reflects nearly as much light as the ideal cut, but for a lower price.

Good cut: Represents roughly the top 25% of diamond quality based on cut. Reflects most light that enters. Much less expensive than a very good cut.

Fair cut: Represents roughly the top 35% of diamond quality based on cut. Still a quality diamond, but a fair cut will not be as brilliant as a good cut.

Poor cut: This includes all diamonds that do not meet the performance standards of a fair cut. These diamonds are generally deep and narrow or shallow and wide and tend to lose most of the light out the sides and bottom.

Color: This term refers to how colorless a diamond is. The more colorless it is the more valuable it is. Differences in color a subtle to the untrained eye when they go from one graduation to the graduation immediately proceeding or following it. An international grading scale was created to uniformly grade diamonds according to their color. It's as follows:

D-E-F : Colorless
G-H-I-J: Near colorless
K-L-M: Slightly yellow
N-O-P-R: Very light yellow
S to Z: Light yellow to yellow

The unaided eye cannot detect the color, if there is any, in diamonds graded D-J.

Clarity: Clarity refers to the number of inclusions that are in an diamond. Inclusions appear as black specks within a diamond. They are non-crystallized carbon or non-diamond crystal that become trapped inside the diamond during its formation. A diamonds with less inclusions are more valuable that those with more.

The grading scale for diamond clarity is as follows:

FL: Flawless--no internal or external flaws
LF: Internally flawless--no internal flaws; slight external flaws.
VVS1, VVS2: Very, very slight inclusions--Very difficult for a professional to see under 10x magnification
VS1, VS2: Very slight inclusions--Difficult for a professional to see under 10x magnification
SI1, SI2, SI3: Slight inclusion--Easy for a professional to see under 10x magnification
I1, I2, I3: Included--Inclusions are visible to the naked eye.

Caret: This is the unit of measure used for the weight of a diamond and is usually determined BEFORE the diamond is placed in jewelry. Heavier diamonds are more valuable than lighter ones. One caret is 0.2g and each caret is divided into 100 points. Therefore a .20 caret diamond would be called a "20 pointer".

The four C's come together to determine the worth of a diamond. For example, two diamonds equal in color, clarity and cut but not equal in caret weight would have two different prices. The diamond with the greater caret weight would have a higher price than the diamond with the lower caret weight.

Aside from white, diamonds can be a variety of colors. Colored diamonds are becoming ever more popular and are an impressive departure from and excellent complement to their white diamond counterpart. Diamonds can be blue, pink, orange, green, red, brown, and yellow. Below is an explanation of how some of these colors form within diamonds.

Yellow:
When nitrogen combines with the diamond crystals during the formation stage it causes a surplus electron in the bonding. This surplus electron absorbs blue light, thus giving off a yellow color. Yellow diamonds also occur when aggregates of three nitrogens combine and cause surplus bond.

Blue:
The elements of boron may also be substituted within a diamond during its formation. Boron absorbs red light, hence in the absence of nitrogen, diamonds containing boron are blue in color. An example of a diamond containing boron is the famous Blue Hope diamond. Diamonds containing boron also exhibit unusual electrical properties and are semi-conductive in nature. Hydrogen is another impurity that, in high quantities, can cause grey or blue coloring in diamonds. However, these diamonds are not semi-conducting.

Green:
A vacancy in the regular lattice of atoms within a diamond results in a green coloring. Carbon atoms being knocked out of their regular position by other particles cause vacancies. The depth of color usually extends about 2mm below the diamond's surface. At extremely high temperatures the vacancies can become mobile and can combine with nitrogen to form other colors such as mauve, orange, blue or gold.

Brown:
It has been suggested that dislocations in the regular lattice of atoms, caused by severe forces deep in the earth, may be responsible for the brown coloring of champagne and cognac diamonds. The dislocated bonds may affect the light wavelength, thus producing a diamond which is colored, but which contains no impurities.

Pink:
It has also been suggested that combinations of dislocations, vacancies, and non-nitrogen impurities cause the much sought-after coloration in pink diamonds. However these theories are still being developed.

What does the number before the K stand for in regards to gold? While this is not related to diamonds, necessarily, it is still good information to know; after all, you diamond jewelry will be mounted in gold, most likely.

The number before the k in gold tells you how pure the gold is. The higher the number, the purer the gold.

24K is Pure Gold
18K is 75% pure.
14k is about 59% pure.
10k is about 41% pure

24k gold isn't used much since it's so soft it is hard to keep in the desired shape.

The most common diamond shapes are round, emerald, princess, radiant, oval, pear, marquise and heart. Because round cut diamonds are the only shape that can achieve an ideal cut, they are the most brilliant of the diamond shapes. Fancy shaped diamonds adhere to different proportion guidelines and thus refract light in different ways.

Marquise Cut Diamond
The Marquise Cut takes its name from a legend relating to the Marquise of Pompadour. According to the legend, the Sun King desired a stone to be polished into the shape of the mouth of the Marquise. It is generally agreed that a length-to-width ratio between 1.75:1 to 2:1 is most pleasing. As with other fancy shapes, the consumer's individual taste constitutes an element of the evaluation as well. The typical marquise diamond contains 56 facets.

Princess Cut Diamond
The Princess Cut Diamond is a brilliant style shape with sharp, uncut corners. It is typically cut square rather as a rectangle. Brilliant style refers to vertical direction crown and pavilion facets instead of step style horizontal facets. A princess Cut Diamond generally has 76 facets, giving it more brilliance and fire than the round brilliant. The Princess Cut diamond is fast becoming one of the most popular cuts in the United States

Radiant Cut Diamond
The Radiant Cut Diamond is a straight-edged rectangular or square stone with cut corners. The radiant cut diamond has 62-70 facets. Radiant diamonds are principally used for important center stones primarily for rings but also for pendant. They are rarely used for earrings or as side stones because they are hard to calibrate and match. To get matched pairs you may have to sort through a hundred stones are re-cut to calibrate.

Emerald Cut Diamonds
An emerald cut diamond shape is usually rectangular. The flat planes of the outside edges allow for a variety of side stones shapes. Typical pairings would be two or three side baguettes, two half-moons, and other smaller emeralds, but not trillions ,as their sparkle makes the center emerald cut look flat. The length-to-width ratio should be between 1.5:1 to 1.75:1.

Pear Shaped Diamond
The pear shaped brilliant diamond is based upon the traditional configuration of the round brilliant diamond. More than other fancy shapes, length-to-width ratio is a matter of taste when it comes to pear shaped diamonds. Because pears may be used for engagement rings, suites in necklaces, dangles in earrings, and integral parts of custom designs, a wide variety of shapes is considered desirable. The typical pear shaped diamond will contain 58 facets.

Oval Cut Diamond
The oval cut diamond is based upon the traditional configuration of the round brilliant diamond and that's why its technical name is oval modified brilliant diamond. The oval was invented by Lazare Kaplan in the early 1960s. A length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1 is almost universally considered a pleasing shape for oval diamonds, with any variation beyond 1.4:1 or 1.6:1 beginning to be noticeable and become an aesthetic issue. However as with all fancies, a certain degree of individual taste is always factored into the desirability of a particular diamond's shape. Fifty-six facets are typical for oval brilliant diamonds. Over the last year or two ovals have become very popular as center diamonds for engagement rings

Heart Shaped Diamond
Romantic perfection for the special occasions. The perfect stone for the special occasion requirements. The Heart shaped brilliant is the hit item on Valentines day. Usually the width will be 10% wider than the head-to-point length.

So you may be saying to yourself, after reading all of the above information, "but I can't afford to buy a color D, flawless, ideal cut diamond so what do I do?" The answer is: don't despair, simply buy a diamond that is within your budget and with which you are pleased. Most people, outside of the rich and famous, cannot afford to buy a perfect diamond, either. Guess what? It doesn't matter. In the long run, extremes aside, there isn't much difference "between a perfect" diamond and a "not-so-perfect diamond".

For instance, diamonds that have a clarity of SI1, SI2, or SI3 have less visible inclusions than diamonds that have a clarity of VVSI or VVS2 and accordingly cost more. Yet, how important are these differences? Remember that these terms refer to how easily one can SEE inclusions in a diamond UNDER A MICROSCOPE AT 10X MAGNIFICATION. Translation: to the naked eye these inclusions are INVISIBLE! Inclusions are only visible at the very bottom rung of the classification system (I1, I2 and I3 diamonds). Even then, these inclusions are not necessarily very noticeable, depending on the inclusion.

However, I must state that clarity does become important in larger diamonds starting at around more than 1 caret when diamonds with a clarity grading of I is concerned. If the inclusions are large, they will appear as black specks in the diamond.

When it comes to color diamonds grade J are not too different from one another and are great for larger caret diamonds. For smaller caret diamonds, the color grading is even less important. M graded diamonds and above are generally acceptable.

Touching the theme of cut, fair cut and above provides diamonds with great luster.

Now of course there will always be diamond purists who insist on having the most perfect diamonds available and who swear (and possibly can) tell the difference between a D and F colored diamond. There will also be those people who just want a perfect diamond because it's perfect or because having a diamond that sparkles brighter than a lower grade diamond really appeals to them. I say let them go right on ahead and buy themselves that perfect diamond. It's their money and their happiness, just as it's your money and your happiness when it comes time to choosing a diamond. As long as you chose something that pleases you, its grade will not matter very much.

**This commentary is not meant to be the authoritative force on diamond quality. It's a commentary based on my experience selling diamonds and the feedback I have gotten from customers.