Gemstone Guide - Natural Diamonds

Learn About Natural Diamonds

Radiance, Gorgeous, Treasured – Know about your diamond origin, shape and 4c’s.

Diamonds Origin

Everyone well known that diamonds are one of the most sought –after stones across the globe. Diamonds are unearthed in late 1800s. Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years. Diamonds are thought to have been first recognized and mined in India. Due to its aesthetic senses and never-ending sparkle, diamonds have fascinated mankind since ancient times. And also after the diamond mines discovery in South Africa, the availability and affordability of this beautiful gem enlarged.

Diamonds belongs to the family minerals, well known as the hardest material found on the earth naturally. The diamonds are the merely stones that are made of single element, which is carbon. These are formed in the earth’s crust under high circumstances of temperature and pressure. Its distinctive chemical composition and configuration created it a truly unusual gemstone.

The name Diamond is derived from the ancient Greek word called ‘Adam’s,’ which means unbreakable or eternal. According to the study of Moh’s scale, diamonds are Rated 10 for their incredible hardness. Diamond is the only substance that can be scratched by another diamond. Along with white diamonds are available in quite a few colors. In that common ones are yellow and brown, rarest are blue, green and red.

Diamond Shape

Diamond shape refers to the physical structure or geometrical appearance and the cut refers to the diamonds ability to reflect light. Most of the diamond shapes are round, square or cushion, oval, princess, pear, emerald, marquise, asscher, radiant and heart. Among all the most popular shape and also the shiniest one is round shape diamond. Here we are giving you a clear insight into shapes of diamonds, so that it will be easier for you to choose the perfect and desired shape for your ring or jewelry.

Round Cut Diamonds

Round cut diamonds are the most popular as round brilliant cut. Due to its ideal parameters and visual elegance, round brilliant cut diamonds are in high demand for engagement rings and wedding rings as well as jewelry makers also.

Round brilliant cut diamonds are polished with approximately 57 facets and its ultimate proportions returns a huge amount of brilliance and fire. This diamond cut will be excellent almost in any jewelry piece.

Oval Cut Diamonds

Oval cut diamonds are appeared not so long ago and they won wide popularity among other fancy shapes.

It has a number of facets equal to round brilliant with a classic twist, gives your finger superior look along with luster.

Princess Cut Diamonds

Princess cut diamonds are of square shape with sharp edges. It is the second most popular after round brilliant cut diamond.

Princess cut diamond creates wearers exceptional scintillation due to its excellent characteristics.

Emerald Cut Diamonds

Emerald cut diamonds is the most popular with their unique profile and is excellent choice for fashion lovers.

Emerald cut diamonds with beveled corners and also with step-cut table tenders a subtile reflective shimmer.

Pear Cut Diamonds

Pear cut diamonds are outlined similar to the shape of water droplet. This cut is a combination of marquice and round brillinat, features a round edge tapering to a point at the opposite end.

It is very popular as contemporary jewellery art. Owing its name it adds artistic beauty and classiness to the finger.

Marquise Cut Diamonds

Marquise cut diamonds are elegant diamonds of a prolonged shuttle-like form tappering off at the ends. This diamond truly indeeds a classic and a rich look.

This marquise cut diamond is accessible to the public several centuries ago and this eternal diamond confers an outcome of thin and graceful fingers to the hand of its possessor.

Radiant Cut Diamonds

Radiant cut diamonds are a combination of emrald and roud brilliant. This is also called as Phoenix cut.

Radiant cut is a real work of polishing art with tapered angles. The absolutely spectacular radiant cut diamonds make unforgettable impression by their distinctiveness and splendor.

Heart Cut Diamonds

Heart cut diamonds are most romantic of all fancy shapes, which mean love, charm and affection.

Heart shape diamonds are most difficult to make, polisher has to spend quite a lot of working time. These diamonds appear to be ideal as presents for dear ones.

Diamond Grading in 4C’s

Every diamond is distinctive and is a wonder of particular place and time, while each diamond has specific qualities that establish its significance. Diamond quality is the primary factor to be considered while choosing or rejecting it. There are four major factors that effects the quality of a diamond grading - Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat. These are also called as 4C’s of a diamond grading. Let’s have a glance how 4C’s impact the diamonds quality.

Diamond Cut

Diamond cut defines the polish, facets, reflective quantities and symmetry not defined with a shape. The overall beauty of a diamond hangs more on the cut than any other factor. Diamonds with excellent cutting grade emits the entire incoming light entered.

When a diamond is shaped from a rough stone, the faceted stone must balance the appearance along with yield, this is the reason grade of a cut is so necessary. In a perfect cut diamond the incoming light is reflected through all facets and attracts wearers, in case with poor cut grade only 20% emits and remaining 80% will go through the tip and it can’t be noticed by the wearers. Diamond cut mentioned with angles and proportions polished by the cutters that harness the diamonds internal brilliance and emit its best sparkle.

Proportions of a Diamond

Cut of a diamond influenced by reflection and physical features. A proportion of a diamond refers to the relationship between the size, shape, and angle of each facet of a diamond.

Reflection:

A well proportioned diamond will have each proper facet and well angled so as to reflect the maximum amount of incoming light. This Reflected light is perceived into three types; these factors highly affect the appearance of a diamond.

Brilliance - Brilliance or Brightness of a diamond is due to inner and outer reflection. Entered light from the top breaks into spectrum of colors and reflects inside and exist from the top along with a white light.

Fire - Fire is a scattering of white light into color spectrum. When light flashes on the diamond, the incoming light breaks into spectrum of colors and after inside reflection, it comes out separately into color flashes along with white light.

Scintillation - Scintillation is the white and colored sparks viewed when it is motion. Diamond is appraises with reflection and refraction properties.

Physical Features:

To get a successful reflection physical features are very important. The basic features of a diamond that plays a vital role in diamonds cut are as follows:

Table – It is a largest plane surface of the diamond visible from the top view.

Crown – It is a top part from girdle to the table.

Girdle – It is a narrow band around widest part of the diamond. It separates top and bottom part of the diamond. It is also called as setting part.

Pavilion – It is a bottom part form girdle to cullet.

Culet – It is sharp point at the bottom of the diamond, just below the pavilion. It is usually not visible to naked eye.

Depth – The height from the culet to the table.

Diamond Color

Color of a diamond is an important character to consider before buying a diamond. Every diamond body has a natural color. A pure diamond is always colorless and it looks like a clean water drop. The diamonds color evaluation is based on the absence of color. Diamond color doesn’t depend on the reflection of color spectrum. Actually diamonds are of so many colors. The basic color of a diamond ranges from colorless to little yellow and brown. Most diamonds have natural colors like yellow, brown in a very slight variation.

Diamond colors that are visible to naked eye are less in demand, poor quality, low cost; while the colorless diamonds are high in demand and also with good quality and costly. Even a slight variation in diamond color may changes its value. Now-a-days widely using grading system is D-Z color grading scale by GIA’s. In this color grading scale D is colorless and up to Z increase in color. Diamond color don’t change eventually, in case of colorless diamond, they let more light to pass than the colored diamond and releases more fire and radiance.

The color grade of a diamond as follows:

Colorless - D E F

D, E, and F color graded diamonds are high in quality can be detected only by a gemologist and rarely by the naked eye. It is a color less diamond looks icy white or water drop. These are extremely rarest, expensive and high in quality.

Near Colorless - G H I J

G-J graded diamonds are common than the D-F, they have a great value. In this I-J graded diamonds are available with half the price of a D diamond but with good in value and quality.

Faint Color - K L M

K-M graded diamonds have yellow tint and can easily visible to untrained eye. Users will observe and feel too much color with these graded diamonds. These are half the price of a G diamond.

Very Light Color - N-R

N-R color graded diamonds can easily seen yellow and brown tints on them. These are not expensive.

Light Color - S-Z

S-Z color graded diamonds have too much color for white diamonds. These are not original ones.

Diamond Clarity

Natural diamonds are available deep inside the earth’s crust and exposed to tremendous pressure and heat. Due to this they may have some birth marks. These birthmarks are called inclusions (presents inside the diamond) and blemishes (presents outside the diamond). While the diamond clarity is a degree to which a diamond presents blemishes and inclusions. In general diamond clarity comes with purity and rarity. Diamonds with no or little inclusions and blemishes are considered particularly rarest and highly valued. Diamonds with more imperfections are low in value. These internal and external features are only visible to experienced craftsmen under 10x magnification. Diamond Clarity is also important factor to be considered while choosing a diamond. The GIA clarity scale grades diamond clarity from Included to Flawless.

The clarity grading of a diamond ranges from FL (Flawless) to I3 (Included).

FL (Flawless)	No visibility of internal inclusions and external blemishes – Exceptionally rare, high quality, highly expensive
IF (Internally Flawless)	No visibility of internal inclusions - Exceptionally rare, high quality, expensive
VVSI 1&2 (Very Very Slightly Included)	So slight inclusions, but difficult for a skilled craftsmen to see under 10x magnification – Very high in quality, costly
VSI 1&2 (Very Slightly Included)	Inclusions are observed only for the skilled craftsmen under 10x magnification – Very good in quality, costly.
SI 1&2 (Slightly Included)	Inclusions are visible under 10x magnification, may have chances to naked eye also – Good in quality, cost is less than VSI diamonds.

The last range is I 1,2 & 3 (Included), these are easily visible under 10x magnification and also untrained eye and these are very bad in quality and brilliance. So many inclusions are not visible to the trained or untrained eye due to their tiny size. Diamonds with VSI1 and SI2 grade may look exactly same, but they have lot of differences in quality. So this is reason expert evaluation is important for diamonds. It will help users to know the exact quality, brilliance and price of a diamond.

Carat is the unit of weight for a diamond. Diamond carat weight is the measurement used to measure the weight of the diamonds and color gemstones. In simple words, carat of a diamond refers to weight of a stone not its size. However both size and carat weight sounds confusing, but they have lot of difference. Size of a diamond indicates the diameter of it and carat is the overall weight of the diamond. One carat is equals to 200 milligrams or 0.2 grams. Diamond price varies the carat weight. Carat weight changes with the change in shape and cut of a diamond. Diamonds with equal carat weight don’t have the same size due to the difference in measurements.

Two diamonds with same carat weight can have different prices due to color, clarity and cut of it. Price of a diamond increases with carat weight. In general fact that twice the weight of a diamond costs around four times more. In carat weight of a diamond there is a cutoff weight. Usually under size diamonds carry cutoff weight. There are some standard cutoff weights – 0.25 ct., 0.50 ct., 0.75 ct., 0.90 ct., 1.00 ct., 1.50 ct., and 2.00 ct. In the process of maintaining the cutoff weight the beauty of a stone disappears.

The approximate carat weight is given below for round brilliant cut diamond:

Carat Weight	0.20	0.25	0.50	1.00	1.25	1.50	2.00
Round	3.80mm	4.10mm	5.20mm	6.40mm	6.90mm	7.30mm	8.10mm

Why Diamonds?

Diamonds are timeless” because there brilliance never dulls. Diamonds are often linked with qualities of boldness, wealth, precision and radiance. We all very well know that the diamonds hardness very well, so this is the reason everyone called it as ‘Stone of Invincibility’. Diamonds sparkle is ageless, so that’s the reason they became eternal symbol for love and for in case with diamond jewelry also they became the promise for family heirloom. Diamond wearers consider that they bring victory and strength to their lives. With their rarity and beauty they became valuable and with their diversity and versatility they became universal as an engagement and wedding bands. There are so many ancient sayings about the diamonds importance and why people love to wear them. However, the fact that diamonds became our daily companions by touching our skin and creates a physical link between generations, imbued with memories.

Natural and Lab Grown Diamonds

A natural diamond is the name itself says that are formed naturally. Natural diamonds are available in earth’s crust and are formed under very high temperature and pressure. Where Lab created or manmade diamond is made under high temperature and pressure conditions similar to natural diamonds environmental conditions. This duplicate environmental condition is highly controlled and advanced. Lab grown diamonds exhibit the same physical, chemical, and visual characteristics as natural diamonds, and display the same fire, scintillation, and radiance. Only an expert under specialized equipment can differentiate the natural and lab grown diamonds.

How to Identify True Diamonds?

If diamond is an asset in your love, it is important for you to make sure you get it right. Identifying a true diamond is not a big thing to do. Here are some tests for you to check your diamond is real or fake.

Transparency Test: Clean your diamond before doing this test. Place your diamond on a newspaper and try to read the letters through the diamond. If the letters are visible chances that it is a fake one and if it is blur it is real one.
Fog Test: Simple way to test your diamond, Hold your diamond in front of your mouth try fogging up it with your breath. For real diamonds the fog clears in two seconds and for fake ones it takes four seconds to clear.
Scratching Test: Take a piece of glass, place it on a surface and scratch the glass with your diamond. If the diamond scratches the glass it is the original one. But make sure there are chances that scratch test may damage your diamond.
Floating Test: Take a glass of water drop a diamond in it. Real diamond will drop to the bottom of the glass due the high density and fake one will float on the surface of the water.
Fire Test: If you are very serious about finding out whether your diamond is real or fake, you can go for this fire test. Put your diamond under fire for 30 seconds, a real one will left unharmed and a fake one will shatter into pieces.

Preserve Your Diamonds With Simple Caring

Due to diamond setting and everyday wearing make the diamonds to get dirt or venerable to cracking, this impacts the diamonds sparkle. With proper caring and cleaning diamonds will shine for years.

Use mild soap and lukewarm water for diamond soaking. Make sure that the cleaning brush and cloth should be smooth and lint-free.
Store your diamond jewelry separately from other jewelries by wrapping it in a muslin cloth or within jewelry pouches.
Keep your diamond rings and jewelry away from body lotions, cosmetics and perfumes because chemicals in them can harm your diamond. Use them before wearing it.
Avoid iconic cleaning process if your jewelry or ring contains stones other than diamonds. Because the electrical current in the ionic cleaning process adversely affects some gemstones.
Avoid wearing the rings in pools and showers to maintain its brilliance long lasting.
It's imperative to have your diamond jewelry examined by a professional at least once a year.

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