Whenever we plan to splurge on the diamonds, the important thing that we should look for in a diamond is the 4 C’s i.e. Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat. All these aspects and factors of diamond affect not just the appearance but also the cost of the diamond. The more and better you know about the diamonds the more you can save on the diamond. GIA created globally accepted standard for describing diamonds- Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight.
The 4C’s of Diamond Quality is the universal method for grading the quality of diamonds.
- Clarity
- Cut
- Color
- Carat
These are the common criteria jewelers use when grading diamonds and everyone should understand these basic grading criteria to buy the right diamond. These criteria were created basically to communicate diamond quality, and to help customers know exactly what they were planning to purchase.
- Clarity: Diamond Clarity refers to the absence of inclusions and blemishes. Diamonds have a natural formation. Carbon when exposed to tremendous heat and pressure deep in the earth formed diamond and because of which caused the existence of different internal characteristics called ‘inclusions’ and external characteristics called ‘blemishes’. The hard stones are graded with a 10x Loupe. Diamonds, which are untainted and are completely pure and clean, are the most desired. No diamond is perfectly clean and pure, the higher the purity is, the higher is the value. Let’s see the diamond clarity scale: FL, IF are internally flawless and are of highest quality, VVS1, VVS2 are very very slight and very slight inclusions then comes VS1, VS2 which is very slight and slight inclusion, SI1, SI2 which is slight inclusion and the lowest quality is I1,I3 which is imperfect. In I3 the Inclusions are noticeable under 10x magnification. FL – flawless and IF – internally flawless are generally the rarest and most expensive diamonds.
- Cut: The best cut gives, the best look to the diamond and are very rare and so they are expensive. Diamond comes in different shapes as the sizes do. Round Brilliant, Marquise, Pear, Princess, etc. are some of the shapes. Cut is probably the most important, and most challenging, of the four Cs to understand. The brilliance of a diamond depends heavily on its cut, to understand; the better the cut and its proportions the more brilliant and scintillating the stone will be. There is a trend of referring a beautiful cut as an ideal cut, that has make and table percentage of 52-57, and some say it’s 60-60. The fancier the cut the pricey it gets, the sane way to save up some of your bucks is to get out of ‘the ideal cut’ and pick that is little off make but not too much away too, as it would affect the beauty and appearance of the hard stone. When a diamond is cut too deep the light that enters through the top escapes through the diamond’s bottom and does not allow the maximum beauty of the diamond to come out. Hence, a correct cut has effect on the brilliance a diamond carries. The quality of a diamond’s cut always speaks for itself.
- Color: Depending on likes and preference one chooses the color, but the important thing to remember here is diamond with little or no color are rarest and most expensive. Diamonds comes in every color of the rainbow. We often hear people saying that the best color for a diamond is no color or colorless. Diamonds with grade D,E and F are generally considered colorless and are the most rarest and expensive. Colors are basically graded totally colorless to light yellow, the GIA rates the color in white diamonds from D to Z anything below the grade G, the cost keeps going down.
- Carat weight: Carat is nothing but the actual weight of the diamond, the larger the diamond, the more costly and valuable it becomes. One carat is 100 points; the number of carat a diamond has is the other way of seeing how much the diamond weighs and not always how big or large it is. Large diamonds are found less as compared to small diamonds, the price of a diamond rises proportionally to its carat size. The carat weight of a diamond determines the values and prices of a diamond. Diamond price increases with diamond carat weight, because larger diamonds are rarer and more desirable. Diamond’s value is determined using all of the 4Cs, and not just solely carat weight.
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