Quality of Diamonds, Four C's - Guide, Facts

Buying from Online Diamond Jewelry Stores

The secret to buying diamond jewelry is the four C's – Cut, Color, Carat Weight and Clarity.


We will cover some of the intricacies of buying diamond jewelry and the details to look for when buying from online jewelry stores. A guide with facts to help you buy her the perfect diamonds and encapsulate them in the right precious metal to make it a unique gift of the best quality. Most online jewelry stores will indicate the four C’s clearly to help you make a better decision.


Having some idea of how diamond cut and quality is determined, you will be able to make a better choice on many aspects of your engagement ring, wedding band or diamond jewelry and personalize it a great deal. You will also be able to better appreciate how the varoius settings make a big difference on the final look of your diamond jewelry.


Diamond Jewelry - The Four C's of Diamond Quality


The Cut
Lets start with the most important of the four C's - The Cut. The cut refers to the angles and proportions of diamonds. It also includes facets or flat surfaces. So a diamond that is well-cut will reflect light from one facet to another and also from the top of the stone. This gives diamond jewelry that well recognized sparkle or glitter and can have a huge impact on the look of the jewelry. For example if you choose an titanium wedding band in tension setting - it is very important to make sure the diamond is also brilliantly cut so that the light passes through it at the correct angles.


The Color
The next C to look for when buying diamonds is color. The color of diamonds is ranked on a scale from D to Z. If the diamond is D – it is colorless. Z is yellowish. A general fashion guideline you could follow is – diamonds ranging between D-Z look better in white metals such as sterling silver and platinum. The range from K-J looks better set in yellow gold. This of course a guideline. There are many exquisite designs that do not fit into this rule. You can check some out some of these designs at our favorite jewelry stores.


Carat
Carat again like Color is a scale and refers to the physical weight of the diamond or stone. A carat is 100 points, and one carat is 200 miligrams. The higher the carat weight the costlier the diamonds, since a large diamond is rare and very sought after. But, it is not the only thing that determines the price and there are diamonds that may be large but cost less since they cannot be cut as well.


The Diamond Sparkle - Clarity Of Diamonds
The last C is clarity, which refers to the imperfections such as clouds, spots, lines and bubbles. The scale for clarity ranges from flawless – FL, to imperfect - I. Now the important thing to note is that the presence of these imperfections in diamonds will not always be evident to the human eye, but it interferes with the passage of light and results in less “sparkle”.


Cut & Clarity are the two most important qualities to look for when buying a diamond. With the right setting and metal, it can make a very small diamond sparkle like The Centenary