Buying Loose Diamonds
Loose Diamond 4C's
Every diamond reflects the story of its beauty in which it's judged and graded based on certain criteria, Carat Weight, Cut, Clarity, and Color. These features are known as the 4 C's (Cut, Clarity, Carat Weight and Color) which also determine a diamond's price and over-all value.
Many shoppers focus on the diamond's cut and carat weight instead of it's clarity and color when choosing a diamond without understanding that the diamonds cut influences all factors in order to bring to the surface the diamonds true brilliance.
Diamond Cut - Describes the diamonds shape once the rough diamond characteristics are removed during the cutting process.
In some cases the diamond cut can be too shallow, which would allow the light to pass directly through the diamond with holding it's brilliance, or too deep, which will cause the light to bounce off the narrow walls of the diamond reflecting very little brilliance and color. Then there is the perfect cut, which allows the light to remain in the diamond reflecting a wide array of colors, and brilliance if the clarity of the diamond permits.
Diamond Color - Regularly graded on a letter scale from D to Z (D being the best), the color often describes the overall tint of the diamond, from white (with no saturations of hues) to yellow (with faint to vivid saturations of hues) .
The absence of color gives a diamond great value when compared to fancy natural colored diamonds. These diamonds are often graded on another scale in terms of purity and richness of he diamond's color.
Diamond Clarity - The presence of the diamond identifying characteristics on and within the diamond that may occur naturally or because of the amount of stress placed on the diamond during mining.
All diamonds are graded based on appearance--the presence or absence of blemishes and inclusions--under 10x magnification. They are graded on a scale that ranges from Flawless (F) to Imperfect (I1, I2 or I3).
Diamond Carat Weight - Refers to the amount that a diamond weighs when measured on a scale. This in most cases is commonly confused with the size of the diamond.
