Most people are well aware of the 4Cs when purchasing a diamond, but what really are the 4Cs and other than the 4Cs, what else should i look out for??
I will first go into explaining the basic 4Cs.
When we talk about the 4Cs, we are talking about the Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat. This should be the correct order we should look at when purchasing a diamond, and not starting with the Carat first, which most people would do.
A bigger diamond, doesn't equates a better diamond. In fact, the bigger the diamond, the more important the other factors are. Cut of a diamond, refers to the proportion and angles a diamond cutter, crafts a piece of rough diamond into a polished, end product, sold in the market. The Cut of a diamond, will result in how well a diamond would sparkle, revealing the brilliance and scintillation of it, and showing its true beauty.
A diamond which is poorly cut, would not be able to show its full potential . No matter how white the diamond is, or how clean it is, the brilliancy of the diamond would not perform to its maximum. How well a piece of diamond is cut, would determine, the return of light (Sparkle) one would see when looking at their diamond under lighting.
In Singapore, there are currently a few jewelers who carries their own brand of Ideal Cut diamonds, namely Lee Hwa Jewelry (Destinee), Soo Kee Jewelry (Fuego), Tian Poh Jewelry (Hearts on Fire) and Larry's Jewelry (Lazare).
They will market the diamonds under different names like Hearts&Arrows, Ideal Cut, Perfect Cut and any other names they can come up with, but in fact, they are all the same diamonds which falls within the set of proportions calculated by Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919. he had calculated that if diamonds are cut within this set of proportions, they will be the most ideal, giving off the most ideal brilliancy and scintillation.
You can take the proportions on top as a guide when getting a diamond, but rest assured that most diamonds which are 0.30ct and above, comes with an appraisal by respectable labs now and you do not have to copy the proportions down. Just a note, insist that the diamond comes with an appraisal, if not, its probably appraised by their own in house gemologists, which more than often are biased when appraising.
In Singapore, the more commonly seen appraisals that we see are, GIA, HRD, IGI and AGS, etc. These are the bigger labs around and are considered as reputable and respectable in their grading. In a report, one would commonly see the grading done on the Cut of the Diamond, whether it's Ideal, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair or Poor. Bear in mind that some labs do not use Ideal, but only Excellent. You can refer to the back of the report or ask from the salesperson for the guide.
For GIA certified diamonds, those that were appraised after year 2006, would come with the Cut Grade as well. But for other laboratories, they do not insist on the Cut Grade as yet.
If the Cut of the diamond is not shown, then look out for the Proportions, Symmetry and Polish.
The Cut of a diamond, affects the price and value of a diamond greatly as this is the only factor which is controlled by Man, whereas the other 3Cs, are natural. What Cut grade should i look for then, would depend on individual's preference and of course, his budget. Personally, i would only go for one, which is at least of a Good Cut.
Is Ideal Cut, really the Ideal one? A lot of times, jewelers will try to sell you their premium diamonds, their Ideal Cut or Fancy Cut diamonds. But if you look carefully at the proportions of the diamonds, a GIA appraised Diamond with Excellent Cut, is in fact no far from a Ideal Cut diamond graded by AGS (AGS is a lab which grades diamonds up to Ideal for its cut grade.) Therefore, one should consider the price difference between the 2 diamonds before making the decision. If the price difference is great and there's visibly not much difference, i would suggest getting a bigger diamond than getting one which is an Ideal Cut.
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