DIAMOND EDUCATION

Diamonds 101 - Everything You Need To Know About Diamonds!

Diamonds are one of the most popular gemstones on the face of this earth. We all recall studying about diamonds in our chemistry class, perhaps now with a newfound love. Diamonds are synonymous with the word carbon. These gems are also absolutely stunning and brilliant in appearance, which is the other reason why they are so popular. Graphite, which is also a combination of only carbon atoms, is arranged in a way, which seems poles apart from that of the arrangement of diamonds. Within diamond, the carbon atoms are very strongly bonded and this is the reason being diamond’s hardness. This gives the two different hardness levels, one being as smooth as butter and the other being the hardest material on earth.

The 4C’s are the primary factors that help determine the value of a diamond, namely the Colour, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight. These standardised terms have now become a norm across the industry and are followed synonymously by reputable gem labs world over. Diamonds are known to be as clear as the water that flows from the glaciers - “pristine” and “brilliant”, yet these perfect diamonds have internal characteristics which give each stone its unique character. Inclusions are completely engulfed within the stone and Blemishes are restricted to the surface of the stone, gemologists use these characteristics while grading the clarity of the stone.

The 4C's of Diamond

• Diamond Clarity:

  The clarity grade of a diamond is determined by its characteristics using 10 x magnifications. This helps in viewing inclusions that are not visible with the naked eye. The clarity grade of a diamond as you have seen in the sample diamond reports have a scale, to the left are better clarities with little or no inclusions and blemishes and to the right are highly included stones, with inclusions that can also be seen with an unaided and trained eye.

• Diamond Colour:

  The Colour of diamonds is an important aspect for your understanding as it’s a commonly misunderstood notion that diamonds are colourless. diamonds mostly contain hints of the colour yellow and when they are absolutely clear they are very rare and very expensive. Diamonds can also come in shades of pink, blue, green, red and purple although they are very uncommon in nature.

• Diamond Cut:

  The Cut of a diamond after years of experimentation was finally perfected thereby giving a maximum reflection of light from within the stone. This is determined by light factors - Fire, Scintillation and Brightness. Each polished surface called a facet on a diamond, allows light to enter the stone and the dancing of each ray within makes the stone appear bright and beautiful. Diamonds are known to capture all the light that enter it and lock it inside using a phenomenon called Total Internal Reflection. To make this successful, all the facets must be accurately cut and polished such that the internal reflection comes into the picture. Diamonds always have a Crown, which is the top portion of the stone, a Girdle the middle partition and a Pavilion, which is the bottom section of the stone regardless of its shape.

• Diamond Carat:

  Carat weight of a stone is the measure used to weigh gems. 1 carat is equivalent to 0.2 grams and each carat is subdivided into 100 cents. Because each stone of gem quality is so rare and expensive to excavate, diamonds are very expensive gems. The term pointers also stand for cents, which can be used interchangeably. A 50 pointer would be the same as 50 cent stone both being ½ a carat. You can also expect to pay more for a 1.01-carat stone than a 0.98 cents stone because of the rarity factor, which we will cover through the course.