Diamonds - The 4 Cs

Cut

When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light reflects from one facet to another and disperses through the top of the stone, this results with a display of sparkle. The shape of a diamond is a matter of personal taste, with the round brilliant cut the most popular of the shapes. Other shapes include emerald cut, pear shape, marquise, oval and heart shape.

Colour

While most diamonds appear white, many of them display hints of colour barely discernable to the naked eye. The closer a diamond approaches colourless, the rarer and more valuable the stone.

Diamonds with a strong pure colour are extremely rare and are called “fancies”. Among them can be found pink, blue, yellow, green and orange.

Colour is graded on a scale from “D” being colourless through to “Z” being tinted.

Clarity

Diamonds clarity is determined by the degree to which it is free from naturally occurring inclusions.

The number, type, colour, size and position of the internal marks can effect a diamonds value. Many marks are invisible to t he naked eye and require a 10x magnification before they become apparent. The less inclusions the rarer the stone.

Clarity is graded from Flawless to “I3” (inclusions visible to the naked eye).

Carat weight

Carat refers to weight and therefore the size of a diamond. 1 Carat is divided into 100 points hence a diamond weighing half a carat is 50 points or 0.50-carat. Size can be the most immediate factor in the value of a diamond but two diamonds of equal size can have very different values depending on their cut, colour and clarity.