Cut

Cut is easily the most essential feature of a diamond as it determines the overall appearance and quality of the gemstone.
It is also the only aspect of a diamond that is dependent on human manipulation.
It is important to have a proper cut in order to optimize a diamond’s ability to reflect light and sparkle.
A diamond cut too deep or too shallow will not reflect light optimally but will rather leak light through the sides or bottom of the stone, resulting in a lack luster diamond without the brilliance and fire that is distinct in a high quality diamond.
A well-cut diamond refracts light directly from within the stone, allowing no light to escape through, which greatly enhances its scintillation.
There are three main segments to a diamond, the crown, girdle, and pavilion, which give a diamond its basic form.
Within these segments are the details of a diamond’s cut, its facets, which are what allow a diamond to reflect light and cause it to sparkle.
A standard diamond will have between 57 and 58 facets, but can have more or less depending on its shape.
Shape is another aspect of cut and is determined by the cutter of the rough diamond.
The cutter takes into consideration the shape of the rough stone; the position of its imperfections and how much weight will be lost once the diamond is cut.
The most common shape is the round brilliant. Other shapes, known as fancy shapes or fancy cuts include the marquise, pear, oval, emerald, heart, cushion and triangle shapes.
A diamond can be cut in one of three main cutting styles: brilliant-cut, step-cut, or mixed-cut.
These cuts arrange the facets in such a way to create brilliance. Brilliant-cut, the most common, is mostly seen in rounder shaped diamonds and creates a triangular pattern within the diamond.
Step-cut is mostly seen on more rectangular shaped diamonds and creates a step-like pattern within the diamond.
Mixed-cut incorporates aspects of both brilliant and step cuts, with triangle and step-like patterns visible within the inner facets.

Clarity

Diamonds are created deep within the earth under heavy pressure and often contain fractures or minerals and crystals that became trapped during its formation.
These natural imperfections are called inclusions when they occur internally or blemishes when they occur externally.
Any clouds, feathers, crystals or minerals, knots, cavities, cleavage, bearding or graining within a diamond are considered inclusions.
Any polish lines, grain boundaries, naturals, scratches, nicks or pits on the surface of a diamond are considered blemishes.
The amount of imperfections a diamond has is called clarity. Inclusions and blemishes tend to be invisible to the naked eye and are mostly only visible when magnified.
The standard grading system for clarity magnifies a diamond to 10x in order to identify blemishes and inclusions and determines its clarity on an 11-grade scale.
• F and IF: Flawless and Internally Flawless diamonds are the most rare, indicating no imperfections when examined by a skilled grader under 10x magnification.
• VVS1 and VVS2: Very, Very Slightly Included diamonds indicate extremely minute imperfections when examined by a skilled grader under 10x magnification and are considered excellent quality.
• VS1 and VS2: Very Slightly Included diamonds indicate minor imperfections that are only visible by a skilled grader under 10x magnification but are not visible to the unaided eye.
• SI1 and SI2: Slightly Included diamonds indicate noticeable imperfections when examined under 10x magnification, but may also be visible to the unaided eye.
• I2, I2, I3: Included diamonds indicate obvious imperfections when examined under 10x magnification as well as by the unaided eye. The amount of imperfection may hinder the diamond’s ability to reflect light and affect brilliance.
The amount of imperfections is significantly noticeable in different grades of the same category.
While the imperfections in a VS1 and VS2 may be equally visible, the amount of imperfections in a VS2 stone will be greater than in a VS1, and similarly for other categories.
Because most inclusions and blemishes are microscopic, they tend to not affect the overall beauty or value of a diamond.
Imperfections can also be masked by the diamond’s setting and won’t significantly affect its clarity.
When imperfections are obvious under 10x magnification or to the unaided eye, it may directly affect a diamond’s brilliance and value.
However, depending on the cut, some diamonds can still be beautiful and valuable despite obvious inclusions.

Color

Second to cut, color is the most important factor in determining a diamond’s value. The closer a diamond is to colorless directly increases its value.
Typically, diamonds range from colorless to having a light yellow or brown tint, and are graded on a scale from D to Z, with D indicating a colorless diamond and Z indicating the clear presence of color.
D through F grade diamonds are colorless throughout and are the most rare diamonds.
G through J grade diamonds are near colorless, appearing colorless when looked at straight down, but the trained eye can note traces of color.
K through M grade diamonds are a faint yellow color, appearing colorless when looked at straight down, but larger stones will have a visible color throughout.
N through R grade diamonds are a very light yellow color, appearing colorless when looked at straight down, but larger stones will have a visible color throughout.
S through Z grade diamonds are light yellow color, appearing so throughout, even to the untrained eye.
While the lack of color increases the value of a diamond, color is ultimately a personal preference and is often indistinguishable between the grades to the untrained eye.
Diamonds also come in a wide variety of colors and again increase in value when in the “fancy” color category.
Fancy colored diamonds can be found in any color of the spectrum, even in white or black.
Fancy diamonds in pinks and blues are especially valuable and the most rare fancy diamonds are red.

Carat

Carat is used as a measurement of weight for diamonds and other gemstones.
Carat is derived from the word carob, a seed, which was used in ancient civilizations as an equivalent weight of measure for diamonds.
Because merchants used carob seeds to balance their scales when weighing diamonds, one carat equals one carob seed.
One carat equals 0.3 grams or 0.007 and is also roughly the same weight as a paper clip.
The weight value of a carat is broken into 100 points and is equally rounded to the nearest hundredth of a carat.
A .75-carat diamond is also called a 75-pointer or three-quarter diamond. Similar popular carat measures such as the half-carat or full carat can greatly increase a diamond’s price.
There can be a significant price difference between a 0.99-carat diamond and a full-carat diamond.
While carat can affect a diamond’s price, clarity, cut and color must also be taken into consideration.
Two diamonds of the same carat weight can have substantially different values depending on the quality of their cut and the grades of their clarity and color.
The carat weight of a diamond does not affect its size. A diamond can appear larger or smaller depending on its cut or the setting in which it’s placed.
The appearance of a diamond can also be affected by the size of the ring and the finger that wears it, with a 1-carat diamond on a size-5 ring appearing larger than a 1-carat diamond on a size-7 ring.
Diamonds for jewelry are commonly 1-carat or less, however, a diamond with more carats will be more rare and valuable.
A “carat” should also be distinguished from a “karat,” which is a measurement of gold purity and not a measurement of weight.
This is why a ring can have a 1-carat diamond, set in 24 karat gold.