Romancing the Stone
(or, romancing the Lady, with a Stone.)
By Kate Liebers and EJ Green |
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Somehow, the tradition of presenting the ring at the proposal has survived.
Forget the financial gesture of purchasing a diamond; for the proposer, having the ring on-site means he selected a piece of jewelry that someone else is supposed to wear until death does them both part.
That's pressure.
Even those who know exactly what carat and color they want to buy have only begun the diamond shopping experience. One jeweler told us that such a simplistic outlook is the equivalent of going to a dealership and asking to buy a car . . . that's red.
Most diamond guides include the "Four Cs" - carat, cut, clarity, and color - each having quantitative values. Yet there is a fifth, more qualitative "C" to which many jewelers allude: cohesiveness.
"I think gemstones speak to us," said Treva Roberts, owner of Diamonds & Designs in Gahanna. "We find one that speaks to us, and that's the one you should choose."
Yet as romantic as 'going with your heart' may be, price tags speak to us, too.
An engagement ring is a big investment, Roberts agreed. "You want to either really know what you're looking at, or know who you're dealing with," she said.
Compare, for instance, two diamonds from different jewelers. Both may be one-carat certified diamonds, but price could vary by thousands of dollars.
So what makes one diamond worth so much more than another?
"It's hard to point one characteristic over another, because they all work in conjunction," said Roberts. "It's like saying, 'Are my hands more important than my feet?'"
COLOR: Go all out, or go home
The Geological Institute of America established the International Grading System to compare the qualities of diamonds in the 1950s. In terms of color, the GIA color scale ranges from colorless (D) to light yellow (Z) and beyond. Most people with average vision start to see color around J or K, Roberts said.
The closer a diamond is to Z, the poorer the quality; yet, if the hue is beyond Z - if the color is what the industry calls "fancy" - then the worth starts to increase, with what are referred to as "true" colored diamonds.
"Yellow is the most common of the colored diamonds, said Jeff Meyers, seller at Meyers Jewelers in Grove City. "Unless it's the fancy yellow, then it's just a bad diamond," he continued. "Deep yellow is a totally different animal."
From pinks to greens and even browns, these true colored diamonds, while valuable, are not typically sold as an engagement jewel.
"Most people want a white diamond for their engagement ring," Roberts confirmed.
CARAT: Bigger is not always better
"The average engagement ring being requested is one carat. They don't always get it, but that's what they want," said Roberts with a chuckle.
The carat is the metric weight of the stone (one carat is .02 grams). Easy to comprehend, this is one of the first characteristics by which a diamond is labeled. Yet the price between two one-carat diamonds still can vary dramatically; the characteristics that most influence price are those that most influence sparkle.
CLARITY: Diamonds' birthmarks
The clarity is a measure of blemishes in the diamond. The GIA clarity grading scale ranges from flawless (FL) to obvious "inclusions" (I3). The GIA refers to these inclusions as "birthmarks," and states that no diamond is absolutely perfect under 10X magnification - FL diamonds only come close, and are extremely rare.
"Clarity impacts the diamond in terms of brilliance," said Roberts. "If you have too much going on inside, it's not going to be bright."
"But that's also impacted by cut," she continued. "A poorly cut stone can be just as crystal clean on the inside of the diamond as you want and it's not going to sparkle at you, because the light's not reflecting back at your eye."
CUT: Treating diamonds like a piece of meat
A one-carat diamond has the potential to sparkle more than a larger diamond - and therefore have a greater value - depending on the cut. One jeweler compared it to cutting the "fat" off the stone.
"The price of a diamond can be affected up to 50 percent by cut," said Roberts.
"You look at two diamonds and you say, 'Okay, these are both one carat, these are both G in color, these are both SI2 in clarity. How come there's a $2,000 difference?' It's the cut," she explained. "That's going to be your determining factor."
Certain angles are achieved depending on how a diamond is cut. A round diamond traditionally has 58 facets, each cut as small as two millimeters in diameter. According to the GIA, the cut of a diamond affects its allure more than any other element, and it has three attributes: brilliance (total light reflected from a diamond), fire (how the light spreads across the color spectrum), and scintillation (the flashes of light when a diamond is tilted).
As Roberts put it, the cut "is about achieving the angles that allow the light to return to the eye."
About five years ago, the GIA presented the cut grading system, which ranges from "poor" to "excellent."
"You might be able to see the difference between a good to an excellent," said Roberts. "Then you've got another level beyond that, which are the super ideal cuts," adding that these "branded" cuts are a reflection of how computers have influenced the diamond industry.
Originally Published: February 1, 2010
