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The Four C's Of Diamonds
- Diamond Care
- Cleaning Diamonds
- Diamond Shapes
- Diamond Fluorescence
- Diamond Ring Settings
- Diamond Engagement Rings
- Diamond Certificates
- Buying Loose Diamonds
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The Four C's Of Diamonds
Regardless of why you are planning to
buy diamonds, you will always want to get the highest quality
specimens. While testing and grading diamonds can be a fairly
complicated process, knowing the four C's of diamonds can make them
fairly easy to purchase. When you keep these four
characteristics of diamonds in mind, you will always be able to
determine whether or not you are getting the best value for your money.
Carats
(weight)
It takes 200 mg to make up a single carat. If you
decide to purchase loose, or uncut diamonds, it is important to realize
that some of the material will be removed during the faceting
process. Therefore, if you buy a one carat rough diamond, you
will not wind up with a cut stone of the same weight. In a
similar way, if you purchase two smaller stones that equal one carat,
their combined value will not be as much as the value of a single
stone.
Clarity
When you purchase natural diamonds, it is important to realize that
geological processes do not place a financial value on crystal
formations. Therefore, you will find that millions of
diamonds have other minerals included within their
structure. While some inclusions can be seen with the naked eye,
others are only
visible under magnification. In order to be considered a
flawless diamond, no inclusions should be detected at a magnification
over 10x. Before you buy a flawless diamond, you should have it
assessed in order to find out if inclusions were removed by laser, or
filled in with some other material. Both types of diamonds are worth
significantly less than naturally flawless specimens.
Colour
Even though most diamonds are clear, they also come in many other
colours. Since blue, red, and brown diamonds are harder to
find than clear ones, they are much more valuable. That said,
if you have a choice between a coloured diamond with inclusions and a
flawless clear one, it the two factors may balance out. Depending on the situation, you may decide that you want to have a
coloured diamond, even if it has a few imperfections.
Cut
If you have ever seen diamonds after they are mined, you would wonder
why so many people fall in love with them. In each case, it
takes the skill and artistic eye of a diamond cutter to bring out all
the sparkle and fire of a diamond. Unfortunately, even a perfectly
flawless diamond can be ruined when less than a millimetre of material
is removed in the wrong way. Therefore, it should come as no
surprise that the facets on a diamond are often as carefully studied as
the its colour, clarity, and weight.
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