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Cut
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The cut of a diamond consists of five grades, ranging from excellent to poor. Because cut is the biggest factor in how well a diamond transmits light and sparkles, “cut” is often considered the most important element to consider when purchasing a diamond. While we often consider cut to be the shape of a diamond, such as a princess or round cut, the GIA Cut scale is actually about how a diamond’s facets interact with light.
The diamond cut proportions directly affect a diamond’s ability to reflect light and provide brilliance. Proper use of proportions based on the ratios between size, angle and shape of each facet, will determine the diamond’s overall beauty.
A diamond with proper proportions will reflect all the light back to your eyes. This cut is known as an “ideal cut” or “excellent cut”. By contrast, shallow and deep cut diamonds lose most of the light through the bottom of the diamond. The brilliance is dulled, and the diamond becomes less radiant.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
When shopping for round cut diamonds, I highly recommend “excellent” cut diamonds (if grading is done by the GIA), or “ideal” cut diamonds (if graded by the AGS). For any other diamond shape, seeing a high quality image of the diamond is necessary before making the decision to buy it..Fancy shape cut quality can’t be determined using the traditional grading scales or certificate statistics.