This tutorial is about the true value and cost of diamond. The aim of this tutorial is to teach you more about the product that you are spending so much time learning about rather than simply teaching you how to select the perfect one. I also think it will be a nice break away from the technical topics. Let me take you through a journey of how a diamond gets to be on your fiancée’s ring. On the way, you will discover why diamond is so special, why it can be so expensive and why diamonds can cost differently depending on where they are from.
Diamond in Nature
Did you know the time it takes diamond to form in nature can be up to 3 billion years? Not only that, it takes high temperatures and extreme pressures (something like 1,300 degrees Celsius and 60,000 times atmospheric pressure). I think it’s safe to say that we can think of if it as if the earth is not making any more diamond naturally. Diamonds can also arrive from meteors, what are known as ‘impact diamonds’, these are generally of industrial grade quality. Remember last year (September 2012) when Russia announced they had trillions of carats worth of diamonds within its Popigai crater? Well I had just purchased my diamond ring and I was glad to learn that the find does not affect the price of gem quality diamonds. In fact, the retail price of gem quality diamond does not even correlate well with diamond rough prices. Great, so we conclude diamonds are rare in nature, but you already knew that.
rough
(The above image is a wiki commons image, a freely licensed media file repository)
Diamonds form at a depth of about 150km in the earth, basically nowhere humans can survive let alone mine so luckily they are brought to more accessible diamond mines by volcanic activity. Mining diamonds, like mining any gemstone, is a combination of hard work and luck. A rather sobering thought is that diamonds can be mined by children as young as seven years old; sometimes thousands of children working six to seven days a week. Out of all rough diamonds mined, less than 20% are gem quality, meaning that their clarity is high enough to be made into a gemstone. It is said that D-E color diamonds make up less than 2% of all diamonds mined. On top of this, only a very small percentage of diamond ore actually contains diamond rough. It is estimated that on average 250 tonnes (50 million carats) of ore has to be removed from the earth before a one carat diamond is found. The rarity of diamond in nature cannot be disputed, but its economic rarity is highly disputed, as it does seem like there is a huge surplus supply (just search on Blue Nile). But the reserves that the De Beers Company had are now all but expended and there hasn’t really been a major diamond find in years that have produced high quality gem diamonds. The fact is, the demand for the highest quality cut diamonds is increasing probably at a faster rate than the production of these highest cut quality diamonds.
Diamond Around the World
Botswana, Russia, Canada, Angola, Congo, and South Africa are the largest gem quality diamond exporters in the world and together make up 94% of the world’s entire output. Most of the diamond-exporting countries are relatively poor. The GDP of these countries are: Botswana ($17.6B), Angola ($118.7B), Congo ($17.7B), and South Africa ($384.3B). The United States in comparison is $15.7T and Google is worth around $280B. Many of these countries are also filled with conflict and diamonds have been used to finance many wars in the past and present. These diamonds are known as conflict diamonds, and the topic has inspired Hollywood movie “Blood Diamond (2006)”. The movie promoted widespread knowledge about conflict diamonds and sparked increased demand for ‘conflict-free’ diamonds sourced from countries like Canada. This is why Canadian diamonds can sell for a high premium, sometimes up to 20%. A diamond of Canadian origin will be inscribed with a maple leaf symbol on a GIA certificate. If you purchase a Canadian diamond, remember to ask your vendor for proof of origin documents. All of the above mentioned countries are participants of the Kimberley Process. I will quote from the Kimberley Process website:
“Under the terms of the KPCS, participating states must meet ‘minimum requirements’ and must put in place national legislation and institutions; export, import and internal controls; and also commit to transparency and the exchange of statistical data. Participants can only legally trade with other participants who have also met the minimum requirements of the scheme, and international shipments of rough diamonds must be accompanied by a KP certificate guaranteeing that they are conflict-free.”
“So far, South Africa, Canada, Russia, Botswana, the European Union, India, Namibia, Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United States of America have chaired the KP”
India, Israel, and Belgium are the world’s major cutting centres. Over the years, there has been a shift in cutting volume from Europe to Asia. The reason the major source of cutting has shifted from Belgium, to Israel, and now to India and China is because of the increasing costs of cutting. I think it is a fair speculation that the cheaper a diamond is cut, the lower the quality we can expect. If I were buying blind, I would probably prefer a diamond cut in Belgium or Israel rather than India or China. However, unless you are purchasing from a trusted vendor or wholesaler, it is unlikely that you will know exactly where your diamond was cut.
The largest demand for the final product comes from the United States, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Singapore. Now being from Hong Kong, I can safely say that we are listed up there purely because the demand is coming from China but it is Hong Kong diamond companies that are buying all the diamonds. China is also becoming a major diamond-cutting centre in its own right.
Why Diamond is Special
So what is so special about diamond? Diamond appeals to a lot of people because of its various top-performing characteristics. Most people know it is the hardest material in the world. But it also has the highest thermo conductivity (about 2.5x that of copper) with a higher melting temperature than copper, and great electric resistivity, making it uniquely useful in some specialist electronic applications like semi-conductors used in transistors.
We of course, buy gem quality diamond for its optical properties. Pure diamond is transparent and colorless. Its lustre is described as ‘adamantine’, which literally means ‘diamond-like’ and is the highest description reserved for those materials with a refractive index of 1.9 or more. Diamond’s refractive index is 2.54. In comparison, cubic zirconia has a refractive index around 2.2 and sapphire has a refractive index around 1.7. Diamond also does not have a double refraction because it is an isotropic material. A light ray entering an anisotropic material like cubic zirconia will make the light ray split into two rays. The existence of double refraction is a dead give-away for many diamond simulants and we will discuss this more in a later tutorial.
So whether you are appalled by diamond’s history of conflict or how it is mined, or drawn to it by its rarity; whether you’re fascinated with its uniqueness as a material, or mesmerised by its beauty; I hope that having read this tutorial that you can better understand and appreciate the value and true cost of your diamond.
Sunday 1 September 2013
Friday 30 August 2013
Crafted by Infinity Review
Crafted by Infinity is a brand that is manufactured by Infinity Diamonds, a small cutting house with the aim of cutting the highest quality diamonds in the world. Rather than selling their brand themselves, these diamonds are sold exclusively by several dealers. There are some immediate advantages to this. The first that is evident to me is that the quality of the product will likely be higher because of the additional vetting process by the nature of having more parties involved. Second is that the cutting house is more focused on what they specialise in and don’t have other internal pressures to save costs by retaining carat weight on their diamonds. Third is that the brand probably has some kind of unique look about them that can be immediately recognisable.
As I was browsing the Crafted by Infinity website doing this review, I came across an important point they state on their website; that is, cut grading is in its infancy and unlike color or clarity, what is graded excellent today may not be excellent in a few years time. This can have serious implications on the future value of the diamond you purchase. Of course, you don’t have to purchase an Infinity diamond in order to protect yourself, that is what Prosumer Diamonds is here for. Also, there are many reasons why precision cutting and H&A may never become a recognised superior cut grade by the major labs.
Crafted by Infinity makes an effort to market their diamonds as ‘superideal’. They claim that their diamonds are cut to such rare standards that it is more rare than D color and IF clarity. They make a point to say that they cut ‘only’ 1000 diamonds per year. They say that their brand’s best feature is “Flawless Cut”, which is the only cut grade they aspire to. I have no problems with most of these claims, as they are mostly true. For example, I know that superideal cut diamonds are in the top 1% of all diamonds cut and D-E color diamonds make up around 2% of diamonds.
Although there is also no standard for what a flawless cut is, we do know that most H&A diamonds have minor defects. Diamonds that have several minor defects or a single major defects will not be considered H&A by some vendors. So I can tell how strict a H&A vendor is by how many defects they accept as part of their brand.
I spoke with Paul Slegers, Managing Director at Infinity Diamonds, and he explained to me what they mean when they say their diamonds have a flawless cut is that their standard of flawless craftsmanship is that no defects can be seen under 10x magnification. I think this is fair, considering that GIA grades all other aspects of the diamond under the same magnification power. This is a point that I will bear in mind when I come to reviewing their images below.
On the Infinity Diamonds website, you will find a link to their dealers around the world. As I look through the list, the two vendors I have heard of already are High Performance Diamonds by Wink Jones and Diamonds by Lauren by David Friedlander. Basically, each online vendor will carry the same list of Infinity diamonds for the same price, using the same search engine. Please note that only some vendors offer a 5% wire discount and I would recommend High Performance Diamonds because Wink is one of the more active experts and it won’t hurt to see if he will give you an additional Pricescope discount. The search engine is pretty basic and you can only choose between round and princess cuts, the 4C’s, and price. Lets see if there really isn’t any need to have advanced search functions.
I first notice that there are only about 100 diamonds in total, but I managed to find 6 G to H VS2 diamonds to compare.
It takes a little bit more time than usual to get to the useful information on Infinity’s system. The table, depth, pavilion, and crown information is only visible if you click on a button labelled ‘expert details’. Even then, there isn’t any immediate information about the lower girdle length or girdle thickness information and you have to find that information on the AGS lab report yourself. As far as I can tell, all of the Infinity diamonds are graded by AGS, which has both its positives and negatives, as you will know from previous tutorials. One positive is that Infinity provides AGS lab reports that also have the hearts images. But be aware that the ASET images seen in the AGS lab report is generated digitally and contains potential scanning errors such that it is not a true representation of the diamond but rather a good approximation that cannot replace the actual images.
I collected the data from the 6 diamonds and put in them in the table below:
Infinity Table
As the prices and availability of these diamonds will inevitably change, please visit the source directly for the most up-to-date prices. They also have higher quality images.
1.03 Ct. G VS2
1.09 Ct. G VS2
1.18 Ct. G VS2
1.01 Ct. H VS2
1.05 Ct. H VS2
1.09 Ct. H VS2
All of these diamonds have thin to medium girdles, which helps the 1.01 ct stone to reach that 6.5mm mark that is expected of an ideal 1ct diamond. Apart from this, the only things I can comment on is that the table size is generally between 55% and 57% and each one has a total depth under 62%. From the small sample above, it does not seem like there is a specific pavilion angle that these diamonds are cut to like the Brian Gavin Diamonds stones. This is a positive for those who are looking to squeeze the last bit of carat weight into the diameter of the diamond. The theme of spread continues as I look at the crown facets. All of them are between 34 – 34.5 degrees and this means two things – better spread and increased light return under the table.
Finally I have a look at the lower girdle facets and all but 2 of them have a 78% lower girdle length with the other two 75% and 77%. Although probably not representative of all of their diamonds, I can only conclude that there is not a single contrast pattern of the arrows on all Infinity diamonds and you still have that freedom to choose your preference. It also seems like the lower girdle facets are cut so that they are just under 78.5% lower girdle length in order to achieve a hearts pattern that does not have a clear clef in the middle of the hearts.
So far all of the numbers look good right? Well we know that these numbers only tell half the story so lets get into the hearts image and idealscope images to see how the Crafted by Infinity diamonds hold up to their reputation.
Light Performance
Here are the 6 idealscope images.
table of idealscopes
(The above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
From a light performance point of view, all of the diamonds above seem to look good in their idealscopes with no visible leakage under the table. The light return also seems very balanced throughout the diamond. Although it may seem like there is no leakage in the upper girdles and that there may be some crown-only painting, it is not the case here as I think this is more to do with photography.
actualinfinity Eightstar
(The use of the above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds and Good Old Gold respectively, used with permission.)
For now, you can find the actual picture here and an example of the idealscope from an Eightstar diamond here, scroll 3/4 way down the page.
You can see from the actual image of the 1.03 GVS2 that there is some contrast in the upper girdles, which is eliminated when the girdle is painted. Also compare the idealscope images of the 1.03 GVS2 with the Eightstar diamond that has crown-only painting. You can see that the idealscope images of the Infinity diamonds are clearly not the same.
Optical Symmetry
table of hearts
(This image is courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
At first glance, the rest of the diamonds seem to have some obvious defects. But it turns out that most of these defects are actually illusions and I would like to thank both John Pollard and Paul Slegers for taking the time and effort to go out of their way to educate me further on the photography issues discussed below. Let me explain with an illustration. The first row of images are computer simulated images of the actual diamond.
camera-tilt
(The above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
You can see how just 1 degree of tilt in any part of the photography setup (camera lens, body, tripod, table, floor) can create the above illusion. This means we cannot jump to conclusions regarding yaw just because we see some distortion. Please also note that if the setup is perfectly level, the only other thing that can cause this effect is tilt of the table facet. A 1-degree tilt will be caught by the lab symmetry grade, and as Infinity diamonds are all graded excellent symmetry by the AGS, the issue here is not a tilted table facet.
Apart from the first diamond (1.03 GVS2), all the diamonds in my sample seem to be affected by tilted photography. Although this isn’t particularly helpful to us discerning prosumers, it just takes a little more effort to recognise the effect of camera-tilt in photographs. If possible, you should always go and see these diamonds for yourself.
Having studied the above photographs in depth, I have found the best way to detect any yaw that is not an illusion is to find the line of symmetry in the diamond. Once you identify the line of symmetry, you can eliminate the effects of one axis of tilt. Then you can check whether all the V’s are still a bit smaller on one side of the imaginary line of symmetry than the other to determine whether there is tilt in the other axis. Any distortion of the V’s that cannot be explained consistently by camera-tilt will have to be assumed to be yaw, or ‘twist’, which is distortion of the diamond in the azimuth.
Camera-tilt not only causes the illusion of yaw, but also produces what appears to be clefs in between the hearts. You can detect ‘fake’ clefs by noting how close the heart is from the V. If there are hearts in the image that show no clefs but are further from the V, yet hearts that have clefs are closer to the V, then you know that the clefs are illusions from camera-tilt. Looking at the hearts images of the 6 sampled diamonds, I can conclude that all the larger clefs that can be seen are illusions due to camera-tilt.
So now let me get to the minor defects that I see that are not apparently caused by camera-tilt. I will start with the first diamond in the table, which is the 1.03 GVS2. Take a look at the heart at the 12 o’clock position, this heart is slightly smaller than most of the rest. You can see that the gap between the heart and the V is bigger than all the rest apart from the opposing heart. The idealscope tells the story more clearly the larger hotspot in between the second and third arrow is a clear indicator of a smaller heart. In the case of this diamond, the opposing heart appears to be also slightly smaller. Having dealt with camera-tilt above, I would not rule out potential photography issues as the cause of this, but as it stands, this diamond misses the mark as a true H&A in my books.
Now take a look at the fifth diamond, some of the hearts look like they are touching the V’s indicating shorter lower girdles. Correcting for camera-tilt, it seems like the hearts will just barely not touch the V’s. I’m pretty sure that this is the diamond with the 75% lower girdle length as stated on the certificate. Although not a cause for rejection, this may be a consideration for you if you are a H&A purist. Finally, although not a cut issue, I also noticed an inclusion that reflects around the pavilion in the third diamond, what is known as a ‘reflector’. This is not good for a VS2 diamond and you can definitely find better.
Having considered all the information, and inspecting the hearts images of all 6 diamonds thoroughly, I have come to the conclusion that notwithstanding the camera-tilt, it is apparent to me that at least 5 out of the 6 diamonds are cut to the highest level of precision and are deserving of the super-ideal qualification.
Price
The price of a Crafted by Infinity diamond carries a price premium that is expected of a top-of-the-line super-ideal H&A brand. A comparison with the online vendors that move far greater volumes of diamonds just doesn’t seem fair. Remember that Infinity Diamonds primarily targets showroom clientele and viewed in this light, their prices are justified and even provide greater value than other popular brands (Tiffany, Cartier, Hearts on Fire, etc). I’m just glad to see that outfits like High Performance Diamonds are still providing an opportunity for online consumers access to these diamonds.
Value Added Services
As Crafted by Infinity is not a retailer themselves, each of their dealers will have their own value added services so I will not go over them here. There is one interesting value add that Crafted by Infinity provides and that is their ‘Meet the Cutter’ events. This gives a chance for any Infinity owner to go to any one of their dealers who is holding one of these events where they get to meet the person who cuts their diamond. Diamond prosumers should find this an interesting and valuable chance to learn about diamonds so if you’re lucky enough to be in the area of one of the dealers, then this may be something worth your consideration.
Conclusion
I had a great time doing this review, not only did I learn a lot more about Infinity Diamonds, which I hope I have successfully conveyed on to you, I also learned a lot about how market trends and photography has changed the diamond industry.
I found that the diamonds I reviewed had excellent spread for a well-cut diamond so you will get a good sized diamond for the stated carat weight. If spread is important to you and you want a super-ideal diamond then Crafted by Infinity may be a good option for you. The diamonds I reviewed also tend toward the brighter side of my recommended range of proportions rather than the dispersive side. Their excellent spread is due to their attention given to the thin to medium girdles, close to 56% table percentage, 40.7-degree pavilion angles, and close to 34-degree crown angles.
The only problem that I identified with Infinity Diamonds is with their photography setup, as the camera-tilt makes it harder for consumers to make online purchasing decisions. If you need help interpreting any of their images online, please feel free to send me an email and I will try my best to help you out. I hope that Infinity Diamonds will be able to one day improve the quality of their photography.
I want my readers to appreciate the investment that is needed in order to produce high quality pictures and that it can be a burden on a small cutting house such as Infinity Diamonds. If you have any concerns regarding optical symmetry, Wink Jones at High Performance Diamonds, who carries the Crafted by Infinity brand has a ‘See It To Believe It” (SITBI) program where you can see the diamond for yourself before you buy it.
The bottom line is that if you’re looking to seek comfort from a reputable brand name who produces some of the best looking precision cut diamonds in the world, then you should consider a diamond that is Crafted by Infinity. I recommend those seeking a Crafted by Infinity diamond to demand nothing short of top-of-the-line optical symmetry that is expected of their cutting house and brand.
As I was browsing the Crafted by Infinity website doing this review, I came across an important point they state on their website; that is, cut grading is in its infancy and unlike color or clarity, what is graded excellent today may not be excellent in a few years time. This can have serious implications on the future value of the diamond you purchase. Of course, you don’t have to purchase an Infinity diamond in order to protect yourself, that is what Prosumer Diamonds is here for. Also, there are many reasons why precision cutting and H&A may never become a recognised superior cut grade by the major labs.
Crafted by Infinity makes an effort to market their diamonds as ‘superideal’. They claim that their diamonds are cut to such rare standards that it is more rare than D color and IF clarity. They make a point to say that they cut ‘only’ 1000 diamonds per year. They say that their brand’s best feature is “Flawless Cut”, which is the only cut grade they aspire to. I have no problems with most of these claims, as they are mostly true. For example, I know that superideal cut diamonds are in the top 1% of all diamonds cut and D-E color diamonds make up around 2% of diamonds.
Although there is also no standard for what a flawless cut is, we do know that most H&A diamonds have minor defects. Diamonds that have several minor defects or a single major defects will not be considered H&A by some vendors. So I can tell how strict a H&A vendor is by how many defects they accept as part of their brand.
I spoke with Paul Slegers, Managing Director at Infinity Diamonds, and he explained to me what they mean when they say their diamonds have a flawless cut is that their standard of flawless craftsmanship is that no defects can be seen under 10x magnification. I think this is fair, considering that GIA grades all other aspects of the diamond under the same magnification power. This is a point that I will bear in mind when I come to reviewing their images below.
On the Infinity Diamonds website, you will find a link to their dealers around the world. As I look through the list, the two vendors I have heard of already are High Performance Diamonds by Wink Jones and Diamonds by Lauren by David Friedlander. Basically, each online vendor will carry the same list of Infinity diamonds for the same price, using the same search engine. Please note that only some vendors offer a 5% wire discount and I would recommend High Performance Diamonds because Wink is one of the more active experts and it won’t hurt to see if he will give you an additional Pricescope discount. The search engine is pretty basic and you can only choose between round and princess cuts, the 4C’s, and price. Lets see if there really isn’t any need to have advanced search functions.
I first notice that there are only about 100 diamonds in total, but I managed to find 6 G to H VS2 diamonds to compare.
It takes a little bit more time than usual to get to the useful information on Infinity’s system. The table, depth, pavilion, and crown information is only visible if you click on a button labelled ‘expert details’. Even then, there isn’t any immediate information about the lower girdle length or girdle thickness information and you have to find that information on the AGS lab report yourself. As far as I can tell, all of the Infinity diamonds are graded by AGS, which has both its positives and negatives, as you will know from previous tutorials. One positive is that Infinity provides AGS lab reports that also have the hearts images. But be aware that the ASET images seen in the AGS lab report is generated digitally and contains potential scanning errors such that it is not a true representation of the diamond but rather a good approximation that cannot replace the actual images.
I collected the data from the 6 diamonds and put in them in the table below:
Infinity Table
As the prices and availability of these diamonds will inevitably change, please visit the source directly for the most up-to-date prices. They also have higher quality images.
1.03 Ct. G VS2
1.09 Ct. G VS2
1.18 Ct. G VS2
1.01 Ct. H VS2
1.05 Ct. H VS2
1.09 Ct. H VS2
All of these diamonds have thin to medium girdles, which helps the 1.01 ct stone to reach that 6.5mm mark that is expected of an ideal 1ct diamond. Apart from this, the only things I can comment on is that the table size is generally between 55% and 57% and each one has a total depth under 62%. From the small sample above, it does not seem like there is a specific pavilion angle that these diamonds are cut to like the Brian Gavin Diamonds stones. This is a positive for those who are looking to squeeze the last bit of carat weight into the diameter of the diamond. The theme of spread continues as I look at the crown facets. All of them are between 34 – 34.5 degrees and this means two things – better spread and increased light return under the table.
Finally I have a look at the lower girdle facets and all but 2 of them have a 78% lower girdle length with the other two 75% and 77%. Although probably not representative of all of their diamonds, I can only conclude that there is not a single contrast pattern of the arrows on all Infinity diamonds and you still have that freedom to choose your preference. It also seems like the lower girdle facets are cut so that they are just under 78.5% lower girdle length in order to achieve a hearts pattern that does not have a clear clef in the middle of the hearts.
So far all of the numbers look good right? Well we know that these numbers only tell half the story so lets get into the hearts image and idealscope images to see how the Crafted by Infinity diamonds hold up to their reputation.
Light Performance
Here are the 6 idealscope images.
table of idealscopes
(The above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
From a light performance point of view, all of the diamonds above seem to look good in their idealscopes with no visible leakage under the table. The light return also seems very balanced throughout the diamond. Although it may seem like there is no leakage in the upper girdles and that there may be some crown-only painting, it is not the case here as I think this is more to do with photography.
actualinfinity Eightstar
(The use of the above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds and Good Old Gold respectively, used with permission.)
For now, you can find the actual picture here and an example of the idealscope from an Eightstar diamond here, scroll 3/4 way down the page.
You can see from the actual image of the 1.03 GVS2 that there is some contrast in the upper girdles, which is eliminated when the girdle is painted. Also compare the idealscope images of the 1.03 GVS2 with the Eightstar diamond that has crown-only painting. You can see that the idealscope images of the Infinity diamonds are clearly not the same.
Optical Symmetry
table of hearts
(This image is courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
At first glance, the rest of the diamonds seem to have some obvious defects. But it turns out that most of these defects are actually illusions and I would like to thank both John Pollard and Paul Slegers for taking the time and effort to go out of their way to educate me further on the photography issues discussed below. Let me explain with an illustration. The first row of images are computer simulated images of the actual diamond.
camera-tilt
(The above images are courtesy of Infinity Diamonds, used with permission.)
You can see how just 1 degree of tilt in any part of the photography setup (camera lens, body, tripod, table, floor) can create the above illusion. This means we cannot jump to conclusions regarding yaw just because we see some distortion. Please also note that if the setup is perfectly level, the only other thing that can cause this effect is tilt of the table facet. A 1-degree tilt will be caught by the lab symmetry grade, and as Infinity diamonds are all graded excellent symmetry by the AGS, the issue here is not a tilted table facet.
Apart from the first diamond (1.03 GVS2), all the diamonds in my sample seem to be affected by tilted photography. Although this isn’t particularly helpful to us discerning prosumers, it just takes a little more effort to recognise the effect of camera-tilt in photographs. If possible, you should always go and see these diamonds for yourself.
Having studied the above photographs in depth, I have found the best way to detect any yaw that is not an illusion is to find the line of symmetry in the diamond. Once you identify the line of symmetry, you can eliminate the effects of one axis of tilt. Then you can check whether all the V’s are still a bit smaller on one side of the imaginary line of symmetry than the other to determine whether there is tilt in the other axis. Any distortion of the V’s that cannot be explained consistently by camera-tilt will have to be assumed to be yaw, or ‘twist’, which is distortion of the diamond in the azimuth.
Camera-tilt not only causes the illusion of yaw, but also produces what appears to be clefs in between the hearts. You can detect ‘fake’ clefs by noting how close the heart is from the V. If there are hearts in the image that show no clefs but are further from the V, yet hearts that have clefs are closer to the V, then you know that the clefs are illusions from camera-tilt. Looking at the hearts images of the 6 sampled diamonds, I can conclude that all the larger clefs that can be seen are illusions due to camera-tilt.
So now let me get to the minor defects that I see that are not apparently caused by camera-tilt. I will start with the first diamond in the table, which is the 1.03 GVS2. Take a look at the heart at the 12 o’clock position, this heart is slightly smaller than most of the rest. You can see that the gap between the heart and the V is bigger than all the rest apart from the opposing heart. The idealscope tells the story more clearly the larger hotspot in between the second and third arrow is a clear indicator of a smaller heart. In the case of this diamond, the opposing heart appears to be also slightly smaller. Having dealt with camera-tilt above, I would not rule out potential photography issues as the cause of this, but as it stands, this diamond misses the mark as a true H&A in my books.
Now take a look at the fifth diamond, some of the hearts look like they are touching the V’s indicating shorter lower girdles. Correcting for camera-tilt, it seems like the hearts will just barely not touch the V’s. I’m pretty sure that this is the diamond with the 75% lower girdle length as stated on the certificate. Although not a cause for rejection, this may be a consideration for you if you are a H&A purist. Finally, although not a cut issue, I also noticed an inclusion that reflects around the pavilion in the third diamond, what is known as a ‘reflector’. This is not good for a VS2 diamond and you can definitely find better.
Having considered all the information, and inspecting the hearts images of all 6 diamonds thoroughly, I have come to the conclusion that notwithstanding the camera-tilt, it is apparent to me that at least 5 out of the 6 diamonds are cut to the highest level of precision and are deserving of the super-ideal qualification.
Price
The price of a Crafted by Infinity diamond carries a price premium that is expected of a top-of-the-line super-ideal H&A brand. A comparison with the online vendors that move far greater volumes of diamonds just doesn’t seem fair. Remember that Infinity Diamonds primarily targets showroom clientele and viewed in this light, their prices are justified and even provide greater value than other popular brands (Tiffany, Cartier, Hearts on Fire, etc). I’m just glad to see that outfits like High Performance Diamonds are still providing an opportunity for online consumers access to these diamonds.
Value Added Services
As Crafted by Infinity is not a retailer themselves, each of their dealers will have their own value added services so I will not go over them here. There is one interesting value add that Crafted by Infinity provides and that is their ‘Meet the Cutter’ events. This gives a chance for any Infinity owner to go to any one of their dealers who is holding one of these events where they get to meet the person who cuts their diamond. Diamond prosumers should find this an interesting and valuable chance to learn about diamonds so if you’re lucky enough to be in the area of one of the dealers, then this may be something worth your consideration.
Conclusion
I had a great time doing this review, not only did I learn a lot more about Infinity Diamonds, which I hope I have successfully conveyed on to you, I also learned a lot about how market trends and photography has changed the diamond industry.
I found that the diamonds I reviewed had excellent spread for a well-cut diamond so you will get a good sized diamond for the stated carat weight. If spread is important to you and you want a super-ideal diamond then Crafted by Infinity may be a good option for you. The diamonds I reviewed also tend toward the brighter side of my recommended range of proportions rather than the dispersive side. Their excellent spread is due to their attention given to the thin to medium girdles, close to 56% table percentage, 40.7-degree pavilion angles, and close to 34-degree crown angles.
The only problem that I identified with Infinity Diamonds is with their photography setup, as the camera-tilt makes it harder for consumers to make online purchasing decisions. If you need help interpreting any of their images online, please feel free to send me an email and I will try my best to help you out. I hope that Infinity Diamonds will be able to one day improve the quality of their photography.
I want my readers to appreciate the investment that is needed in order to produce high quality pictures and that it can be a burden on a small cutting house such as Infinity Diamonds. If you have any concerns regarding optical symmetry, Wink Jones at High Performance Diamonds, who carries the Crafted by Infinity brand has a ‘See It To Believe It” (SITBI) program where you can see the diamond for yourself before you buy it.
The bottom line is that if you’re looking to seek comfort from a reputable brand name who produces some of the best looking precision cut diamonds in the world, then you should consider a diamond that is Crafted by Infinity. I recommend those seeking a Crafted by Infinity diamond to demand nothing short of top-of-the-line optical symmetry that is expected of their cutting house and brand.
Thursday 22 August 2013
Pricescope Rockytalky Review: Aprilbaby
It’s time for another Pricescope Rockytalky review!
I noticed yet another recent thread that had an interesting question about Whiteflash ACAs. The specific question was whether all ACAs are made exactly the same and would PSers ever recommend against one? The question was raised because of concerns that the ASETs and Idealscope of some ACAs, in particular those under half a carat, varied a bit and that some idealscope also showed what appears to be leakage.
You can read the original thread here.
The short answer would be no they are not all made exactly the same and Whiteflash does not claim that they are. The simple reason being that there are always going to be borderline cases, and you would also expect the rare but unavoidable human error. The general answer is that yes, if you purchase a Whiteflash ACA, it is very highly likely that you will be a satisfied customer. The full answer, however, would require some knowledge of how a diamond is cut, which is going to be the topic of a future tutorial. For now, it is sufficient to know that diamonds cut to super-ideal standards are precision cut, and the cutter is usually able to cut the diamond very precisely. Also, if you’ve read all my tutorials, you will know precisely how each facet affects the appearance of diamond. Equipped with this knowledge, you too would expect there to always be an explanation for what you can see in any image of a diamond whether actual or light performance related.
In the thread, three ACAs in total were brought up for discussion. The first two were compared first:
Diamond 1
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2684406.htm
Diamond 2
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2982215.htm
The first question about these two diamonds was whether Diamond 1 had a better idealscope than Diamond 2. The person who posed the question thought that Diamond 2’s ASET was more dull and the idealscope was more grey and less vibrant. The more experienced PSers handled the question well noting that you should not be comparing the color saturation of different ASET images with each other.
However, no one seemed to look more carefully to see what else could explain the differences seen. Without even looking at the idealscope, you can see that Diamond 1 has more contrast around the edge of the diamond. This is because Diamond 2 has slightly painted girdles. This is of course verified by looking at the idealscope and what I believe is the proper answer to why the idealscope appeared more grey is actually because it has more deep reds in the upper girdles. It is often difficult for untrained eyes to distinguish dark-greys and deep reds in idealscope images. The ASET also tells the same story and you can see it manifesting as ever slightly increased green areas, lengthening in the upper girdles and thickening around the stars facets.
Does the existence of slight painting change what I think about ACAs? Certainly not, because it still exuberates a familiar characteristic contrast pattern under the table facets. You can think of slight painting as a sprinkle or topping to the diamond that you can choose whether to go with or without. Be minded that the reason slight painting is used here is most likely to ensure the diamond is over 1ct in weight.
The next comparison was between Diamond 2 and Diamond 3 below:
Diamond 3
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2949573.htm
Interestingly, Diamond 3 is a good example of why an ASET tells a clearer story than the idealscope. Untrained eyes are not likely to notice the widening of the leakage areas around the edges indicating steeper upper girdles in an idealscope image. The upper girdles are not so steep that they cause obvious leakage, but under the ASET, it is clear that at least 10 of the 16 upper girdles are steep enough to be returning light from the periphery (green on the ASET). A further inspection of this diamond’s proportions confirms that this is not what I am used to seeing in a typical ACA. Because of this, I had a quick peruse of some of the other ACAs under half a carat and I noticed that there is more variation in proportions in these smaller diamonds than there are for diamonds 1ct and above.
Now I can see how these diamonds still make it to the ACA level, after all, they are still well within my recommended proportions, with precision cut H&A, and near 100% light return. The subtlety here is that where the light return is coming from in the upper girdles is more from the periphery rather than from around a 45 degree angle, the latter in my opinion is preferable. This diamond does not have the best edge to edge light performance and is likely to pick up all sorts of color reflecting from its surroundings.
The conclusion of this review is that most ACAs are made the same, but there are some borderline cases, which I personally would avoid if I were purchasing an ACA. If you are looking for an ACA and have any doubts/questions. Please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.
I noticed yet another recent thread that had an interesting question about Whiteflash ACAs. The specific question was whether all ACAs are made exactly the same and would PSers ever recommend against one? The question was raised because of concerns that the ASETs and Idealscope of some ACAs, in particular those under half a carat, varied a bit and that some idealscope also showed what appears to be leakage.
You can read the original thread here.
The short answer would be no they are not all made exactly the same and Whiteflash does not claim that they are. The simple reason being that there are always going to be borderline cases, and you would also expect the rare but unavoidable human error. The general answer is that yes, if you purchase a Whiteflash ACA, it is very highly likely that you will be a satisfied customer. The full answer, however, would require some knowledge of how a diamond is cut, which is going to be the topic of a future tutorial. For now, it is sufficient to know that diamonds cut to super-ideal standards are precision cut, and the cutter is usually able to cut the diamond very precisely. Also, if you’ve read all my tutorials, you will know precisely how each facet affects the appearance of diamond. Equipped with this knowledge, you too would expect there to always be an explanation for what you can see in any image of a diamond whether actual or light performance related.
In the thread, three ACAs in total were brought up for discussion. The first two were compared first:
Diamond 1
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2684406.htm
Diamond 2
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2982215.htm
The first question about these two diamonds was whether Diamond 1 had a better idealscope than Diamond 2. The person who posed the question thought that Diamond 2’s ASET was more dull and the idealscope was more grey and less vibrant. The more experienced PSers handled the question well noting that you should not be comparing the color saturation of different ASET images with each other.
However, no one seemed to look more carefully to see what else could explain the differences seen. Without even looking at the idealscope, you can see that Diamond 1 has more contrast around the edge of the diamond. This is because Diamond 2 has slightly painted girdles. This is of course verified by looking at the idealscope and what I believe is the proper answer to why the idealscope appeared more grey is actually because it has more deep reds in the upper girdles. It is often difficult for untrained eyes to distinguish dark-greys and deep reds in idealscope images. The ASET also tells the same story and you can see it manifesting as ever slightly increased green areas, lengthening in the upper girdles and thickening around the stars facets.
Does the existence of slight painting change what I think about ACAs? Certainly not, because it still exuberates a familiar characteristic contrast pattern under the table facets. You can think of slight painting as a sprinkle or topping to the diamond that you can choose whether to go with or without. Be minded that the reason slight painting is used here is most likely to ensure the diamond is over 1ct in weight.
The next comparison was between Diamond 2 and Diamond 3 below:
Diamond 3
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2949573.htm
Interestingly, Diamond 3 is a good example of why an ASET tells a clearer story than the idealscope. Untrained eyes are not likely to notice the widening of the leakage areas around the edges indicating steeper upper girdles in an idealscope image. The upper girdles are not so steep that they cause obvious leakage, but under the ASET, it is clear that at least 10 of the 16 upper girdles are steep enough to be returning light from the periphery (green on the ASET). A further inspection of this diamond’s proportions confirms that this is not what I am used to seeing in a typical ACA. Because of this, I had a quick peruse of some of the other ACAs under half a carat and I noticed that there is more variation in proportions in these smaller diamonds than there are for diamonds 1ct and above.
Now I can see how these diamonds still make it to the ACA level, after all, they are still well within my recommended proportions, with precision cut H&A, and near 100% light return. The subtlety here is that where the light return is coming from in the upper girdles is more from the periphery rather than from around a 45 degree angle, the latter in my opinion is preferable. This diamond does not have the best edge to edge light performance and is likely to pick up all sorts of color reflecting from its surroundings.
The conclusion of this review is that most ACAs are made the same, but there are some borderline cases, which I personally would avoid if I were purchasing an ACA. If you are looking for an ACA and have any doubts/questions. Please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.
Thursday 1 August 2013
Pricescope Rockytalky Review: Icycherry
It has been quite a while since I’ve made one of these Pricescope Rockytalky reviews. There is good and bad to this. The good thing is that I’ve noticed in general better responses to people’s questions. The bad thing is that it is also because it seems like less people are asking interesting questions.
Here is a post I came across that I found interesting because it is typical of the responses that are given to those seeking expert advice, yet they are being turned away by telling the original poster that they cannot nitpick without more detailed information. When reading this the first time, I felt that I could give the original poster the kind of advice he was seeking and that is why I chose his question for a review.
Here is how the thread went:
Posted by Icycherry on July 31st, 2013, 10:03 pm
“Hi guys,
I’ve got a diamond produced in Canada, which has very good figures (at least to the eyes of a newbie): 61.9%depth; 55%table; 34.5crown angle and 40.8pavilion. What bothered me was the star and lower half, which was 45% and 75%. Would this combo affect the fire (which I highly care) and brilliance of the stone? I have heard that if the star is smaller, it should go with a steeper crown. It seems that 34.5 is not steep enough. Appreciate any opinions!” (Emphasis Added)
Posted by Icycherry on August 1st, 2013, 10:20 am
“Here are the more detailed figures of this stone:
1.72carat; measurements: 7.69-7.71*4.76; Depth: 61.9%; Table: 55%; Crown Angle: 34.5°; Crown Height: 15.5%; Pavilion Angle: 40.8; Pavilion Depth: 43.0%; Star Length: 45%; Lower Half: 75%; Girdle: Medium, Faceted (3.5%); Culet: None
The report is issued by GIA.(That might be a great problem ’cause the figures are rounded ones, not accurate enough) I understand that it would be uneasy to tell exactly how this would affect the performance of the stone just by figures, but I really have no way to see the stone before I pay for it. So….still want to hear some opinions, even conjecture would be greatly appreciated.”
<h2>Best Pricescope Rockytalky Responses:</h2>
Posted by John Pollard on August 1st, 2013, 9:52 am
“On its face 55-40.8-34.5-45-75 is not an issue. But it depends on how specific you want to get.
Impossible to say more because, aside from table, the data points are averages of 8-16 separate measurements apiece. Those averages are further rounded up-or-down if it’s a GIA report. From this data there’s no way to know how consistent the cutting is facet-by-facet, if that is important to you.”
Posted by Yssie on August 1st, 2013, 10:56 am
“Here’s a tutorial from Good Old Gold that introduces LGF and star (link removed)
The numbers are what the PS community would call “safe” – worth further investingation. But what you’re asking… well, garbage in, garbage out! GIA rounds star and lgf to 5%, crown to 0.5deg, pav up to 0.2deg, and the numbers printed on the report are averaged around several sections of the stone as Mr. Pollard said…
And to add to those uncertainties are other errors: the Sarin scanners GIA uses in the labs are listed (on the Sarin webpage) as accurate to +/- 0.1deg, the GIA report tells us nothing about optical symmetry (the symmetry of the reflections of facets you see when you look into the stone – it’s a function of facet meet symmetry but there are other parameters)…
IMO your best friend in this situation is an idiot-proof return policy. Or buying from a boutique vendor who specialises in exactly this sort of nitpicking – GOG, WF, BGD, Infinity (sold by HPD) are the first PS favourites who come to mind.”
<h3>My Comments:</h3>
Now John Pollard is a trade member who works at Crafted by Infinity. He knows a lot about diamonds and I have personally learnt a lot from his previous posts. Although his post was accurate, it doesn’t help the original poster by telling him there is insufficient information. In fact, his response led to Icycherry to believe that a diamond certified by the GIA may be a great problem when the GIA is the most respected lab in the world. This, of course, was not John Pollard’s intention, but that is what happens when trade members post without addressing all of the key concerns of the original poster.
Yssie, who is a diamond prosumer with 16116 posts to date responded by saying that the numbers were ‘safe’ – I find this generalisation dangerous for a newbie. There is further scaring of the newbie with more rounding and measurement errors without indicating what kinds of risks are safe and what are not. Is the best advice here an ‘idiot-proof’ return policy? Yssie’s second piece of advice is to purchase from basically any one of several PS vendors…
<h3>My Response to Icycherry’s question:</h3>
Icycherry first lists the proportions of the major facets of his chosen diamond and states that these are “good figures”. He has obviously done his base research on proportions. The problem he has is mainly with the lower girdle percentage and the star percentage, which are 45% and 75% and he wants to know whether these numbers raise any red flags because he has a preference for fire.
Although in most cases when referring to the star and lower girdle facets, I would bring up measurement errors, in this case I actually think that it may not be necessary. Yes there may be some slight variation in the proportions, but the question asked is not about optical symmetry and the variances are not likely to be so large as to invalidate any reasonable advice.
The diamond Icycherry has chosen has an excellent length and width 7.69-7.71mm and has a CA/PA of 34.5/40.8 with a 55% table, it sounds like a fairly promising stone. What she needs to be aware of is that the shorter the stars, in general the shallower the stars are. Also, with shallower stars, the upper girdle facets are also shallower. With 45% stars, there is a likely chance that the upper girdle angle is less than 40 degrees. The effect that this will have on the diamond is that there will be less contrast in the upper girdles. Also with 45% stars, the bottom half of the diamond will appear noticeably darker than one with 50-55% stars. The point is that these are diamonds with different contrast pattern character.
The edge of this diamond would probably look a bit like a diamond with a painted upper girdle:
smallstars
If Icycherry prefers the contrast pattern of the 45% stars, then the risk that Icycherry needs to know is that if the stars tend to the shorter side, say 42.5%, there will be quite a bit of unnecessary weight lost.
Also, with 45% stars and a 75% lower girdle length, we would not expect many hotspots around the base of the arrow shafts. If these facets are even shorter than stated, then you may lose the triangular hotspots under the stars as well. All this means a detriment to a further detriment to ‘pin’ fire in the diamond. With 75% stars, the diamond is already not optimised for pin-fire but rather for more bold flashes. If that’s the only thing Icycherry cares about, then the lack of pin-fire flash could make the bold flashes stand out more.
If it is the case that these facets tend to 47.4% and 77.4%, then the diamond becomes more typical of a TIC and there is not many concerns. In fact, coupled with the proportions of the major facets, I would expect this potential possibility to have excellent light return.
As for whether the crown facets should be steeper? Well the crown facets do not work that closely with the star facets except for perhaps physical constraints. The advice Icycherry probably heard was that because shorter stars generally reduce fire, then going for a steeper crown could make up for some of that. The thing that is misleading in this sort of advice is that although a steeper crown produces more dispersion from the crown, it has no bearing on the potential fire that could have been produced by the star facet. These are two different things.
My advice to Icycherry is to first figure out which kind of fire she prefers (bold or pin flash fire), and then to optimise for it throughout the diamond. If it is the case that she likes pin-fire flash, then perhaps going for 45% stars and 75% lower girdles may not be the best choice. If Icycherry happens to read this, I hope you have found my conjecture to be a bit more helpful than the responses you’ve received from the other Pricescope experts.
Here is a post I came across that I found interesting because it is typical of the responses that are given to those seeking expert advice, yet they are being turned away by telling the original poster that they cannot nitpick without more detailed information. When reading this the first time, I felt that I could give the original poster the kind of advice he was seeking and that is why I chose his question for a review.
Here is how the thread went:
Posted by Icycherry on July 31st, 2013, 10:03 pm
“Hi guys,
I’ve got a diamond produced in Canada, which has very good figures (at least to the eyes of a newbie): 61.9%depth; 55%table; 34.5crown angle and 40.8pavilion. What bothered me was the star and lower half, which was 45% and 75%. Would this combo affect the fire (which I highly care) and brilliance of the stone? I have heard that if the star is smaller, it should go with a steeper crown. It seems that 34.5 is not steep enough. Appreciate any opinions!” (Emphasis Added)
Posted by Icycherry on August 1st, 2013, 10:20 am
“Here are the more detailed figures of this stone:
1.72carat; measurements: 7.69-7.71*4.76; Depth: 61.9%; Table: 55%; Crown Angle: 34.5°; Crown Height: 15.5%; Pavilion Angle: 40.8; Pavilion Depth: 43.0%; Star Length: 45%; Lower Half: 75%; Girdle: Medium, Faceted (3.5%); Culet: None
The report is issued by GIA.(That might be a great problem ’cause the figures are rounded ones, not accurate enough) I understand that it would be uneasy to tell exactly how this would affect the performance of the stone just by figures, but I really have no way to see the stone before I pay for it. So….still want to hear some opinions, even conjecture would be greatly appreciated.”
<h2>Best Pricescope Rockytalky Responses:</h2>
Posted by John Pollard on August 1st, 2013, 9:52 am
“On its face 55-40.8-34.5-45-75 is not an issue. But it depends on how specific you want to get.
Impossible to say more because, aside from table, the data points are averages of 8-16 separate measurements apiece. Those averages are further rounded up-or-down if it’s a GIA report. From this data there’s no way to know how consistent the cutting is facet-by-facet, if that is important to you.”
Posted by Yssie on August 1st, 2013, 10:56 am
“Here’s a tutorial from Good Old Gold that introduces LGF and star (link removed)
The numbers are what the PS community would call “safe” – worth further investingation. But what you’re asking… well, garbage in, garbage out! GIA rounds star and lgf to 5%, crown to 0.5deg, pav up to 0.2deg, and the numbers printed on the report are averaged around several sections of the stone as Mr. Pollard said…
And to add to those uncertainties are other errors: the Sarin scanners GIA uses in the labs are listed (on the Sarin webpage) as accurate to +/- 0.1deg, the GIA report tells us nothing about optical symmetry (the symmetry of the reflections of facets you see when you look into the stone – it’s a function of facet meet symmetry but there are other parameters)…
IMO your best friend in this situation is an idiot-proof return policy. Or buying from a boutique vendor who specialises in exactly this sort of nitpicking – GOG, WF, BGD, Infinity (sold by HPD) are the first PS favourites who come to mind.”
<h3>My Comments:</h3>
Now John Pollard is a trade member who works at Crafted by Infinity. He knows a lot about diamonds and I have personally learnt a lot from his previous posts. Although his post was accurate, it doesn’t help the original poster by telling him there is insufficient information. In fact, his response led to Icycherry to believe that a diamond certified by the GIA may be a great problem when the GIA is the most respected lab in the world. This, of course, was not John Pollard’s intention, but that is what happens when trade members post without addressing all of the key concerns of the original poster.
Yssie, who is a diamond prosumer with 16116 posts to date responded by saying that the numbers were ‘safe’ – I find this generalisation dangerous for a newbie. There is further scaring of the newbie with more rounding and measurement errors without indicating what kinds of risks are safe and what are not. Is the best advice here an ‘idiot-proof’ return policy? Yssie’s second piece of advice is to purchase from basically any one of several PS vendors…
<h3>My Response to Icycherry’s question:</h3>
Icycherry first lists the proportions of the major facets of his chosen diamond and states that these are “good figures”. He has obviously done his base research on proportions. The problem he has is mainly with the lower girdle percentage and the star percentage, which are 45% and 75% and he wants to know whether these numbers raise any red flags because he has a preference for fire.
Although in most cases when referring to the star and lower girdle facets, I would bring up measurement errors, in this case I actually think that it may not be necessary. Yes there may be some slight variation in the proportions, but the question asked is not about optical symmetry and the variances are not likely to be so large as to invalidate any reasonable advice.
The diamond Icycherry has chosen has an excellent length and width 7.69-7.71mm and has a CA/PA of 34.5/40.8 with a 55% table, it sounds like a fairly promising stone. What she needs to be aware of is that the shorter the stars, in general the shallower the stars are. Also, with shallower stars, the upper girdle facets are also shallower. With 45% stars, there is a likely chance that the upper girdle angle is less than 40 degrees. The effect that this will have on the diamond is that there will be less contrast in the upper girdles. Also with 45% stars, the bottom half of the diamond will appear noticeably darker than one with 50-55% stars. The point is that these are diamonds with different contrast pattern character.
The edge of this diamond would probably look a bit like a diamond with a painted upper girdle:
smallstars
If Icycherry prefers the contrast pattern of the 45% stars, then the risk that Icycherry needs to know is that if the stars tend to the shorter side, say 42.5%, there will be quite a bit of unnecessary weight lost.
Also, with 45% stars and a 75% lower girdle length, we would not expect many hotspots around the base of the arrow shafts. If these facets are even shorter than stated, then you may lose the triangular hotspots under the stars as well. All this means a detriment to a further detriment to ‘pin’ fire in the diamond. With 75% stars, the diamond is already not optimised for pin-fire but rather for more bold flashes. If that’s the only thing Icycherry cares about, then the lack of pin-fire flash could make the bold flashes stand out more.
If it is the case that these facets tend to 47.4% and 77.4%, then the diamond becomes more typical of a TIC and there is not many concerns. In fact, coupled with the proportions of the major facets, I would expect this potential possibility to have excellent light return.
As for whether the crown facets should be steeper? Well the crown facets do not work that closely with the star facets except for perhaps physical constraints. The advice Icycherry probably heard was that because shorter stars generally reduce fire, then going for a steeper crown could make up for some of that. The thing that is misleading in this sort of advice is that although a steeper crown produces more dispersion from the crown, it has no bearing on the potential fire that could have been produced by the star facet. These are two different things.
My advice to Icycherry is to first figure out which kind of fire she prefers (bold or pin flash fire), and then to optimise for it throughout the diamond. If it is the case that she likes pin-fire flash, then perhaps going for 45% stars and 75% lower girdles may not be the best choice. If Icycherry happens to read this, I hope you have found my conjecture to be a bit more helpful than the responses you’ve received from the other Pricescope experts.
Wednesday 24 July 2013
Crafted by Infinity Review
Crafted by Infinity Review
Crafted by Infinity is actually a brand sold exclusively by several dealers rather than a brand owned and sold by a single online vendor. There are some immediate advantages to this. The first that is evident to me is that the quality of the product will likely be higher because of the additional vetting process by the nature of having more parties involved. Second is that the cutting house is more focused on what they specialise in and don’t have other internal pressures to save costs by retaining carat weight on their diamonds. Third is that the brand must have some kind of unique look about them that can be immediately recognisable.
As I was browsing the Crafted by Infinity website doing this review, I came across an important point. Cut grading is in its infancy and unlike color or clarity, what is graded excellent today may not be excellent in a few years time and this can have serious implications on the future value of the diamond you purchase. Of course, you don’t have to purchase an Infinity diamond to protect yourself. There are also many reasons that precision cutting and H&A may never become a recognised superior cut grade by the major labs.
Crafted by Infinity makes an effort to market their diamonds as ‘superideal’ and that their diamonds are cut to perfection. They claim that their diamonds are cut to such rare standards that it is more rare than D color and IF clarity. They make a point to say that they cut ‘only’ 1000 diamonds per year. They say that their brand’s best feature is “Flawless Cut”. I have no problems with most of these claims as they are mostly true. For example, I have heard that superideal cut diamonds are in the top 1% of all diamonds cut and D-E color diamonds make up around 2% of diamonds. What I do have a slight problem with is the idea of a flawless cut. Although there is also no standard for what a flawless cut is, we do know that most H&A diamonds have minor defects. Diamonds that have several minor defects or major defects will not be considered H&A by some vendors. So I can tell how strict a H&A vendor is by how many defects they accept as part of their brand. A H&A vendor that markets their diamonds as ‘Flawless’ to me is potentially misleading consumers and together with the whole marketing pitch makes me feel like I am expecting top-notch quality even amongst the H&A vendors. We will find out later in this review whether the Infinity diamonds hold up against such high expectations.
Crafted by Infinity does not sell diamonds on their own website. However, on their homepage you will find a link to their dealers around the world. As I look through the list, the two vendors I have heard of already are High Performance Diamonds by Wink Jones and Diamonds by Lauren by David Friedlander. Basically, each online vendor will carry the same list of Infinity diamonds for the same price, using the same search engine. The search engine is pretty basic and you can only choose between round and princess cuts, the 4C’s, and price. Lets see if there really isn’t any need to have advanced search functions.
First there are only about 100 diamonds in total, I managed to find 6 G to H VS2 diamonds to compare. The information on Infinity’s system is not presented very well, with the table, depth, pavilion, and crown information only visible if you click on a button labelled ‘expert details’. Even then, there isn’t any information about the lower girdles length or girdle thickness information and you have to find that information on the AGS lab report yourself. As far as I can tell, all of the Infinity diamonds are graded by AGS, which has both its positives and negatives, as you will know from previous tutorials. One positive is that Infinity provides AGS lab reports that also have the hearts view so that provides an independent verification of the hearts image.
I collected the data from the 6 diamonds and put in them in the table below:
Infinity Table
All of these diamonds have thin to medium girdles, which helps the 1.01 ct stone to reach that 6.5mm mark that is expected of an ideal 1ct diamond. Apart from this, the only things I can comment on is that the table size is generally between 55% and 57% and each one has a total depth under 62%. From the small sample above, it does not seem like there is a specific pavilion angle that these diamonds are cut to like the Brian Gavin Diamonds stones. This is a positive for those who are about squeezing the last bit of carat weight into the diameter of the diamond. The theme of spread continues as I look at the crown facets. All of them are between 34 – 34.5 degrees and this means two things – better spread and a brighter stone under the table.
Finally I have a look at the lower girdle facets and all but 2 of them have a 78% lower girdle length with the other two 75% and 77%. Although probably not representative of all of their diamonds, I can only conclude that there is not a single contrast pattern of the arrows on all Infinity diamonds and you still have that freedom to choose your preference. It also seems like the lower girdle facets are cut so that they are just under 80% in order to achieve a hearts pattern that does not have a clear clef in the middle of the hearts.
So far all of the numbers look good right? Well we know that these numbers only tell half the story so lets get into the hearts image and idealscope images to see how the Crafted by Infinity diamonds hold up to their reputation.
Light Performance
Here are the 6 idealscope images.
table of idealscopes
From a light performance point of view, all of the diamonds above seem to look good in their idealscopes with no visible leakage. The light return also seems very balanced throughout the diamond. Although it may seem like there is no leakage in the upper girdles and that there may be some crown-only painting, it is not the case here as I think this is more to do with photography.
actual1 Eightstar
You can see from the actual image of the 1.03 GVS2 on the left that there is some contrast in the upper girdles. On the right is what an idealscope of a Eightstar diamond that has crown-only painting looks like. So you can see that the idealscope images of the Infinity diamonds are clearly not the same.
Optical Symmetry
table of hearts
The first diamond in the table is the 1.03 GVS2. Apart from some yaw and distorted V’s, which I consider minor, there is a defect here that some H&A vendors could find cause as to reject this diamond as a true H&A. Take a look at the heart at the 12 o’clock position, this heart is slightly smaller than most of the rest. You can see that the gap between the heart and the V is bigger than all the rest apart from the opposing heart. The idealscope tells the story more clearly the larger hotspot in between the second and third arrow is a clear indicator of a smaller heart. In the case of this diamond, the opposing heart is also slightly smaller. This helps the diamond visually but it still misses the mark as a true H&A in my books.
Surprisingly, the rest of the diamonds have some serious problems with yaw. The V’s are also mostly distorted and there is some serious misalignment of hearts as well as V’s. Although not a cut issue, I also noticed an inclusion that reflects around the pavilion in the third diamond, what is known as a ‘reflector’. This is not good for a VS2 diamond and you can definitely find better. There are actually all sorts of H&A defects in these examples. In the fifth diamond, the hearts are touching the V’s indicating shorter lower girdles. I’m pretty sure that this is the diamond with the 75% lower girdle length as stated on the certificate. The problem is that this heart image indicates lower girdles that are tending to the short end of the average stated. If you are not a H&A purist and like thicker arrows producing bolder flashes, then this 1.05 HVS2 may actually be one of the better choices out of this sample as the defects do not affect the face up view. The defects to the lower girdles go both ways as although the stated longest lower girdles were 78%, it is clear that some of these hearts, in particular the third diamond, display a clef in the middle that could also cause a rejection for some H&A vendors.
Price
The 1.03 HVS2 in this review costs $10,687. A quick comparison with James Allen, which I have found to have both great prices and quality that at least match what I have seen at Crafted By Infinity, shows a 1.01 HVS2 True Heart to cost $8,310. This is a 26% premium on a price per carat basis. This is before an up to 5% pricescope discount on James Allen, you get the idea…
Value Added Services
As Crafted by Infinity is not a retailer themselves, each of their dealers will have their own value added services so I will not go over them here. There is one interesting value add that Crafted by Infinity provides and that is their ‘Meet the Cutter’ events. This gives a chance for any Infinity owners to go to any one of their dealers who is holding one of these events where they get to meet the person who cuts their diamond. I guess this may appeal to some of you out there.
Conclusion
I have to say that I am a bit shocked to see some of these H&A defects on Crafted by Infinity diamonds. This is because I previously held their diamonds in high regard due to their great reputation and the price premium they command. Crafted by Infinity produces beautiful diamonds and that’s for sure. But I have found them not to hold up to their claims that their diamonds are cut flawlessly, at least to my standards here, which are influenced by the general quality that I see amongst the online vendors that anyone in the world has easy access to. A positive for Infinity diamonds is that I have found that they are cut for spread and you will get a good sized diamond for the stated carat weight. This also means that their diamonds tend toward the brighter side of my recommended range of proportions rather than the dispersive side. Their excellent spread is due to their attention given to the thin to medium girdles, close to 56% table percentage, 40.7-degree pavilion angles, and close to 34-degree crown angles. All things considered, I actually wouldn’t recommend Crafted by Infinity to my readers as I do believe that there are better and cheaper alternatives out there.
Crafted by Infinity is actually a brand sold exclusively by several dealers rather than a brand owned and sold by a single online vendor. There are some immediate advantages to this. The first that is evident to me is that the quality of the product will likely be higher because of the additional vetting process by the nature of having more parties involved. Second is that the cutting house is more focused on what they specialise in and don’t have other internal pressures to save costs by retaining carat weight on their diamonds. Third is that the brand must have some kind of unique look about them that can be immediately recognisable.
As I was browsing the Crafted by Infinity website doing this review, I came across an important point. Cut grading is in its infancy and unlike color or clarity, what is graded excellent today may not be excellent in a few years time and this can have serious implications on the future value of the diamond you purchase. Of course, you don’t have to purchase an Infinity diamond to protect yourself. There are also many reasons that precision cutting and H&A may never become a recognised superior cut grade by the major labs.
Crafted by Infinity makes an effort to market their diamonds as ‘superideal’ and that their diamonds are cut to perfection. They claim that their diamonds are cut to such rare standards that it is more rare than D color and IF clarity. They make a point to say that they cut ‘only’ 1000 diamonds per year. They say that their brand’s best feature is “Flawless Cut”. I have no problems with most of these claims as they are mostly true. For example, I have heard that superideal cut diamonds are in the top 1% of all diamonds cut and D-E color diamonds make up around 2% of diamonds. What I do have a slight problem with is the idea of a flawless cut. Although there is also no standard for what a flawless cut is, we do know that most H&A diamonds have minor defects. Diamonds that have several minor defects or major defects will not be considered H&A by some vendors. So I can tell how strict a H&A vendor is by how many defects they accept as part of their brand. A H&A vendor that markets their diamonds as ‘Flawless’ to me is potentially misleading consumers and together with the whole marketing pitch makes me feel like I am expecting top-notch quality even amongst the H&A vendors. We will find out later in this review whether the Infinity diamonds hold up against such high expectations.
Crafted by Infinity does not sell diamonds on their own website. However, on their homepage you will find a link to their dealers around the world. As I look through the list, the two vendors I have heard of already are High Performance Diamonds by Wink Jones and Diamonds by Lauren by David Friedlander. Basically, each online vendor will carry the same list of Infinity diamonds for the same price, using the same search engine. The search engine is pretty basic and you can only choose between round and princess cuts, the 4C’s, and price. Lets see if there really isn’t any need to have advanced search functions.
First there are only about 100 diamonds in total, I managed to find 6 G to H VS2 diamonds to compare. The information on Infinity’s system is not presented very well, with the table, depth, pavilion, and crown information only visible if you click on a button labelled ‘expert details’. Even then, there isn’t any information about the lower girdles length or girdle thickness information and you have to find that information on the AGS lab report yourself. As far as I can tell, all of the Infinity diamonds are graded by AGS, which has both its positives and negatives, as you will know from previous tutorials. One positive is that Infinity provides AGS lab reports that also have the hearts view so that provides an independent verification of the hearts image.
I collected the data from the 6 diamonds and put in them in the table below:
Infinity Table
All of these diamonds have thin to medium girdles, which helps the 1.01 ct stone to reach that 6.5mm mark that is expected of an ideal 1ct diamond. Apart from this, the only things I can comment on is that the table size is generally between 55% and 57% and each one has a total depth under 62%. From the small sample above, it does not seem like there is a specific pavilion angle that these diamonds are cut to like the Brian Gavin Diamonds stones. This is a positive for those who are about squeezing the last bit of carat weight into the diameter of the diamond. The theme of spread continues as I look at the crown facets. All of them are between 34 – 34.5 degrees and this means two things – better spread and a brighter stone under the table.
Finally I have a look at the lower girdle facets and all but 2 of them have a 78% lower girdle length with the other two 75% and 77%. Although probably not representative of all of their diamonds, I can only conclude that there is not a single contrast pattern of the arrows on all Infinity diamonds and you still have that freedom to choose your preference. It also seems like the lower girdle facets are cut so that they are just under 80% in order to achieve a hearts pattern that does not have a clear clef in the middle of the hearts.
So far all of the numbers look good right? Well we know that these numbers only tell half the story so lets get into the hearts image and idealscope images to see how the Crafted by Infinity diamonds hold up to their reputation.
Light Performance
Here are the 6 idealscope images.
table of idealscopes
From a light performance point of view, all of the diamonds above seem to look good in their idealscopes with no visible leakage. The light return also seems very balanced throughout the diamond. Although it may seem like there is no leakage in the upper girdles and that there may be some crown-only painting, it is not the case here as I think this is more to do with photography.
actual1 Eightstar
You can see from the actual image of the 1.03 GVS2 on the left that there is some contrast in the upper girdles. On the right is what an idealscope of a Eightstar diamond that has crown-only painting looks like. So you can see that the idealscope images of the Infinity diamonds are clearly not the same.
Optical Symmetry
table of hearts
The first diamond in the table is the 1.03 GVS2. Apart from some yaw and distorted V’s, which I consider minor, there is a defect here that some H&A vendors could find cause as to reject this diamond as a true H&A. Take a look at the heart at the 12 o’clock position, this heart is slightly smaller than most of the rest. You can see that the gap between the heart and the V is bigger than all the rest apart from the opposing heart. The idealscope tells the story more clearly the larger hotspot in between the second and third arrow is a clear indicator of a smaller heart. In the case of this diamond, the opposing heart is also slightly smaller. This helps the diamond visually but it still misses the mark as a true H&A in my books.
Surprisingly, the rest of the diamonds have some serious problems with yaw. The V’s are also mostly distorted and there is some serious misalignment of hearts as well as V’s. Although not a cut issue, I also noticed an inclusion that reflects around the pavilion in the third diamond, what is known as a ‘reflector’. This is not good for a VS2 diamond and you can definitely find better. There are actually all sorts of H&A defects in these examples. In the fifth diamond, the hearts are touching the V’s indicating shorter lower girdles. I’m pretty sure that this is the diamond with the 75% lower girdle length as stated on the certificate. The problem is that this heart image indicates lower girdles that are tending to the short end of the average stated. If you are not a H&A purist and like thicker arrows producing bolder flashes, then this 1.05 HVS2 may actually be one of the better choices out of this sample as the defects do not affect the face up view. The defects to the lower girdles go both ways as although the stated longest lower girdles were 78%, it is clear that some of these hearts, in particular the third diamond, display a clef in the middle that could also cause a rejection for some H&A vendors.
Price
The 1.03 HVS2 in this review costs $10,687. A quick comparison with James Allen, which I have found to have both great prices and quality that at least match what I have seen at Crafted By Infinity, shows a 1.01 HVS2 True Heart to cost $8,310. This is a 26% premium on a price per carat basis. This is before an up to 5% pricescope discount on James Allen, you get the idea…
Value Added Services
As Crafted by Infinity is not a retailer themselves, each of their dealers will have their own value added services so I will not go over them here. There is one interesting value add that Crafted by Infinity provides and that is their ‘Meet the Cutter’ events. This gives a chance for any Infinity owners to go to any one of their dealers who is holding one of these events where they get to meet the person who cuts their diamond. I guess this may appeal to some of you out there.
Conclusion
I have to say that I am a bit shocked to see some of these H&A defects on Crafted by Infinity diamonds. This is because I previously held their diamonds in high regard due to their great reputation and the price premium they command. Crafted by Infinity produces beautiful diamonds and that’s for sure. But I have found them not to hold up to their claims that their diamonds are cut flawlessly, at least to my standards here, which are influenced by the general quality that I see amongst the online vendors that anyone in the world has easy access to. A positive for Infinity diamonds is that I have found that they are cut for spread and you will get a good sized diamond for the stated carat weight. This also means that their diamonds tend toward the brighter side of my recommended range of proportions rather than the dispersive side. Their excellent spread is due to their attention given to the thin to medium girdles, close to 56% table percentage, 40.7-degree pavilion angles, and close to 34-degree crown angles. All things considered, I actually wouldn’t recommend Crafted by Infinity to my readers as I do believe that there are better and cheaper alternatives out there.
Sunday 14 July 2013
Good Old Gold Review
The Good Old Gold website feels very much like the bricks and mortar store that it is. The site aims to be very educational, and I personally learned a lot from the Good Old Gold website and from the youtube videos that Jonathan a.k.a. ‘Rhino’ produces. However, I must have been unsatisfied with how wealth of information is presented, and the fact that the site is stated as “The Ultimate Diamond Information Site”, when it really is a vendor’s website with the ultimate goal of selling diamonds. This is what happens when vendors also want to educate consumers and it is impossible to avoid the issue of bias, no matter how educational the site may be. This is precisely why I thought there was a need for Prosumer Diamonds.
Quality of the Good Old Gold Superior Hearts & Arrows Diamond
Good Old Gold explains in their education pages on optical symmetry that their Superior designation is in response to the lack of optical symmetry grading by the major labs. It is obvious that Good Old Gold believes that the major labs fail to grade cut effectively because they advocate that optical symmetry ought to be very important in regards to cut grading.
It is important to note that Good Gold Gold will apply their Superior designation to diamonds with longer lower girdle lengths (>80%). These diamonds will not be traditional H&A diamonds as featured by other super-ideal diamond vendors. These kinds of diamonds will have a ‘open-heart’ H&A image and will display a clef in between the hearts. Purists will say that these are not true H&A, but in terms of beauty, Good Old Gold is correct to say that in ideal cut diamonds, a longer lower girdle length will not negatively impact the diamond and simply is a different ‘flavour’ of diamond.
Good Old Gold also has a premium designation that they say are for diamonds that just miss the mark of being superior. They give several examples of the kind of defects that will make a diamond lose its superior designation:
• The arrow shafts are not aligned at the base such that the star pattern around the table reflection is distorted.
• One or more smaller hearts, which affect the hotspots at the base of the arrow shafts such that they are not uniform.
Good Old Gold makes two claims about the near-H&A. The first is that a person will not be able to tell the difference between a superior and a premium. Second is that often, the near-H&A carry the same price premium has perfect H&A.
I cannot agree entirely with either of these statements because the first statement is only true if a person casually examines the diamonds. What I think they mean is that to an average consumer and with the naked eye that the two cannot be distinguished, and I think then this statement would be true for most excellent graded diamonds. The second statement is quite simply false. If both seller and buyer know the value of the product, then there will definitely be a significant price difference that should be comparable to the difference between a VVS1 and IF clarity diamond.
Lets have a look at the Good Old Gold Superior H&A to see how they hold up to their description. When I use their diamond search engine, the first thing I notice is that Good Old Gold does not carry that many diamonds so I cannot just pick out six random diamonds that are very similar like I have done so in my past reviews. Nevertheless, I have randomly selected six superior diamonds ranging from D to H and VVS1 to SI2 in clarity for the review.
Good Old Gold Diamond Spreadsheet
When I look at the diamonds in the above table, I immediately see that in general the table sizes are in between 55% to 57%. I also note that the depth percentages are all less than 62%. I am disappointed that there is no immediate information regarding the girdle, but quickly checking the lab reports of some of these diamonds reveal that most of them have thin to medium girdle thickness.
The crown angles are mostly around 34.5 and 35 degrees and the pavilion angle combinations are mostly 40.8 degrees with two exceptions. I will have a look at those more closely in a bit. So far, it seems that most of these proportions fall within my recommended specifications. The only thing I will say is that the superior H&A line does not have any particular look to them and they seem to be all selected by Good Old Gold for their light performance and overall visual appearance. To confirm this let me have a closer look at the two diamonds with the steeper pavilion angles.
First the 1.15ct DVS1:
actual-1
At first glance, the actual image of the diamond seems to show the brightness of the diamond under the table as strong and balanced. It is expected that the top half of the diamond appears brighter than the bottom half. When I first saw this image, I thought it was very weird that the crown is relatively darker than the rest of the diamond. I think this may be a photography issue because I have since gone on to check every one of Good Old Gold’s Superior H&A’s actual images and it does seem that the relative darkness of some of the facets seem to be flipped.
I will illustrate what I mean by the following example of a 1.53ct KVS1 with lab#9977210.
actual-153kvs1Video of 153KVS1
The image of the left is the actual diamond picture on the Good Old Gold website, the image of the left is taken off of a recent video of the same diamond. Have a look at the bright crown in the video and a dark table reflection. This is opposite of the dark crown and the bright table reflection. Also notice the much more dark bottom half of the diamond in the video compared to the image on the website.
Lets get back to the DVS1. Below is the hearts image.
hearts-1
As you can see, the hearts all have a clef in between them indicating a >80% lower girdle length. Apart from this, I can only seem very minor misalignment of the hearts and the V’s are slightly distorted indicating that there is minor yaw in the diamond. This would not be a diamond that I would rate in the top 10% of super-ideal H&A diamonds. The good things going on are that all the hearts are the same size so I would expect the hotspots to be fairly uniform and also that the opposing V’s are actually quite symmetrical, an important link between optical symmetry and light performance. Also, the separation between the hearts and the V’s are uniform indicating tight variances in the lower girdles.
Good Old Gold does not provide an idealscope image, but instead uses their technology known as a diamxray. A diamxray works in the same way as an idealscope but is designed to work with a much stronger backlighting. Good Old Gold says that it is possible to be more critical with a diamxray than an idealscope image. I personally would prefer an idealscope because I am more used to analysing them.
diamxray-1
Looking at the hotspots, they are fairly uniform as expected at the base of the arrow shafts. As with all arrow views, slight tilt will affect photography so any comments as to optical symmetry should only be generalised. My biggest problem with diamxray is that it can be confusing for consumers. The reds in this image seem to be very uniform. But compare it with the diamxray image of below of another diamond.
diamxray-2
The difference in photography and in backlighting makes me question how to really analyse these images. Nevertheless, I do not see any leakage under the table in the DVS1 that many people fear with diamonds that have a pavilion angle at or above 41 degrees.
Now lets have a look at the other potentially problematic diamond, the 1.32ct HSI2. First the actual image:
actual-3
Just looking at this image, the arrows seem to not be reflecting as much head shadow/body obstruction as you normally expect. However, the diamond appears to be overall brighter than DVS1. From my reservations about the photography, I would be a bit cautious of this stone.
hearts-3
The hearts image looks fine with the only obvious defect at the nine o’clock heart where the two sides of the heart doesn’t line up.
diamxray-3
The diamxray of this diamond confuses me quite a bit. The image seems to confirm that the head shadow/body obstruction is weak in the arrows. But the whole image seems to display this darker color, from the upper girdles, to the lower girdles, and even in the table reflection. What is clear is that there does appear to be lighter pinks under the table than the previous images I have reviewed and this is directly related to a steeper pavilion angle. They are not yet to the point of leaking though, which can be seen by comparing to the white spots of leakage in the upper girdles that are expected.
Again, there is a possibility that the dark areas are an issue with photography. This fact does not sit well in the back of my mind. Perhaps I will run these questions by Rhino and see if he will shed some light and then I will come back and make whatever changes are necessary to this review. But what is certain is that I have looked at 3 diamxray images and all 3 are so different that it makes me feel like these images are not particularly helpful to consumers.
Quality of the Good Old Gold Premium Hearts & Arrows Diamond
Earlier in this review I have already mentioned two of the defects that can make a diamond miss the mark on a superior designation. I will repeat them here for convenience.
• The arrow shafts are not aligned at the base such that the star pattern around the table reflection is distorted.
• One or more smaller hearts, which affect the hotspots at the base of the arrow shafts such that they are not uniform.
For simplicity, I will randomly look at several arrows images of Good Old Gold’s Premium Ideal Cut Round.
arrows-gvs2 arrows-fvs2
Arrows-fsi1 smaller heart
There are an infinite number of variations that Good Old Gold seems to consider to be premium. From what I can tell, a main consideration is whether the diamond displays an arrows pattern. The four images above show various defects that you can find within the premium ideal cut designation. Most of the defects can be attributed to misalignment and twisting of the diamond due to yaw. The image on the bottom right shows what a diamond with one smaller heart would look like.
smaller heart image
You can see the smaller heart at the eight o’clock position. The heart is further away from the V because the lower girdle length at that point is longer than the others. The point is that if you want a premium cut diamond, there is a very wide range of diamonds and some will be closer to the Superior designation than others.
Price
First off, Good Old Gold does not offer a pricescope discount. Instead they just have a bank wire discount. There are some vendors out there that offer both pricescope and bank wire discounts. Many of the diamonds on Good Old Gold’s site do not have a price listed. The reason given by Rhino is that the stone may be on consignment or they may otherwise have an agreement with a supplier that does not want them to publicly list the price. A 1.02ct HVS2 Superior H&A that had a price was listed at $8,218. A comparable 1.02ct HVS2 True Heart from James Allen on the other hand is $7,510 (with further discounts available). The 10% extra that you are paying is for the many value added services that Good Old Gold provide starting with information, lots and lots of information.
Information Provided
When you purchase a Superior H&A diamond from Good Old Gold, you get an actual image, the diamxray, an ASET, hearts and arrows images, brilliantscope/gemex results, Isee2 results, and a photomicrograph showing the location of the inclusion.
Remember that information is only as good as the ability to interpret it. The brilliantscope counts the frequency of flashes with a stationary diamond and a moving light source. However, the brilliantscope does not take into account optical symmetry, contrast, or painting of the upper girdles. Therefore, there is a need for Isee2 technology, which assesses the contrast, brightness, and optical symmetry of the diamond and gives it a score out of 10. Apparently a perfect score is impossible to achieve. Neither of these technologies adequately measures the fire of a diamond.
On top of the brilliantscope and the Isee2, you also get a Helium report, which is the most comprehensive diamond report available. Just have a look yourself.
Helium
Also, because Good Old Gold is a brick and mortar store and Rhino is such a nice guy and really has passion in what he does, you are sure to get great customer service and have all this info explained to you when you go there in person.
Ease of Searching a Diamond
Good Old Gold has one of the best diamond search engines on the internet allowing you to literally search for any proportion combination. The only problem is that their limited inventory negates the usefulness of the search engine. Because they don’t have a lot of diamonds, it is easy to find the diamond they have or don’t have for your specifications. Overall, the site may seem confusing for first-time users because it is not designed like the typical Blue Nile type website. Another real plus for Good Old Gold is that they carry a very wide range of superior fancy cuts.
One thing I really like about the Good Old Gold diamond search filter is the ability to expand the details of all their diamonds in the list. It allows you to quickly see all the important information about the diamond immediately, which is very nice. Again, the fact that a lot of their diamonds do not have a listed price can be annoying for an online consumer.
Value Adding Company Policies
Good Old Gold has a 30-day return policy (less shipping), average for the industry. Where the Good Old Gold policies shine is that they have a lifetime trade-up policy where you can get a 100% credit (less shipping) toward another diamond that is equal or greater in value. They also have a buy-back policy where they will buy back your diamond at any time for 25% less than what you paid for it. This policy is one of the best I’ve seen in the industry. Finally, Good Old Gold can help your online buying experience by making a video for you. The only caveat, although understandable, is that there is a requirement for a $500 refundable deposit before they will make a video for you.
Conclusion
Congratulations for getting to the end of this extremely long review. I hope that I have covered most of the important points about Good Old Gold, their diamonds, and their value added services. The Good Old Gold Superior H&A diamonds are undoubtedly some of the most precision cut diamonds in the world. Every diamond in the Good Old Gold inventory is handpicked for their appearance, and each one will be uniquely suitable to a lucky consumer out there. Although Good Old Gold does not aim to be the cheapest vendor, their value add services are among the best in the industry.
I recommend purchasing a Superior H&A from Good Old Gold if you are looking for a super-ideal diamond with longer lower girdles for more pin fire flashes. I would also recommend them for those who are looking for the peace of mind of having as much information as is physically possible for a diamond.
The Premium ideal cut range encompasses a wide range of diamonds. As far as I can tell, these can be any diamond within the AGS0/GIAex cut grade that have aligned arrows with no major optical asymmetry. It is worthwhile to be more particular with Good Old Gold if you want to find a particularly nice Premium ideal cut diamond. If you are not going to be particular, there are cheaper alternatives out there for those on a tight budget working to maximise their bang for the buck and Good Old Gold may not be the place if you are looking to stretch your dollar. But if you value the experience of purchasing from a brick and mortar store, along with the quality of the customer service, then I can’t think of a better place than Good Old Gold.
Quality of the Good Old Gold Superior Hearts & Arrows Diamond
Good Old Gold explains in their education pages on optical symmetry that their Superior designation is in response to the lack of optical symmetry grading by the major labs. It is obvious that Good Old Gold believes that the major labs fail to grade cut effectively because they advocate that optical symmetry ought to be very important in regards to cut grading.
It is important to note that Good Gold Gold will apply their Superior designation to diamonds with longer lower girdle lengths (>80%). These diamonds will not be traditional H&A diamonds as featured by other super-ideal diamond vendors. These kinds of diamonds will have a ‘open-heart’ H&A image and will display a clef in between the hearts. Purists will say that these are not true H&A, but in terms of beauty, Good Old Gold is correct to say that in ideal cut diamonds, a longer lower girdle length will not negatively impact the diamond and simply is a different ‘flavour’ of diamond.
Good Old Gold also has a premium designation that they say are for diamonds that just miss the mark of being superior. They give several examples of the kind of defects that will make a diamond lose its superior designation:
• The arrow shafts are not aligned at the base such that the star pattern around the table reflection is distorted.
• One or more smaller hearts, which affect the hotspots at the base of the arrow shafts such that they are not uniform.
Good Old Gold makes two claims about the near-H&A. The first is that a person will not be able to tell the difference between a superior and a premium. Second is that often, the near-H&A carry the same price premium has perfect H&A.
I cannot agree entirely with either of these statements because the first statement is only true if a person casually examines the diamonds. What I think they mean is that to an average consumer and with the naked eye that the two cannot be distinguished, and I think then this statement would be true for most excellent graded diamonds. The second statement is quite simply false. If both seller and buyer know the value of the product, then there will definitely be a significant price difference that should be comparable to the difference between a VVS1 and IF clarity diamond.
Lets have a look at the Good Old Gold Superior H&A to see how they hold up to their description. When I use their diamond search engine, the first thing I notice is that Good Old Gold does not carry that many diamonds so I cannot just pick out six random diamonds that are very similar like I have done so in my past reviews. Nevertheless, I have randomly selected six superior diamonds ranging from D to H and VVS1 to SI2 in clarity for the review.
Good Old Gold Diamond Spreadsheet
When I look at the diamonds in the above table, I immediately see that in general the table sizes are in between 55% to 57%. I also note that the depth percentages are all less than 62%. I am disappointed that there is no immediate information regarding the girdle, but quickly checking the lab reports of some of these diamonds reveal that most of them have thin to medium girdle thickness.
The crown angles are mostly around 34.5 and 35 degrees and the pavilion angle combinations are mostly 40.8 degrees with two exceptions. I will have a look at those more closely in a bit. So far, it seems that most of these proportions fall within my recommended specifications. The only thing I will say is that the superior H&A line does not have any particular look to them and they seem to be all selected by Good Old Gold for their light performance and overall visual appearance. To confirm this let me have a closer look at the two diamonds with the steeper pavilion angles.
First the 1.15ct DVS1:
actual-1
At first glance, the actual image of the diamond seems to show the brightness of the diamond under the table as strong and balanced. It is expected that the top half of the diamond appears brighter than the bottom half. When I first saw this image, I thought it was very weird that the crown is relatively darker than the rest of the diamond. I think this may be a photography issue because I have since gone on to check every one of Good Old Gold’s Superior H&A’s actual images and it does seem that the relative darkness of some of the facets seem to be flipped.
I will illustrate what I mean by the following example of a 1.53ct KVS1 with lab#9977210.
actual-153kvs1Video of 153KVS1
The image of the left is the actual diamond picture on the Good Old Gold website, the image of the left is taken off of a recent video of the same diamond. Have a look at the bright crown in the video and a dark table reflection. This is opposite of the dark crown and the bright table reflection. Also notice the much more dark bottom half of the diamond in the video compared to the image on the website.
Lets get back to the DVS1. Below is the hearts image.
hearts-1
As you can see, the hearts all have a clef in between them indicating a >80% lower girdle length. Apart from this, I can only seem very minor misalignment of the hearts and the V’s are slightly distorted indicating that there is minor yaw in the diamond. This would not be a diamond that I would rate in the top 10% of super-ideal H&A diamonds. The good things going on are that all the hearts are the same size so I would expect the hotspots to be fairly uniform and also that the opposing V’s are actually quite symmetrical, an important link between optical symmetry and light performance. Also, the separation between the hearts and the V’s are uniform indicating tight variances in the lower girdles.
Good Old Gold does not provide an idealscope image, but instead uses their technology known as a diamxray. A diamxray works in the same way as an idealscope but is designed to work with a much stronger backlighting. Good Old Gold says that it is possible to be more critical with a diamxray than an idealscope image. I personally would prefer an idealscope because I am more used to analysing them.
diamxray-1
Looking at the hotspots, they are fairly uniform as expected at the base of the arrow shafts. As with all arrow views, slight tilt will affect photography so any comments as to optical symmetry should only be generalised. My biggest problem with diamxray is that it can be confusing for consumers. The reds in this image seem to be very uniform. But compare it with the diamxray image of below of another diamond.
diamxray-2
The difference in photography and in backlighting makes me question how to really analyse these images. Nevertheless, I do not see any leakage under the table in the DVS1 that many people fear with diamonds that have a pavilion angle at or above 41 degrees.
Now lets have a look at the other potentially problematic diamond, the 1.32ct HSI2. First the actual image:
actual-3
Just looking at this image, the arrows seem to not be reflecting as much head shadow/body obstruction as you normally expect. However, the diamond appears to be overall brighter than DVS1. From my reservations about the photography, I would be a bit cautious of this stone.
hearts-3
The hearts image looks fine with the only obvious defect at the nine o’clock heart where the two sides of the heart doesn’t line up.
diamxray-3
The diamxray of this diamond confuses me quite a bit. The image seems to confirm that the head shadow/body obstruction is weak in the arrows. But the whole image seems to display this darker color, from the upper girdles, to the lower girdles, and even in the table reflection. What is clear is that there does appear to be lighter pinks under the table than the previous images I have reviewed and this is directly related to a steeper pavilion angle. They are not yet to the point of leaking though, which can be seen by comparing to the white spots of leakage in the upper girdles that are expected.
Again, there is a possibility that the dark areas are an issue with photography. This fact does not sit well in the back of my mind. Perhaps I will run these questions by Rhino and see if he will shed some light and then I will come back and make whatever changes are necessary to this review. But what is certain is that I have looked at 3 diamxray images and all 3 are so different that it makes me feel like these images are not particularly helpful to consumers.
Quality of the Good Old Gold Premium Hearts & Arrows Diamond
Earlier in this review I have already mentioned two of the defects that can make a diamond miss the mark on a superior designation. I will repeat them here for convenience.
• The arrow shafts are not aligned at the base such that the star pattern around the table reflection is distorted.
• One or more smaller hearts, which affect the hotspots at the base of the arrow shafts such that they are not uniform.
For simplicity, I will randomly look at several arrows images of Good Old Gold’s Premium Ideal Cut Round.
arrows-gvs2 arrows-fvs2
Arrows-fsi1 smaller heart
There are an infinite number of variations that Good Old Gold seems to consider to be premium. From what I can tell, a main consideration is whether the diamond displays an arrows pattern. The four images above show various defects that you can find within the premium ideal cut designation. Most of the defects can be attributed to misalignment and twisting of the diamond due to yaw. The image on the bottom right shows what a diamond with one smaller heart would look like.
smaller heart image
You can see the smaller heart at the eight o’clock position. The heart is further away from the V because the lower girdle length at that point is longer than the others. The point is that if you want a premium cut diamond, there is a very wide range of diamonds and some will be closer to the Superior designation than others.
Price
First off, Good Old Gold does not offer a pricescope discount. Instead they just have a bank wire discount. There are some vendors out there that offer both pricescope and bank wire discounts. Many of the diamonds on Good Old Gold’s site do not have a price listed. The reason given by Rhino is that the stone may be on consignment or they may otherwise have an agreement with a supplier that does not want them to publicly list the price. A 1.02ct HVS2 Superior H&A that had a price was listed at $8,218. A comparable 1.02ct HVS2 True Heart from James Allen on the other hand is $7,510 (with further discounts available). The 10% extra that you are paying is for the many value added services that Good Old Gold provide starting with information, lots and lots of information.
Information Provided
When you purchase a Superior H&A diamond from Good Old Gold, you get an actual image, the diamxray, an ASET, hearts and arrows images, brilliantscope/gemex results, Isee2 results, and a photomicrograph showing the location of the inclusion.
Remember that information is only as good as the ability to interpret it. The brilliantscope counts the frequency of flashes with a stationary diamond and a moving light source. However, the brilliantscope does not take into account optical symmetry, contrast, or painting of the upper girdles. Therefore, there is a need for Isee2 technology, which assesses the contrast, brightness, and optical symmetry of the diamond and gives it a score out of 10. Apparently a perfect score is impossible to achieve. Neither of these technologies adequately measures the fire of a diamond.
On top of the brilliantscope and the Isee2, you also get a Helium report, which is the most comprehensive diamond report available. Just have a look yourself.
Helium
Also, because Good Old Gold is a brick and mortar store and Rhino is such a nice guy and really has passion in what he does, you are sure to get great customer service and have all this info explained to you when you go there in person.
Ease of Searching a Diamond
Good Old Gold has one of the best diamond search engines on the internet allowing you to literally search for any proportion combination. The only problem is that their limited inventory negates the usefulness of the search engine. Because they don’t have a lot of diamonds, it is easy to find the diamond they have or don’t have for your specifications. Overall, the site may seem confusing for first-time users because it is not designed like the typical Blue Nile type website. Another real plus for Good Old Gold is that they carry a very wide range of superior fancy cuts.
One thing I really like about the Good Old Gold diamond search filter is the ability to expand the details of all their diamonds in the list. It allows you to quickly see all the important information about the diamond immediately, which is very nice. Again, the fact that a lot of their diamonds do not have a listed price can be annoying for an online consumer.
Value Adding Company Policies
Good Old Gold has a 30-day return policy (less shipping), average for the industry. Where the Good Old Gold policies shine is that they have a lifetime trade-up policy where you can get a 100% credit (less shipping) toward another diamond that is equal or greater in value. They also have a buy-back policy where they will buy back your diamond at any time for 25% less than what you paid for it. This policy is one of the best I’ve seen in the industry. Finally, Good Old Gold can help your online buying experience by making a video for you. The only caveat, although understandable, is that there is a requirement for a $500 refundable deposit before they will make a video for you.
Conclusion
Congratulations for getting to the end of this extremely long review. I hope that I have covered most of the important points about Good Old Gold, their diamonds, and their value added services. The Good Old Gold Superior H&A diamonds are undoubtedly some of the most precision cut diamonds in the world. Every diamond in the Good Old Gold inventory is handpicked for their appearance, and each one will be uniquely suitable to a lucky consumer out there. Although Good Old Gold does not aim to be the cheapest vendor, their value add services are among the best in the industry.
I recommend purchasing a Superior H&A from Good Old Gold if you are looking for a super-ideal diamond with longer lower girdles for more pin fire flashes. I would also recommend them for those who are looking for the peace of mind of having as much information as is physically possible for a diamond.
The Premium ideal cut range encompasses a wide range of diamonds. As far as I can tell, these can be any diamond within the AGS0/GIAex cut grade that have aligned arrows with no major optical asymmetry. It is worthwhile to be more particular with Good Old Gold if you want to find a particularly nice Premium ideal cut diamond. If you are not going to be particular, there are cheaper alternatives out there for those on a tight budget working to maximise their bang for the buck and Good Old Gold may not be the place if you are looking to stretch your dollar. But if you value the experience of purchasing from a brick and mortar store, along with the quality of the customer service, then I can’t think of a better place than Good Old Gold.
Saturday 13 July 2013
Whiteflash Review
Quality of the Whiteflash “A Cut Above” (ACA)
The ACA diamond is Whiteflash’s signature top of the line super-ideal H&A diamond. It was developed as a response to the Eight Star diamond’s marketing strategy that made them seem like they claimed that there was no other cut possible that could achieve 100% light return.
On their website, Whiteflash markets the ACA as:
ACA MarketingACA Specifications
The picture on the left shows why consumers might really want the ACA. Whiteflash is targeting those who want to seek the best of the best in terms of both cut quality and light performance.
Out of the 8 specifications of the ACA stated in the right picture, the only ones relevant to achieving this goal is an AGS000 diamond with a platinum light performance report. Although there are subtle differences that a prosumer should be aware of before deciding on a diamond with an AGS v GIA diamond certificate, this topic is outside the scope of this review. Whiteflash also promises light performance imaging with each ACA and negligible fluorescence.
Please note that the cut of the ACA is not special, it is a modern 57 facet round brilliant cut diamond, it is the cut quality, that is meant to be special. Unlike Blue Nile who publishes a range of proportions that fit into their signature line, Whiteflash does not explicitly mention their range of proportions. However, the ACA is actually cut to more exacting standards than Blue Nile’s signature.
Comparison Table
I took 6 random GVS2’s from the ACA line to check their proportions. What is immediately clear is that all of them have thin to medium girdles. The next thing I notice is that the table % is between 55-57%, the depth % is between 61.5-62%.
An interesting thing that I have noticed with most ACA’s is that the crown angles are cut over 34.5 degrees, and actually closer to 35 degrees. Also, most ACA’s have a pavilion angle between 40.7 and 40.9 degrees. This actually causes a slight decrease in light return under the table when compared to a 34.5/40.8 CA/PA relationship. For more information on light performance please read my next tutorial.
For now, it is sufficient for my readers to understand that a decrease in light performance is not always a bad thing and it boils down to whether you prefer a brighter diamond that appears more uniformly ‘glassy’, or a slightly less bright diamond that has more contrast which can be seen by a more distinctive arrows patterning. It seems to me that Whiteflash has chosen the latter as more representative of the ACA brand. Please note that the words I have chosen to use is a “decrease in light return” and not “light leakage”.
A decrease in light return under the table will in theory have a negative impact on its fire. However, it is my opinion that the ACA’s minor decrease in light return will not have a negative impact on the diamond’s fire. In smaller diamonds, this is because the facets are so small that the areas in question will be seen as an ‘on-off’ event. In larger diamonds, the advanced diamond optics of virtual facets become the most significant factor determining a diamond’s fire. Without going into depth on either of these concepts since they are prosumer level 3 topics, it is sufficient to conclude that the ACA is cut to enhance the contrast of the patterning of the arrows whilst maintaining excellent light performance in the rest of the diamond. The ACA is therefore cut slightly steep and slightly deep by design, without going over the important thresholds of light performance. As a result, it also benefits the company as this design will retain a higher weight than an Eight Star by having a higher yield of the rough diamond.
ACA actualExpert Selection actual
Without telling you which is which, can you tell the difference? Which is better looking to you? The pictures above demonstrate my point about the ACA. The diamond on the left is an ACA with a CA/PA of 34.9/40.9 and the one on the right is a diamond from Whiteflash’s Expert Selection range with a CA/PA of 34.5/40.8. Neither diamond can be said to be more beautiful than the other. An objective statement would be that the ACA has better optical symmetry. Another objective statement is that the Expert Selection on the right has more light return. Whether more light return = better light performance is a subjective question.
If we just focus on optical symmetry, the ACA’s are in general excellent. Whiteflash strives to set the industry standard on what a true H&A diamond should be. You can see that the lower girdle % of 6 sampled diamonds are between 76-77%, well below the length where you will begin to see a clef between the hearts. Please note that this is by design only and a super-ideal diamond that has the highest precision cutting can have lower girdle % of 80-85 without negative impact on light performance. This changes on the character of the diamond, which is the topic of a later tutorial.
When choosing an ACA, you will note that there are not many choices depending on your other 4C’s criteria. However, if you are looking for the best of the best, it is still prudent to try to search for an ACA with no discernable yaw. If you are one of these prosumers, then I urge you to contact me about this topic as it may take me a while before I reach that topic in my tutorials.
Quality of Whiteflash’s Expert Selection
Whiteflash claims that their Expert Selection diamonds are those that narrowly missed the cut to become an ACA. Whether Expert Selection stones were those destined to be ACA’s but failed is a mystery. What I can tell you that there are two ways that diamonds can miss the mark. First is the optical symmetry, second is the light performance.
Don’t try to find an Expert Selection stone that has both perfect optical symmetry and light performance, you won’t find one. I would recommend looking for one with excellent light performance with no obvious defects in its optical symmetry. These are what I consider to be near H&A. Purchasing from the Expert Selection range may save you some money but be more careful when choosing one because unlike the ACA, there is no typical look to them. I have come across both stones with no light leakage as well as stones that have very obvious light leakage.
Whiteflash also has a Premium Select line that is basically a non-signature line that they have in-house. I will not be reviewing the Premium Select line.
Price
The first thing to note is that Whiteflash offers a 5% Pricescope discount. They also a one-time offer $50 for registering with them on your first purchase. The prices at Whiteflash are a bit confusing to me because there is really not much difference between the Expert Selection and the ACA. Just for comparison, I randomly found a 1.047 HVS1 Expert Selection for US$8,678 and a 1.020 HVS1 ACA for US$8,548. Neither stone had fluorescence. In comparison, a 1.05 HVS1 Blue Nile Signature Ideal diamond with no fluorescence was listed at US$8,611. Its clear to me that Whiteflash offers great value for the quality, selection, and information that is provided.
Information Provided
ACA diamonds comes with an AGS000 platinum light performance report, an actual picture of the diamond under magnification, idealscope, ASET, hearts image under a Hearts and Arrows viewer, and also a simplified Sarin report. The simple Sarin report does not add much value, since a comprehensive Sarin report will show the variances in all the measured proportions. Whiteflash will also tell you whether the diamond is eye-clean. Remember, eye-cleanliness is a subjective matter. However, Whiteflash’s definition of eye-clean is:
“No inclusions visible to the naked eye of a person with 20/20 vision when viewing the diamond in the face-up position at a distance of approximately 10 inches under normal overhead lighting.”
Unlike an ACA, the Expert Selection diamonds will not have a hearts image. Therefore, any signs of yaw will have to be discerned from the idealscope image. Please not that unless an idealscope image is taken under a highly reproducible environment, there are too many factors that make discerning optical symmetry from the idealscope image impossible.
Ease of Searching for a Diamond
Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Whiteflash is the actual experience of looking for a diamond from them. Although the website provides a lot of information including the option of seeing thumbnails of the actual pictures of the diamond on the search screen, the site is much slower than Blue Nile, which can get annoying on your diamond search. Whiteflash must be commended for their photography. The benefit of having high quality actual pictures outweighs all the disadvantages because it allows a trained eye to quickly find those diamonds that fit your specifications without even clicking into the diamond. Because of this, after apply our filters; I can go through the entire inventory on Whiteflash in very little time.
One thing they must fix is their user interface. They have a searching function available in a sidebar, which is very confusing. Also, there seems to be a bug where I have to check an ACA in order to filter it out, which is counterintuitive.
Value Adding Company Policies
Whiteflash has a 30-day return policy on all in-house loose diamonds. They have an excellent lifetime trade-up policy where you can have 100% credit for full purchase price upon spending an equal or greater value.
Conclusion
Whiteflash offers great value for the quality, selection, information provided. On top of that, they have an excellent trade up policy. Unless you have access to similar quality stones at a better price, I highly recommend purchasing from Whiteflash whether you are looking for the best of the best, or the best way to spend your money.
The ACA diamond is Whiteflash’s signature top of the line super-ideal H&A diamond. It was developed as a response to the Eight Star diamond’s marketing strategy that made them seem like they claimed that there was no other cut possible that could achieve 100% light return.
On their website, Whiteflash markets the ACA as:
ACA MarketingACA Specifications
The picture on the left shows why consumers might really want the ACA. Whiteflash is targeting those who want to seek the best of the best in terms of both cut quality and light performance.
Out of the 8 specifications of the ACA stated in the right picture, the only ones relevant to achieving this goal is an AGS000 diamond with a platinum light performance report. Although there are subtle differences that a prosumer should be aware of before deciding on a diamond with an AGS v GIA diamond certificate, this topic is outside the scope of this review. Whiteflash also promises light performance imaging with each ACA and negligible fluorescence.
Please note that the cut of the ACA is not special, it is a modern 57 facet round brilliant cut diamond, it is the cut quality, that is meant to be special. Unlike Blue Nile who publishes a range of proportions that fit into their signature line, Whiteflash does not explicitly mention their range of proportions. However, the ACA is actually cut to more exacting standards than Blue Nile’s signature.
Comparison Table
I took 6 random GVS2’s from the ACA line to check their proportions. What is immediately clear is that all of them have thin to medium girdles. The next thing I notice is that the table % is between 55-57%, the depth % is between 61.5-62%.
An interesting thing that I have noticed with most ACA’s is that the crown angles are cut over 34.5 degrees, and actually closer to 35 degrees. Also, most ACA’s have a pavilion angle between 40.7 and 40.9 degrees. This actually causes a slight decrease in light return under the table when compared to a 34.5/40.8 CA/PA relationship. For more information on light performance please read my next tutorial.
For now, it is sufficient for my readers to understand that a decrease in light performance is not always a bad thing and it boils down to whether you prefer a brighter diamond that appears more uniformly ‘glassy’, or a slightly less bright diamond that has more contrast which can be seen by a more distinctive arrows patterning. It seems to me that Whiteflash has chosen the latter as more representative of the ACA brand. Please note that the words I have chosen to use is a “decrease in light return” and not “light leakage”.
A decrease in light return under the table will in theory have a negative impact on its fire. However, it is my opinion that the ACA’s minor decrease in light return will not have a negative impact on the diamond’s fire. In smaller diamonds, this is because the facets are so small that the areas in question will be seen as an ‘on-off’ event. In larger diamonds, the advanced diamond optics of virtual facets become the most significant factor determining a diamond’s fire. Without going into depth on either of these concepts since they are prosumer level 3 topics, it is sufficient to conclude that the ACA is cut to enhance the contrast of the patterning of the arrows whilst maintaining excellent light performance in the rest of the diamond. The ACA is therefore cut slightly steep and slightly deep by design, without going over the important thresholds of light performance. As a result, it also benefits the company as this design will retain a higher weight than an Eight Star by having a higher yield of the rough diamond.
ACA actualExpert Selection actual
Without telling you which is which, can you tell the difference? Which is better looking to you? The pictures above demonstrate my point about the ACA. The diamond on the left is an ACA with a CA/PA of 34.9/40.9 and the one on the right is a diamond from Whiteflash’s Expert Selection range with a CA/PA of 34.5/40.8. Neither diamond can be said to be more beautiful than the other. An objective statement would be that the ACA has better optical symmetry. Another objective statement is that the Expert Selection on the right has more light return. Whether more light return = better light performance is a subjective question.
If we just focus on optical symmetry, the ACA’s are in general excellent. Whiteflash strives to set the industry standard on what a true H&A diamond should be. You can see that the lower girdle % of 6 sampled diamonds are between 76-77%, well below the length where you will begin to see a clef between the hearts. Please note that this is by design only and a super-ideal diamond that has the highest precision cutting can have lower girdle % of 80-85 without negative impact on light performance. This changes on the character of the diamond, which is the topic of a later tutorial.
When choosing an ACA, you will note that there are not many choices depending on your other 4C’s criteria. However, if you are looking for the best of the best, it is still prudent to try to search for an ACA with no discernable yaw. If you are one of these prosumers, then I urge you to contact me about this topic as it may take me a while before I reach that topic in my tutorials.
Quality of Whiteflash’s Expert Selection
Whiteflash claims that their Expert Selection diamonds are those that narrowly missed the cut to become an ACA. Whether Expert Selection stones were those destined to be ACA’s but failed is a mystery. What I can tell you that there are two ways that diamonds can miss the mark. First is the optical symmetry, second is the light performance.
Don’t try to find an Expert Selection stone that has both perfect optical symmetry and light performance, you won’t find one. I would recommend looking for one with excellent light performance with no obvious defects in its optical symmetry. These are what I consider to be near H&A. Purchasing from the Expert Selection range may save you some money but be more careful when choosing one because unlike the ACA, there is no typical look to them. I have come across both stones with no light leakage as well as stones that have very obvious light leakage.
Whiteflash also has a Premium Select line that is basically a non-signature line that they have in-house. I will not be reviewing the Premium Select line.
Price
The first thing to note is that Whiteflash offers a 5% Pricescope discount. They also a one-time offer $50 for registering with them on your first purchase. The prices at Whiteflash are a bit confusing to me because there is really not much difference between the Expert Selection and the ACA. Just for comparison, I randomly found a 1.047 HVS1 Expert Selection for US$8,678 and a 1.020 HVS1 ACA for US$8,548. Neither stone had fluorescence. In comparison, a 1.05 HVS1 Blue Nile Signature Ideal diamond with no fluorescence was listed at US$8,611. Its clear to me that Whiteflash offers great value for the quality, selection, and information that is provided.
Information Provided
ACA diamonds comes with an AGS000 platinum light performance report, an actual picture of the diamond under magnification, idealscope, ASET, hearts image under a Hearts and Arrows viewer, and also a simplified Sarin report. The simple Sarin report does not add much value, since a comprehensive Sarin report will show the variances in all the measured proportions. Whiteflash will also tell you whether the diamond is eye-clean. Remember, eye-cleanliness is a subjective matter. However, Whiteflash’s definition of eye-clean is:
“No inclusions visible to the naked eye of a person with 20/20 vision when viewing the diamond in the face-up position at a distance of approximately 10 inches under normal overhead lighting.”
Unlike an ACA, the Expert Selection diamonds will not have a hearts image. Therefore, any signs of yaw will have to be discerned from the idealscope image. Please not that unless an idealscope image is taken under a highly reproducible environment, there are too many factors that make discerning optical symmetry from the idealscope image impossible.
Ease of Searching for a Diamond
Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Whiteflash is the actual experience of looking for a diamond from them. Although the website provides a lot of information including the option of seeing thumbnails of the actual pictures of the diamond on the search screen, the site is much slower than Blue Nile, which can get annoying on your diamond search. Whiteflash must be commended for their photography. The benefit of having high quality actual pictures outweighs all the disadvantages because it allows a trained eye to quickly find those diamonds that fit your specifications without even clicking into the diamond. Because of this, after apply our filters; I can go through the entire inventory on Whiteflash in very little time.
One thing they must fix is their user interface. They have a searching function available in a sidebar, which is very confusing. Also, there seems to be a bug where I have to check an ACA in order to filter it out, which is counterintuitive.
Value Adding Company Policies
Whiteflash has a 30-day return policy on all in-house loose diamonds. They have an excellent lifetime trade-up policy where you can have 100% credit for full purchase price upon spending an equal or greater value.
Conclusion
Whiteflash offers great value for the quality, selection, information provided. On top of that, they have an excellent trade up policy. Unless you have access to similar quality stones at a better price, I highly recommend purchasing from Whiteflash whether you are looking for the best of the best, or the best way to spend your money.
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