Diamond Color, Cut, Clarity, and Carat Weight
What is there in a Diamond?
You all know what makes a diamond so precious and expensive. Now, what you will know is what makes a diamond more expensive than another and what parameters define the diamond value. There are basically four parameters considered while determining the value of a diamond:
Diamond Carat Weight:
This is a pure measure of the weight of a diamond. One Carat is equivalent to 200 milligrams or, as people in the Far East put it to this day, four grains of rice. The value of the diamond increases almost exponentially with carat weight, simply because a 2 carat diamond is a much more prized possession than two 1 carat diamonds. Read more on Diamond Carat Weight.
Diamond Clarity:
This tells us how pure the diamond is. Diamonds have two kinds of flaws – blemishes or surface flaws such as scratches and chips, and inclusions or internal imperfections such as impurities or cracks. Diamonds that are not commercial-grade, that is, the ones used in jewelry, are generally eye clean. This means their flaws cannot be seen by the naked eye. These are the rare, beautiful ones that are important for our business. Read more on Diamond Clarity.
Diamond Color:
This is the color that a diamond is intrinsically made of, and not the color that it radiates. Most diamonds are white (shades between white and yellow), but some of them occur in other colors such as red, blue, green and canary (bright yellow). Now, a white diamond is valued by how purely white it is, unless it is such a bright shade of yellow that it is categorized as one of those yellow ones. Read more on Diamond Color.
Diamond Cut:
How beautiful a diamond is, is determined by how much it sparkles, and how much diamond sparkles is determined by how well diamond cut is. Most diamonds, in an effort to preserve the carat value, are poorly cut, and this robs them of their beauty. The most common diamond shapes are – Round, Oval, Pear, Princess, Marquise, Emerald cut, and Baguette. Read more on Diamond Cut.
Now you know the most fundamental things in diamond business – which diamond is more valuable than which.
