Contents
Diamonds
Cut
Color
Clarity
Diamond Carat
Diamond Shapes
Gold - Karat & White Gold
Platinum
Settings
More Questions?

Diamonds

Diamonds in it’s original form is Carbon, Diamond is one of the hardest gems available on this planet. Uncut and unpolished diamonds called Rough- raw material. This Rough is available as a deposit in the mine. Africa, Australia, Canada and Russia are the major Rough Diamonds producers in the world. Most of the Rough Diamond business is control By De Beers of London. Once this Rough Diamonds are taken out from the mines, they are graded according to the sizes, color, clarity and weight. Most of these mines has arrangements with cutters or Rough Buyers called Sight Holders through their brokers. These Sight Holders are all over the world, mostly in India, Israel, Belgium and few in rest of the world like New York, Hong Kong etc. This sight holders or cutters once they Receive the Rough Diamonds, they start evaluating the Rough Diamonds to make that piece of Rough into best available Shape and Cut and Polished Brilliant Diamond. More rare the Size or Color are usually more valuable Diamonds.

You have to know 4 Cs of Diamonds as per Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to know and understand the Diamonds. Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat are the 4 Cs of the Diamonds. This are the four main aspects of the Diamonds for understanding of the evaluating the Diamonds.

Cut

Once the Rough-Raw Material has given the shape, that piece of Rough Diamond is ready for Facet, these Facets called CUT in 4 Cs. The number of facets depend on the Shapes and Sizes of the Diamonds, it also depends on the cutter’s choice. Whether number of Facets are more or less, still it’s a Diamond. It is very important that every Diamonds are cut and polished to give maximum brilliancy to that piece of Diamond.

Diamond Cut poorly may lower it’s value and the same piece of Diamond is Cut with utmost brilliancy may higher the value of that Diamonds.

Color

Color is one of the important factor in determine the value of Diamonds. In Gemological Institute of America’s standard Color of Diamonds are graded as follows:

Clarity

Diamonds without internal and external flaws considered to be absolutely clean, which is very rare and very expensive. Diamonds have inclusions which can be scratches, trace material and other characteristics. Depending on amount and place of inclusion, diamonds are graded. GIA gradation is as follows:

Diamond Carat

The weight of the Diamonds are normally measured in Carat. Availability of small Diamonds are easier than bigger diamonds. Bigger diamonds, with all the same specifications, has higher value.
One Gram = Five Carats.

Diamond Shapes

Diamonds are cut in different shapes, one of the important reason in determining the shape of the Diamonds is the shape of the Rough- Raw Material Diamonds, to maximize the Size, Brilliancy and the Clarity of the Diamonds, the shape is decided and Rough Diamond is cut accordingly. Some of the most popular shapes of Diamonds are Round, Princess Cut(Square in shape), Marquise(Like eye shape), Oval, Radiant, Emerald, Trillion, etc. From centuries, Round shape is always in demand and is known from centuries.

Gold-Karat and White Gold

Gold is most commonly used precious metal in jewelry. Purity of the gold is measured in KARAT. In most purest form gold is 24 Karat, which is 100% pure. Gold is soft in it’s purest form 24 Karat, which is not recommended for jewelry because it is easy to break.

18 Karat and 14 Karat are the most desired and widely accepted purest form for the jewelry. In 12 Karat gold 50% is Gold and 50% alloyed with metal. However, in some asian countries 22 Karat Gold is popular. In United States 10 Karat is the lowest legal karat allowed.

To lower the Karat of the gold from 24 Karat, gold is alloyed with different metals like copper, silver, zinc, nickel etc. Shade of the color and color of the gold also depend on which metal alloyed with the gold. When gold is alloyed with Zinc, it become WHITE GOLD, yellow gold and white gold has similar strength and malleability. White gold looks similar to platinum, but white gold is softer than platinum. Higher the Karat of the gold, most expensive is the gold. As karat decreases the price of the gold goes down.

Platinum

Platinum is more expensive precious metal than Gold, Platinum is also much stronger metal than Gold. Platinum is usually mixed or alloyed with iridium or palladium. Platinum is normally 95% and alloyed metal is 5%. This Platinum is known as Platinum950. The wear and tear on platinum is very negligible compare to gold.

Settings

When the jewelry is made with the stones, different settings are used to set the stones. This Settings are depend on shapes of the stones, designs of the jewelry and cost of the jewelry. There are different Settings are used to set the stones.

More questions?

Although we try our best to list all essential educational information on our Education page, if you need more specific information, you can contact us either of the following ways.