How to Determine Diamond Quality

Grading 4c’s - Carat Weight, Clarity, Color, Cut

The value of a diamond is determined by four principle factors. Each diamond is categorized by the assets of their cut, clarity, color and carat. Learning and knowing the characteristics, which these 4 C’s play in categorizing a diamond will provide you with the confidence of purchasing a stunning diamond for your jewelry.

A diamonds characteristic of cut refers the reflective qualities of the gemstone, as well as the physical proportions of the gem. A diamond, which is correctly proportioned in its cut, it will present the utmost of brilliance, by mirroring the luminosity inside the diamond and bouncing the effervescent radiance it back into the eyes. If a diamond is cut too deeply or even to shallow, the light, which should refract back into the eyes, instead escapes thru the bottom of the gemstone, therefore rendering the diamond to have less radiance, and causing the diamond to be of less value.

Quite nearly every diamond contain the natural characteristics of forming beneath the earths crust by way of air trapped bubbles, cracks and other minerals present while being stirred within volcanic activity, these inner characteristics are known as natural inclusions. Some diamonds also have external blemishes such as chipping, pit marks or scratches, which occur while in the process of being cut. These inclusions and blemishes are included in the process of determining the clarity of a diamond. These characteristics establish the clarity. The lesser amount of blemishes and inclusions, as well as the location of these imperfections in a diamond establish the rarity and enhance the value of a diamond.

Color refers to the absence or presence of color of a white diamond. Color is a result of the constitution of the diamond, and is forever the same. Because of their fiery and tempest beginnings only a small number of rare diamonds are in fact colorless. A colorless diamond is like transparent glass, and allows extra light to pass through it than a colored diamond, so the more transparent the color of a diamond the more it is prized in value. The nearer to the absence of color, the more valuable the stone becomes. Shades of diamonds are more frequently found in yellow and brown. Diamonds, which are considered fancy colored diamonds, do not adhere by the rules of white diamonds, fancy colored diamonds are extremely rare and expensive, and these fancy colored diamonds can range in hues from blue progressing into bright yellow, and are worth more in value for their unique coloring.

The carat weight of a diamond is determined by the actual weight of the diamond upon a scale. Smaller diamonds are in majority of the diamonds that are discovered, therefore diamonds of a larger size and weight are of superior worth per carat, and hence the value of a diamond is determined by its size.