Engagement Ring Subject Index

1. White Gold vs. Yellow Gold
2. White Gold vs. Platinum
3. Gold Karat Ratings
4. Maintaining Your Engagement Ring
5. Professional Jewelry Maintenance
6. Keeping Diamonds Secure In A Ring Setting
7. Custom-Produced vs. Stock Diamond Settings
8. Tension Set Engagement Ring Styles
9. Fancy Cut (Non-Round) Diamond Shapes
10. Bridal Set Ring Styles And Jewelry Options
11. Choosing A Ring For An Heirloom Diamond
12. The 4 C's: Cut, Color, Clarity, Carat Weight

Diamond grading certifies the performance of a diamond in four different areas:

Cut

• When the human eye observes a diamond, the cut is the most recognizable and notable quality.
• The grade of the cut refers to how well the cut conforms to the angles and proportions of the "ideal diamond," which offers the best possible light performance and looks the most white and sparkly to the eye.
• Only the best round diamonds can also be certified as "high performance" diamonds, indicating that they possess an extremely high degree of light return.
• The American Gem Society (AGS) labaratory grades diamond cuts from 0 - 10 (0 being the best, 10 being the worst).
• The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) labaratory grades the cut of a stone as one of: excellent, very good, good, fair, poor.

Color

• The color grading refers to the quality of the diamond's color. Better diamonds are more colorless and neutral in color.
• Diamonds are rated from D to Z, with D being colorless, and Z being yellow.
• Diamonds in the range I-J are perceived as being colorless to the unaided eye when placed in a setting, and are a good compromise that offers you excellent value in an engagement ring.
• When choosing a diamond for a yellow gold setting, you have even more flexibility with regard to diamond color. The vivid tones of the metal used in the ring can make even a K, L, or M colored diamond look excellent.

Clarity

• Clarity refers to how severe any imperfections in a diamond are. These are known as "inclusions," and their presence affects the clarity rating, which is refers to these categories:
  • Flawless (F)
  • Internally Flawless (IF)
  • Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1, VVS2)
  • Very Slightly Included (VS1, VS2)
  • Slightly Included (SI1, SI2)
  • Imperfect (I1, I2, I3)
• Inclusions may be of various shapes, sizes, and located in various areas of a diamond, which may result in their being more or less noticeable. Each diamond's lab report includes complete detail about the inclusions present.
• We can help you research diamond options to find the best value for an engagement ring center stone. We frequently can find and recommend budget-friendly stones with inclusions that are located in less visible areas (i.e. near the base of the diamond, or concealed by the setting's prong.) Contact us for more details.

Carat Weight

• Carat is a unit of measurement describing the weight of a diamond. (5 carats = 1 gram.) This simply represents how heavy the stone is, although many people equate the carat weight with the visual appearance of the diamond's size.
• Although higher-carat stones do generally appear larger than low-carat stones, there is surprising variability in the size of the visible crown of a diamond when it's set in an engagement ring. This is due to some diamonds having a shallower depth, causing the dimensions of their crown to be larger than others when comparing several stones of the same carat weight.

For more details on the "4 C's," refer to our online Education section for a tutorial on understanding diamond characteristics.