The Famous 4Cs: Cut, Color, Clarity & Carat

You've heard about them, but what do they mean?

Does cut refer to the shape of a diamond?
What s the best color? What does Clarity mean?
Is Carat weight the most important consideration?

Choosing Carat weight

  If you thought that Cut refers to the shape of a diamond, you thought wrong. But do not despair, this is a common point of confusion that many people have about diamonds.

Here's what you need to know:
The Cut of a diamond actually refers to the expertise with which a diamond os cut. Most diamonds, regardless of size or shape, are cut with 58 facets, which allow the reflection of light that results in the sparkle of a diamond. A Master Cutter will cut a diamond in such a ay that will maximize the amount of light reflected, increasing the sparkle. Thus, the better the Cut - or "make", the better the sparkle.

 
Examples of rough stones, from which the expert precision of a master cutter will reveal a diamond of unique beauty.
 		 A proportionately cut diamond allows the maximum light to reflect from the top of the stone, while one cut too shallow or to deep will result in less sparkle.

The Best Color

The best color you can choose for a diamond is "colorless". When a diamond is totally devoid of color, it will act as a prism which allows the maximum of light to pass though, resulting in a virtual rainbow of brilliant color. Diamonds found in nature range from colorless to slightly yellow, to brown. The color grading system uses the letters in the alphabet ranging from "D" - which stands for the most colorless, therefore the most valuable, all the way to "Z" which has the most color within the normal range. A diamond's color is best determined by having your jeweler show it to you under controlled lighting and comparing it to the Gemological Institute of America's scale, which is based on a set of diamonds in the known colors.		 A WORD ABOUT
FANCY COLOR DIAMONDS

These are unique, intensely colored diamonds such as yellow or blue that are not graded on the same scale as colorless diamonds

The Grades of Clarity

The best grade you can give a diamond is an "FL" which stands for Flawless - a truly rare condition of nature. A diamond's clarity refers to the quantity, size and position of natural inclusions that occur inside a diamond. The fewer and less noticeable the inclusions, the more valuable the diamond. Diamonds are inspected for flaws, or inclusions under a 10x magnification, and are graded as follows:
 

Choosing Carat weight

A diamond's size* is referred to by its carat weight. Carat is not to be confused with Karat, which is the standard of measure for the purity of gold, and has no relationship to diamonds. A carat is a unit of measurement equal to 200 milligrams. One carat is divided into 100 points, so that a diamond of 50 points weighs .5 carats, and a diamond of 175 points weighs 1.75 carats. Although a large diamond is considered desirable, a true connoisseur recognizes that one must consider all the 4 Cs - and that a smaller diamond of a higher clarity and color may be more valuable than a larger one of a lesser grade of clarity or color.
  
An expertly cut 3 carat center stone flanked by adjacent .75 carat side stones