How To Shop For A Loose Diamond

While shopping around for a loose diamond at any jewelry store or online diamond dealer be sure to ask each dealer for a 10X loupe so that you may properly examine the interior of the diamond under magnification. It may be in your best interest to purchase a 10X eye loupe directly from a jewelry supply house if you are going to buy the diamond privately. The ideal best quality loupe to purchase is by Bausch & Lomband it is called the Hastings 10X Triplet that is corrected for chromatic aberration. The absolute best way to view clarity of a diamond is with a stereoscopic binocular microscope with dark field illumination. There are such microscopes manufactured specifically for observing diamonds and gemstones. Any store that features such a microscope is obviously in tune with the scientific clarity grading aspect of diamonds and is likely to be quite specific and detailed with all other aspects of diamond grading.

Should a diamond for example be clarity graded as SI-2 have the jeweler explain to you precisely why it is SI-2. Know the nature and location of the inclusions present in the diamond. Be sure to view the inclusions yourself under the loupe or preferably in the microscope. Diamonds are assigned a clarity grade under a power of 10X. When observing a diamond with a loupe bring the loupe right up to your eye and then slowly bring the diamond in the tweezers to a short distance beneath the loupe till the diamond comes into focus. Always look through the top of the diamond or the table of the diamond to view inclusions. Pick up the diamond in the tweezers by putting the diamond table down and firmly position the diamond within each side of the tweezer. After carefully observing the diamond through the table, observe the side of the diamond so that you can view the girdle of the diamond. The girdle is the border separating the crown or top section of the diamond from the pavilion or bottom section of the girdle.
Be sure to ask the jeweler to allow you to view the color of the diamond against a master comparison set. The jeweler will position the diamond against another diamond of known color and you may compare the diamond to another diamond of known color. It is in this way that color is determined in diamonds. This master set would have been originally color graded by the Gemological Institute of America.

Ideally the observation of color should be done under specific fluorescent lighting conditions in a Diamond Lite machine and wearing a 4X optivisor. The GIA Diamond Lite machine houses all the official comparison diamonds on a special tray that fits into the machine. The diamonds are set in order of color within an angled slot so that you may observe the color of these diamonds by looking through the body of the diamonds. The diamond in question is positioned on the angled slot next to the comparison diamond and in this way a direct comparison can be made with all the comparison diamonds in order to ascertain the correct color of the diamond in question. The diamond in question is shifted from one position to another within the angled slot so that it is between two different stones with each shift. A qualified jeweler or gemologist with this equipment should be able to demonstrate this to you.

Also, while looking at a diamond that you may be considering purchasing have the jeweler explain the cutting grade to you. It is important to ask the jeweler for the following measurements in a round brilliant cut diamond: the maximum diameter, the minimum diameter, the depth, and the table measurement. With these measurements you can determine the table and depth percentage. When focusing on the cut of the diamond make sure that the girdle is not too thick. The ideal situation is for the jeweler to have a machine called a GIA Proportionscope. With this machine the silhouette of the diamond is positioned against the ideal cut on a frosted screen in a darkened room and you can see exactly how the diamond is proportioned and cut in relation to the perfect ideal cut. Very simply put, the better the outline of the diamond in question matches up to the ideal cut the better the cut of the diamond would be. This machine however, can be quite confusing to you and it is still no substitute for getting the proportion measurements especially the depth percentage measurement.

DON'T LET AN INFERIOR QUALITY DIAMOND PASS INTO YOUR HANDS

Always bear in mind that your number one priority is keeping your fiance'e happy. This is where you have to become an expert judge of matters. If she gets annoyed with all the technical jargon involved with diamonds then perhaps you may want to independently discuss all these finer technical scientific grading facts alone with the jeweler at another time. Remember her happiness is your prime concern!