While shopping around for a diamond at any store or 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 jeweler supply house if you are going to buy the diamond privately.
The ideal best quality loupe to purchase is by Bausch & Lomb
and 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 colour 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.
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