Learning about diamonds can be confusing for consumers new to jewelry shopping. A helpful way to learn the basics is this guide to the basics of diamond quality.
If you’re new to jewelry shopping and asking yourself “What is a diamond?”, a diamond education page is an excellent resource for beginners. A diamond clarity chart and other special sections and visual aids make these pages worth a look for more experienced shoppers as well. Most retailers will have a good quality page of this type, and it’s a good idea to check it out to learn all about the 4 Cs, just to brush up on the differences between diamond clarity grades, and see what diamond-related knowledge they bring to the table.
Diamonds have many particular characteristics that make them special; in addition to their unusual beauty, diamonds are the hardest naturally-occurring material on Earth.
Cut is the most important of these factors, as proper cutting of a diamond is essential in bringing out the sparkle and fire that made this gem famous. Cut is often confused with shape, the form into which the diamond is cut.
Color is the next step, and this one can be easy to see. Diamond color grades range from D-Z but you won’t find much fine jewelry set with anything beyond K color. Diamonds beyond this color grade steadily decline in rarity and value as they have noticeable yellow or brownish tints. Of course, diamonds with very pronounced natural colors including bright yellows, pinks, and blues are the rarest of all and actually more valuable many types of white diamond.
The next of the four Cs is clarity, which is the evaluation of a diamond’s internal and external flaws. Generally speaking, flaws inside a stone are called inclusions while flaws on the surface are known as blemishes. However, for the purposes of grading, gemological labs refer to all diamond flaws as inclusions.
Carat weight is the trait most people can see and understand easily– it’s the unit of measure for the weight of a precious stone, and differences are visually detected simply by the size and/or number of diamonds. Diamonds of larger carat weights don’t get proportionally expensive with increased carat weight– they jump a lot in price from one carat to the next because finding large, good quality diamonds is less likely than finding small diamonds.