The "Sparkliest" Diamond Shape

What shape diamond are you going to get for the engagement ring? Round? Square? Oval? Pear? Heart?

They're all so nice! It can be difficult to choose. You could be after a shape that is popular or maybe you want to try something a little different.

Some diamond cutters have created their own improvements and sell these diamonds directly. This is called a Signature Cut. The way these diamonds look are pretty impressive and very dazzling. Diamonds are already quite hypnotic, but signature cuts particularly super ideal cut diamonds are just unbelievable.

 

If you look at the statistics on a site like mega diamond seller Blue Nile you'll see that most people end up choosing round diamonds.

The reason that round shaped diamonds, (technically called round brilliants) are such good sellers is because they are known to be designed in such a clever way that a larger proportion of light bounces back through the top of the diamond giving it a superior sparkle. Because it is so cleverly engineered to make the light bounce and disperse so nicely it is possible to have a very sparkly stone even in lower clarity diamonds. So you can get away with choosing a "J" stone which has been cut into a round shape. As a result the "J" round diamonds are the best sellers.

If you do choose this option it would be important to get a stone whose grading report says it has an "Excellent" cut grade.  Actually I recommend to always go for  an "Excellent" cut grade. Excellent cut can also be referred to by some grading labs as an "Ideal Cut" .

 The "cut grade" is something separate from the "cut".  "Cut grade" would be mentioned on a grading report and this refers to how well the diamond is cut to achieve that perfect sparkle. Scientific ways to plan and predict light performance were introduced by The Gemological Institute of America in 2005 which helps jewelers create the best possible diamond.

It's always a challenging task for cutters to create an "Ideal" or "Excellent" cut as they are working not only with the hardest mineral on earth, but they have to work out the best way to accomplish this without losing too much of the diamond. After all, the bigger the diamond the rarer it is. Imagine being a diamond cutter and lopping off $20,000 from the stone in one stroke. I'm sure it's happened. Hopefully not too often.

I am constantly surprised at the high quality stones people are buying online. Most people going into the local jewelers are actually quite happy with a "Very Good" cut, and rarely go for the clear diamonds, or those whose grading report says are Very Lightly Included. When you look at the stones on many online jewelers's sites you'll see a highly magnified diamond. At a jewelers you don't get as good a look as you would online. Also most people when buying from the local mall jeweler don't bother to ask about the grading report.

This is how the online retailers have captured a huge slice of the market place: by giving people the chance to look at the diamond's grading report, as well as offering a large selection.

Which brings me back to the topic I started with. The selection of shapes available is also quite vast.

Technically the "shape" is referred to by diamond jewelers as the "Cut". But they'll understand it if you say "shape".

The round brilliant cut has become the standard diamond shape due to its excellent light performance. Every other shape is called a Fancy cut.

The round brilliant has been around since the 1700's, so other shapes certainly preceded it. Mentions of oval shaped diamonds occur in 1304, and pear shapes were known in the 1400's.

The round brilliant's current design is the accumulation of many centuries of work, contributed to by people like Henry Morse (of Boston) in the 1860's, and later a few slight enhancements were introduced by Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919.