Arctic Diamonds

Diamonds

A diamond is a salute to the precious moments in our lives, a dazzling reminder of someone’s love, a reward for a great accomplishment and an enduring symbol to be treasured and celebrated.

Diamonds are graded using a universal system that assesses the stone on its color, clarity, cut and carat-weight, commonly known as the ‘Four Cs’. Every diamond, no matter how large or small, has a set of unique characteristics that determine its value.

Cut

diamond’s cut is not just a description of its shape, it is the most important factor in determining its fire, brilliance and scintillation. While nature determines the color, clarity and carat of a stone, the cut is in the hands of the master diamond cutter.

Essentially, the cut of a diamond determines how effectively light that enters the stone is refracted within and reflected back through the top of the diamond. Factors such as proportion, symmetry and polish affect the quality of the diamond: the closer they are to perfect, the better the diamond will perform in terms of fire, brilliance and scintillation.

A diamond cut to ideal proportion and symmetry will reflect the perfect balance of light back through the top of the stone, while a poorly cut diamond will result in a loss of light, and hence sparkle, through the sides and bottom.

Color

Color refers to the presence or absence of a yellow or brown tint in white diamonds. The closer a diamond is to Colorless, the more rare and valuable it is.

Most diamonds appear Colorless to an untrained eye, yet many have slight tones of yellow or brown which affect its value. (The exception to this is fancy-Colored diamonds, such as deep yellows, pinks and blues, which lie outside the white diamond Color range.)

The Color of a diamond is measured on an alphabetical scale starting from D (Colorless). Each letter grade has a clearly defined range of Color appearance that determines its value, and as you move down the scale, the Color tint in the diamond increases.

Clarity

Clarity measures the incidence of natural inclusions or imperfections found in a diamond. The closer a diamond is to flawless, i.e.: no inclusions visible through a jewellers loupe, the more rare it is and the greater its value. Most inclusions are not visible to the naked eye, so diamonds are examined under a 10x magnifying loupe to determine their clarity.

Clarity characteristics are usually divided into two categories: Inclusions: imperfections that occur naturally inside the diamond itself. These were formed miles below the surface, when the diamond was formed under intense heat and pressure. Blemishes: imperfections that occur on the surface of the diamond and occur during the cutting and polishing process.

A diamond’s clarity is determined by the number, size, type and placement of the inclusions, such as tiny white points, dark dots, or feathery cracks naturally found in the diamond. A diamond’s clarity is unique and acts as a fingerprint. When choosing a diamond, you should select a clarity grade in which the inclusions are not visible without magnification. In other words, we recommend diamonds with a clarity grade of SI2 and up.

Carat

Carat refers to the weight of a diamond and other gemstones. A carat is a unit of measurement equal to 0.2gm or 200mg. In the diamond industry, size does count. Large diamonds are rarely found in nature making them more valuable than smaller diamonds of the same Color and clarity.

This means that the price of a diamond will increase exponentially as the carat size of the diamond increases. Beware that the size or carat weight of a diamond alone cannot be used to determine its value. Factors such as Color and clarity should also be considered. A large diamond with a low Color and clarity will be less valuable than a smaller diamond with a high Color and clarity.

Another common misconception is that a 2 carat diamond will look twice the size of a 1 carat diamond. As the carat weight of a diamond is measured in mass and not physical size, a 2 carat diamond will not be twice the size of a 1.00 carat diamond but it will be twice the weight.

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