It’s the first thing they notice and the one thing we get asked about the most: the center stone of your custom ring. It should catch the light, glitter, and amaze everyone - even you. Diamonds are by far the most popular and universal stone for a custom engagement or wedding band, and how it looks on your finger all comes down to the cut we put into the gem.
Out of the four Cs used to determine diamond quality - cut, color, clarity, and carat - the cut is the most important when determining the quality of natural diamonds. It is also the simplest one to understand. Unlike the other Cs, the cut of a diamond isn’t measured in numbers or assigned special letter codes that mean nothing to the average consumer. Simply, a diamond’s cut can range anywhere from excellent to poor. It really doesn’t get much simpler.
How do we decide where a diamond falls on that scale? Maybe you have seen the jewelry commercials with a gemologist looking at a diamond through a magnifying glass and nodding approvingly. As a certified gemologist, I can say the process is a little more complicated. Determining the quality of a diamond’s cut means looking at the variables of seven scores.
The seven scores used to grade a diamond cut:
- Carat weight
- Durability
- Polish
- Symmetry
- Brightness
- Scintillation (the sparkle factor)
- Fire (how much of the rainbow you see when light hits a diamond).
There’s also a secret, eighth score that most jewelers won’t tell you about - but we’ll get to that in a minute.
The size and shape of a diamond affect how much light passes through it and what that light will do once it gets there. A diamond that is cut too deep or lacking symmetry will trap the light inside rather than refract it into beautiful sparkles.
It takes all seven of these characteristics working together in harmony to get a highly-graded diamond. Each stone contains a magical ratio of little measurements, angles, weights, and shapes that create each diamond’s unique personality. So naturally, you should want the best possible numbers for your perfect custom diamond jewelry, right?
Here’s the hitch - there is no perfect ratio. There is no secret formula that can calculate the perfect clarity, the perfect shine, or the perfect sparkle in your diamond. Every diamond is unique, which is why they are such a popular choice for wedding bands. This is why so much of our custom designed jewellery is set with diamonds - the band, the cut, and the stone are all as unique as what it commemorates.
That “secret” eighth score? How the diamond looks to you: the customer, the person who is wearing it. This is the score that makes your custom jewelry invaluable. Creating an artisan-crafted piece that embodies everything that you find beautiful will always be more important than any “perfect” ratio of weights and measurements.