THE 101 ON DIAMOND 4C’s: DETERMINING RARITY & QUALITY
Understanding the 4C’s and its systematic grading system that assesses the degree of excellence & rarity of a diamond. Breaking it down, the famous four C’s are Color/Cut/Carat Weight/Clarity. Buchroeders Diamonds are qualified at GIA labs & certified to comply with the highest respect to industry standards. Our Diamond Education segment contains pertinent information supporting your search efforts so you may get a flawless stone at an ideal price.
COLOR
A perfect natural diamond that’s chemically pure with an ideal structure will come out colorless. Diamonds naturally take form in widespread shades from downright colorless to more rare fancy hues such as pink, brownish, blue, and lemon yellow, just to name a few. White diamonds affected by impurities or crystallization flaws carry yellowish hues, thus becoming observable to human sight without any magnification.
CUT
Widely viewed as a compelling and critical part of the four C's, diamond cut is a symmetric design pattern utilized when gem cutters shape up the stone, maximizing sunlight reflection from facets while ensuring superb radiance, blaze, and twinkle. If done masterfully, it will massively influence overall luminance; if poorly executed, you’ll probably end up with a dull-looking that’s less brilliant.
CARAT WEIGHT
Carat weight (ct) is a measurement unit representing its material weight. 1ct = 200 mg (0.007 oz), divisible into 100 pinpoints. Defiant to popular belief, ct weight shall never be confused with diamond size. The latter measures dimensions in millimeters, length by width — more particularly, it determines the actual diameter of your diamond.
CLARITY
Clarity measures the purity and rarity of your stone. Internal attributes like inclusions & blemishes are analyzed to define the overall aesthetic superbness of your diamond. Inclusions are naturally-occurred, like a birthmark for instance. These tiny flaws are spotted by lab experts beneath magnification in 10x strength.
DIAMOND SHAPE
Selecting a particular shape doesn’t come with set-in-stone rules. Diamond shapes all have their own special and distinctive properties. Here at Buchroeders, we suggest engagement ring shoppers simply introspect on their own unique personalities and fashion/lifestyle taste.
Pear-shaped is great for avant-gardists, round ones for those appreciating a timeless design, while the romantic wife-to-be can’t go wrong with a heart-shaped rock.
CERTIFICATION
Buchroeders Diamonds hail from the recycled market as we strongly believe in responsible sourcing & wish to see a greener planet. Every gemstone we possess is GIA-certified (Gemological Institute of America), the globe's leading & internationally trusted laboratory.
Two commonly used systems exist to develop artificial diamonds
Chemical Vapor Deposition (C.V.D.)
CVD laboratory diamonds originate from refined carbon seeds positioned in a specially conceived growth chamber. Those seeds routinely take on fierce pressurized heat and fluid gas (around 2100°F), growing bigger resulting in crystallization, thus shaping into synthetic roughs over time.
High Pressure High Temperature (H.P.H.T.)
HPHT synthetic diamonds are fabricated using state-of-the-art gigantic press machines (Cubic, Belt & BARS). First off, a minuscule diamond grain is cautiously carbonized and observed by lab technicians as drastic heat and pressure are employed steadily. The end goal? Re-creating the extremely deep, Earth-like underneath environment needed for proper growth.
Detecting Lab-Grown Diamonds
Each aforementioned method of creation leaves growth marks and reveals signs that are distinctive of a synthetically made diamond. These unusual traits are detectable by gem testing devices constructed with spectroscopic technology. Moreover, regarding an unnatural phenomenon, some CVD synthetic diamonds under UV and sun exposure reveal coloring alterations. Special treatment using the H.P.H.T. method will eliminate such imperfections and bring back the initially desired shade.
