Diamond Clarity Grades Don't Tell the Whole Story
Jake Fox
I happened across this today, and had to share it.
Both of these diamonds are natural, colorless, three-carat round brilliants graded by the Gemological Institute of America.
The one on the left received an I1.
The one on the right received an SI1.
On paper, the diamond on the right is two clarity grades better than the one on the left.
Look at them.
The diamond with multiple visible inclusions dead center, and more around the edges, is supposedly cleaner than the diamond with a few small inclusions that could likely be largely hidden under a prong.
That brings up an important point about diamond grading.
You've probably heard people say that SI diamonds are clean to the naked eye and I diamonds aren't.
That's not always true.
Richard Liddicoat, the man who developed the modern grading scale, acknowledged that whether an inclusion is visible to the unaided eye depends on variables outside the scope of standardized laboratory grading.
And then there's the part people don't always like to admit:
There is some subjectivity involved.
My personal opinion is that either one of these diamonds could reasonably have received an SI2 grade. But they didn't.
And because of that, you could pay thousands of dollars more for what is, in my opinion, a significantly less attractive diamond.
This is why we caution people against buying diamonds based strictly on the paperwork.
The internet has made it incredibly easy to search diamonds by the 4 Cs. Filter down to exactly what you think you want, sort by price, and you can find what looks like a great deal.
Except the 4 Cs don't tell the whole story.
And here's another thing worth knowing: those online vendors may be cheaper than a big-box store, but they often have margins comparable to independent and private jewelers. Sometimes higher.
So if you're comparing two diamonds that look similar on paper and one is dramatically cheaper, there's probably a reason.
This is also one place where we're a little unusual.
We sell the majority of our diamonds sight unseen. That might sound strange after everything I just said, but there's an important distinction.
We're not asking you to buy a diamond sight unseen and trust a grading report to tell you whether it's beautiful. We're asking you to trust us to evaluate the diamond for you. We'll bring it in for you to see if you'd like, we'll even show you how to use the loupe. But if you trust us to do the hard part, that's exactly what we're going to do.
We're going to look at the things the grading report can't tell you. How the inclusions actually look. Where they are. How they affect the stone. How it performs in real life. And whether we'd be happy putting it in a piece of jewelry for our own family.
We're picky about this stuff. Probably pickier than you would ever want to be.
You don't have to become a diamond expert to buy a great diamond from us.
That's our job.
We're not looking for a diamond that sounds pretty on paper.
We're looking for one that's beautiful in real life.