Paul's Jewelry Designs : Wholesale diamonds: Custom shop: Four goldsmiths: 14k,18k and platinum.

YOUR GUIDE TO DIAMOND QUALITY AND VALUE A diamond is judged by four distinct factors that combine to arrive at its value. These are called the 4C's.
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4 C's
Of all the 4C's, cut is the one most directly influenced by humans. The other three are dictated by nature. The cut or make of a diamond will dramatically influence its fire and sparkle, for it is the polisher's skill that releases its beauty.

CUT
It is the cut that enables a diamond to make the best use of light.
When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light is reflected from one facet to another and then dispersed through the crown or the top of the stone If the cut of the diamond is to deep, some light escapes through the opposite side of the pavilion or bottom If the cut is too shallow, light escapes through the pavilion or bottom before it can be reflected


COLOR
Although the majority of gem diamonds appear to be colorless, others can contain increasing tinges of yellow or brown, some of which are referred to as champagne diamonds. Rare stones of exceptional color - green, red, blue, pink or amber are known as fancies.


CLARITY

Clarity therefore, is the term that is used to indicate the extent to which the diamond you purchased is free of tines' which is a natural phenomena There are four major grading systems for classifying diamonds - GIA, CIBJO, IDC and Scan D.N., and an international standard (ISO) is soon to come into existence. At present a stone is termed flawless by GIA if it is without surface characteristics or internal inclusions: foreign systems use the term Loupe Clean which equates to both flaw less and internally flawless. Grades then gradually descend.

CARAT WEIGHT
As with all precious stones, the weight of a diamond is expressed in carats. The word carat originated in nature. The unit of weight: was determined by the the seeds of the carob tree. Diamonds were traditionally weighed against these seeds until the system was standardized and one carat was fixed at 0.2 grams (one fifth of a gram). One carat is divided into 100 "points" so that a diamond of 25 points is described as quarter of a carat or 0.25 carats.