Understanding the Four Cs of Diamonds
Posted by ricky26 on February 12th, 2014
Diamonds are one of the world’s most valuable resources but you don’t have to tell us ladies that. Women just know there is something exquisite about how a diamond sparkles and shines. We don’t care that they are the most precious stone or that they are 1,000 times stronger than rubies or sapphires.
There are, however, a few things we do need to know. This article is going to briefly cover the four most important things we should know about diamonds. The Four Cs stand for the grading system developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to rate diamonds. In order to learn even more, visit majestical.
Carat
This is the unit of weight for diamonds. One carat equals 1/5th of a gram or 200 milligrams. The term “points” is also sometimes used when referring to the weight of a diamond. There are 100 points in a whole carat.
A fashion necklaces that contains several diamonds will use the abbreviation “ct TW” or perhaps “ctw.” They both mean carat total weight, which is the sum of the carat weights for each diamond. The fashion bracelets with several diamonds very often will be valued less than one diamond of the same weight. This is because diamond solitaires are much rarer and more valuable.
Cut
Cut does not refer to the shape of the diamond such as pear or marquise. It instead plays a very important role in the following three attributes:
• Fire – this is the various colors of the spectrum that a diamond produces
• Brightness – this is the amount of reflected light
• Scintillation – the sparkle and brilliance that a diamond gives off when moved
For a more in depth explanation about the importance of a diamond’s cut, please visit majestical's website. The cut of the diamond is probably one of the most important features of the Four Cs.
Color
Much like the cut of a diamond, the color can greatly increase or decrease the gem’s sparkle and brilliance. The less color a diamond has, the more light it can reflect and that is what makes them more valuable than the yellow or brown colored ones. Clear diamonds are becoming scarcer in nature driving the value up as well.
The GIA developed a color scale composed of the letters D-Z. A diamond completely absent of color is grade with a D and the more color present, the higher down the alphabet its grade goes. Again, to gain a better understanding of the effect of color on a diamond, visit majestical.com.
Clarity
Clarity is the attribute that most greatly affects the value of diamond within the Four Cs. It refers to the absence of internal inclusions or external blemishes. The GIA has also assigned a grading scale for this attribute ranging from Flawless (FL) to Imperfect (I1, I2, and I3). As you can imagine, the ideal diamond is going to be flawless and more valuable. These are also disappearing in nature.
Beautiful to Behold
While it is interesting and helpful to know these things about what has famously been sung as “a girl’s best friend,” if you are like me, you are just appreciative of the beauty nature created. It takes the earth a lot of time and energy to create these natural works of art but they certainly are beautiful.
So visit http://www.majestical.com for more information.
