The 4 C's
The ancient Romans and Greeks believed that diamonds were tears cried by the gods or splinters from falling stars.
The 4 Cs - Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat are the criteria used internationally when grading diamonds.
Diamonds are found in a wide spectrum of colors. White, light yellow, brown (champagne) and black, amongst others, with the rarest being the colored diamonds, known as Fancy Color. When cut-grading a diamond one utilizes a working scale tiered from poor to good to very good to excellent.
Cut
There are many different shapes to be considered when cutting and polishing a diamond. Of these, the Brilliant being the most popular. However, we are experiencing an increasing interest and demand for other shapes, more specifically - Cushion, Pear-shape, Oval, Radiant and Emerald.
Though the most costly cutting and polishing process, remains that of the Brilliant cut, where most of the carat weight of the foundation stone has been removed. With the brilliant cut enjoying the most facets - a final 57 to 58 in total.
Cut-Grade
When assessing the value of a diamond, one looks at the quality of the cut grade, the polishing and its symmetry. These three factors all play a role in how perfect a piece it becomes.
The more precise the cut and polishing, the greater the brilliance achieved. Our illustration shows all the facets of a diamond and how the light is reflected and affected by these factors.
Hearts & Arrows
The ultimate and most expensive cut grade is ´3 x Excellent with Hearts & Arrows’. To achieve Hearts & Arrows, you will remove more of the crude crystal and thus also more of the carat weight. This means that the diamond loses some of its value during this process of cutting and polishing - to achieve this special cut grade - this, as the process removes, at the same time, some of the diamonds weight.
Creating hearts and arrows is an enormous amount of precision work. Therefore, only the most skilled diamond grinders are able to grind stones with Hearts & Arrows.
When all facets and angles are perfect and have been precisely cut, the diamond will then increase in value again, because you have achieved an ideal cut with optimal brilliance. Only the fewest diamonds on the market meet these very strict requirements.
When viewed, using a Hearts & Arrows magnifier, Arrows will appear in the board, the top, of the diamond and Hearts will appear in the culette, the bottom.
At Theodor Cph, we are always able to offer our clientele diamonds with Hearts & Arrows.
Color
When evaluating diamonds of jewelery quality, you grade, utilising a color scale ranging from D to Z. D being the whitest, rarest and most exclusive, as well as the most expensive while, at the opposite end of the color scale, Z, is a light yellow and less rare. The colors from D to F are referred to as colorless diamonds, and only a trained eye will be able to tell the difference between these diamonds.
Most stones in the jewelery industry range from G to J on the scale and are almost colorless. At Theodor Cph, we have chosen to work from D to G on the color scale. D and E are called ´River’ - very rare white, F and G are called ´Top Wesselton’ - rare white. These stones live up to the quality and exclusivity that we wish to offer to our clientele.
Champagne
Brown diamonds, or champagne colored as they are also called, have in recent years made their entry onto the fashion scene along with black diamonds. On the color scale, these range from C1 and C2 for ´Light Champagne’, C3 and C4 for ´Medium Champagne’, C5 and C6 for ´Dark Champagne’, and C7 for ´Cognac’.
Fancy colored
Diamonds can be found in all the colors of the rainbow. The deeper and more intense the color of a diamond, the greater its value. Fancy colored diamonds, as a general rule, are at a minimum at least 20 times more expensive than white diamonds.
For every 10,000 carats of white diamonds, that are produced, less than 1 carat is that of the color pink. Although extremely rare, in demand and of high value, we at Theodor Cph are able to offer our clientele a selection of the coveted pink and fancy-colored diamonds. These stones are well suited for your consideration as investment grade diamonds.
Due to the growing demand for fancy colored diamonds, there are players, in the market, who have begun crafting artificially colored diamonds. Here, as a buyer, you must be extremely careful and make sure that you receive a naturally colored diamond. The best way to do this is to acquire diamonds with a certificate of authenticity from one of the world’s accredited diamond graders - including GIA, the Gemological Institute of America.
Clarity
When assessing the clarity of a diamond, you will always view it under magnification of 10x. Here we look for inclusions, which can be, amongst others - small black dots, bubbles, long black stripes, small clouds, or there may be small flaps or other irregularities in the diamond.
Diamonds may have small inclusions, which will help define a particular stone and its value. But, as the number of inclusions increases, the diamonds ability to reflect light is diminished, thus resulting in a reduced brilliance.
In the diamond trading marketplace, one can find treated stones - where laser, glass filling, pressure treatment, radiation and radioactivity have been used to try and remove the irregularities with which a diamond was born, this so as to achieve improved clarity and color. These diamonds are often sold as color enhanced diamond or clarity enhanced.
At Theodor Cph, we only work with natural, untreated diamonds.
At Theodor Cph, we work from Flawless to VS2 on the scale, as these diamonds are referred to as ‘eye-clean’, which means that the irregularities cannot be seen with the naked eye.
All of our diamonds will have undergone a thorough quality check at our suppliers laboratory, so as to guarantee our clientele both the quality and exclusivity we have represented of our products.
Carat
When determining the weight of a diamond, one always works from carat unit value - here 1 carat corresponds to 0.2 grams. The higher the number value in carats of a diamond, the rarer the diamond is, at its starting point.
One parameter that is incredibly important to remember is that two 1.0 Ct diamonds are not necessarily equal in their diameter. Ideally, a 1.0 Ct diamond will have a diameter of 6.5 mm. Carat is only a measure of weight, different cuts and polishings can mean that there is, for example, hidden weight in the diamond, or that it has been polished too "deep" or "narrow" - the arrows in the picture show how the light is reflected in the diamond.
