Diamond Clarity
Diamond Clarity
Diamond clarity defines the smoothness of the diamond. The most important diamond shopping tips are presented first, for the ones of you that want it straight to the point. I highly recommend reading the whole article.
Diamond Clarity Shopping Tips
- Don’t be afraid to ask to the vendor about the diamond you’re looking to buy. It’s your right as a customer to know the condition of the diamond. Any reputable vendors should reveal when a diamond has undergone a treatment to enhance it. But since not all vendors do this, exercise your rights as a customer. Know your diamond before you buy it.
- Ask for a certified diamond. GIA and AGS certifications have standard grade that you can trust and learn beforehand. EGL certificate should be fine, too, if you are looking for more elaborated grades.
- Check the diamond yourself. You might not be as skilled as the professional graders but you can check the stone anyway under a 10x loupe for imperfections. If these imperfections are large enough even for you – the common guy – to see, it should be a sufficient warning for you.
- When checking out a diamond, ask the shopkeeper to clean it first. You don’t want to misinterpret a dust with an inclusion.
- Stick to the original purpose why you need to buy this diamond in the first place. How pure do you want it to be? How does it relate to your budget? What kind of imperfections can you tolerate and live with? You can still be a happy camper with a diamond that has an obvious defect but not evident enough thanks to the prongs that cover it. Or you can insist on more purity scale if the fund allows.
- There is a HUGE price difference between one group of grade and the next one. For most experienced jewelers, it is very hard to see the difference in clarity between a VS and a VVS diamond. It makes perfect sense to choose a better-priced but lower-graded diamond (in clarity) and invest the pricing difference to a better cut grade.
The name says it all. Diamond clarity refers to how “clear” a diamond is. A great cut with bad clarity makes a diamond less beautiful than it should have been. It may even have the chance – though rarely happens – that very bad clarity in diamond can affect its performance and durability. This is the worst case a diamond owner cutter can have.
When shopping for a diamond, one is suggested to check the factors (the 4 C’s) in each diamond for consideration: Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat. The first three make up the quality of the diamond, while the carat identifies the quantity. All these four elements combined will improve or degrade the value of a diamond, and consequently the price.
The shine you see the first time and the one drawing you to a diamond is the effect of a beautiful cut. However, before handing your credit card to the vendor, you may want to see other C factors of the diamond; such as clarity.
While the cut determines the sparkle of a diamond, the clarity brings an identity to it. Clarity by definition is the state of how clear a diamond is from imperfections. Like any other things in the world, diamonds are born with flaws, too. These so-called imperfections can appear in the form of feathers, cracks, clouds, nicks, pits, etc. The more imperfections there are in a diamond, the less it is considered beautiful. This is what makes Clarity a yet crucial thing to check out before making the fat purchase.
Diamond Clarity – Blemishes and Inclusions
The physical shortcomings of diamond clarity can be divided into two categories: the external and the internal inclusions. The external imperfections refer to any flaws existing on the surface of a diamond, which are more known as blemishes. The internal ones are usually made up of crystals that are of different materials of the diamond, internal diamond crystals or simply clouds and cracks. These internal imperfections are called inclusions in diamond terminology. When they exist in very small numbers, they can be useful to give characters to each diamond. An excessive number, however, may affect the diamond performance, though this very rarely happens.
Blemishes
Blemishes can be caused by two reasons: the natural flaws the diamond is “born” with and the marks the diamond suffers from when cut. Blemishes appear in the form of polish lines, scratches, naturals, nicks, pits and chips. Some blemishes are so smooth that our naked eyes are unable to spot them right away. Some, like chips, are relatively noticeable.
Inclusions
Some examples of inclusions are clouds, feathers, cleavage, bearding, knots, cavities, included crystals and internal graining. Just like blemishes, some inclusions can be barely seen with naked eye, while some are pretty obvious.
Clarity Grading
Diamond clarity has been considered as one of diamond’s most important qualities for the longest time. When observing a diamond for its clarity, gemologists focus themselves on finding blemishes and inclusions, how many they are in the diamond, how large is there size, their colors, the locations, and how visible these imperfections are. To be able to grade the value of the diamond clarity later on, these diamond experts need to define these flaws as minute, minor, noticeable or obvious.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is one of the most leading labs that have trusted grading on clarity. It grades perfect diamond as Flawless (FL), just a little, tiny bit of blemish or two is graded as Internally Flawless (IF), one with minute imperfections is referred to Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS), minor imperfections as Very Slightly Included (VS), noticeable flaws as Slightly Included (SI), and the obvious ones as Included (I). The other labs like American Gem Society (AGS) and European Gemological Laboratory (EGL) have more or less the same grading system, though with different terms. In this article, we will use GIA’s grading terms.
Flawless (FL)
Flawless grade translates to the perfectly clear diamond. No single blemish or inclusion should be found in this type of diamond even under the 10x to 63x microscope. This diamond is so rare that most price reports do not contain FL in their grade list.
Internally Flawless (IF)
IF diamonds don’t have any inclusions at all; but some surface defects may be found under 10x magnification. Yet, it still makes it in the rare diamond group.
Very Very Slightly Included (VVS)
A diamond is graded VVS when a well-trained, skillful grader finds it very, very difficult to locate minute imperfections in that diamond under 10x magnification or more. The angle to look for these imperfections matter, too, as VVS diamond inclusions can’t be found from face-up position through the crown. Instead, he will need to check it out from the pavilion. Then he might finally find one or two inclusions, most of the times too small to notice for the first time. VVS grade is broken into two categories: VVS1 and VVS2 with VVS1 diamonds showing less pinpoint flaws than VVS2. But still, even for an experienced, reputable grader, locating these flaws – be it graded as VVS1 or VVS2 – is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Very Slightly Included (VS)
Then we have the Very Slightly Included diamonds, abbreviated in VS. VS diamonds still promote that “perfectness” when seen with unaided eyes. You will see absolutely nothing wrong with the diamonds. However, with the use of a 10x loupe a skillful eye will be able to detect a few inclusions after going through some challenges to find them. Like VVS grade, VS is divided into two categories: VS1 grade (that’s when the observer finds it difficult to find the inclusions) and VS2 grade (he thinks it’s less complicated to find the inclusions than VS1).
Slightly Included (SI)
SI graded diamonds are the ones that you can easily find at the trade markets and they are also the most often purchased kind. This is the border between the rare and the common diamonds. Some of the Slightly Included diamonds are still categorized in “eye-clean” diamond group since you will see no single defect with your bare eyes. But with the help of 10x loupe, a grader can effortlessly see the inclusions. GIA grades SI diamonds in two different scales: SI1 for easily located inclusions and SI2 for more easily located inclusions. The European Gem Laboratory (EGL), however, applies SI3 grade too in its report. This is the place for those diamonds with inclusions that are almost obviously seen, but do not really deserve to be in Included (I) grade and called imperfect.
Included (I)
Throw away your loupe when inspecting an I-graded diamond. You don’t exactly need it to know the quality of this diamond range. Included diamonds display obvious to very obvious inclusions even when seen with naked eyes. Again, this level is broken into three; namely I1, I2 and I3. I1 stone shows you one or two visible inclusions but these do not affect its overall brilliance. While the lower two grades may have bigger or darker imperfections (or more in numbers), sometimes big enough or dark enough to obstruct the way of the returned lights. The effect is it dims the diamond or absolutely kills its light, regardless how good the cut grade is. Some inclusions belonging to I2 and I3 grades can potentially threaten the diamond’s structure and durability as well.
Clarity Enhancement
Who wants an obviously imperfect diamond with chips and pits here and there? Nobody! Yet, there are more I1, I2 and I3 grade diamonds in the market than, let’s say, VS. The question that follows is, Is there really a market for these low-graded diamonds? Who would want to buy them? The answer is quite simple. Yes, there is a market for the included diamonds. Just like not all diamonds are lucky enough to be perfect, not all people can afford the price of real, pure, perfectly-graded diamonds. But then it’s not deemed well either to put diamonds with large defects on the display counter, or worse, on a girl’s finger. So justification has been made. Diamonds have been treated and enhanced.
Methods
There are two types of clarity enhancement on diamonds. One is the fracture filling method and the other one is the laser method. Fracture-filled diamond is treated by filling the gap or the crack a diamond has. The company that invented this, Diascience, claims that the filling will never be displaced ever, at least under most wearing circumstances. GIA inspected this and found out that the filling does come out of the stone when it’s exposed to fire or boiling acid and when it is going through recutting process. All these don’t seem to likely happen to a worn diamond. That’s why Diascience dares to give a lifetime warranty on the fracture-filled diamonds, that if in any case the filling should be displaced, the customer can bring it to the company to have it retreated for free.
The other clarity enhancement technique – the laser treatment – offers a permanent enhancement to a diamond. This method is more frequently used to treat the black inclusions that are visible to the eye, make them colorless and can hardly be recognized when observed with unaided eye. A good laser enhancement will make it difficult to locate even when the diamond is placed under microscope.
Pricing
Fracture-filled diamonds are priced based on its condition before treated. GIA will never certify fractured-filled diamonds and therefore there won’t be any significant difference in price between the enhanced diamond using the fracture filling method and the same diamond before undergoing any treatment at all. But every customer has different orientation when they enter the door of a jewelry shop. They also have different budget for the diamond they want to buy. A clarity enhanced diamond of I1 grade that gives an SI look is obviously more appealing to some customers than the unenhanced diamond of the same grade.
While fracture-filled diamonds don’t get certified by GIA, the lab gives a way for the clarity enhanced diamonds using the laser treatment. The grade stated on the paper is the one after the enhancement is made. The certification makes it gain more value in price compared to the fracture-filled diamonds, though it is still valued lower than the price of the same grade diamond that is left intact as is.
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