Maharani Jewels – Why Cut is Most Important

Mark:  Hi it’s Mark from Top Local Lead Generation.  We’re here with Sheetal Gupta of Maharani Jewels in Vancouver and we’re going to talk about diamonds.  How’re you doing today Sheetal?

Sheetal:  I’m doing really well, thank you so much Mark.

Mark:  So we’re going to talk about why is cut the most important thing, why is it?

Sheetal:  Yeah, so I’ve always thought that it’s important to have a balance of the 4 C’s when you are selecting that perfect diamond.  The 4 C’s  being cut, colour, clarity and carat but I find that of all 4 C’s a cut really stands out as being the most important because you can have a high clarity diamond, you can have a high carat diamond or a high colour diamond but if the diamond does not have that brightness the scintillation and fire which are the attributes of cut then you don’t have a beautiful diamond so I want to show you how you can achieve a well cut diamond just by taking you over to my website which features my a blog in which I talk about cut.  The title of this blog is actually; it’s a 4 part series in understanding the 4 C’s and how it can actually save you a lot of money so I want to start here by talking about the proportions.  Right in front here you’ll see an image of a diamond which has been cut, the first one showing a diamond that’s been cut very shallow, the one on the far right showing a diamond that has been cut very deep and the one in the middle which has been cut ideally or what GIA would call as an excellent cut diamond.  I’ll go into a little bit more detail later on as to what that excellent cut diamond actually is but starting with the diamond that is shallow, so all these three diamonds imagine that they are a one carat diamond. The one that is shallow has been cut such that it’s actually has a very large table which is the top facet here and it’s been cut rather shallow so it hasn’t been cut to optimal depth.  The one that’s cut too deep as you can see, it’s cut very deep, the table facet on the top is quite narrow so being a one carat diamond the one that is shallow will actually look larger face up and the one that is cut deep will actually look quite a bit smaller face up so when, even though both diamonds on a scale will equal one carat the one that is shallow will actually look larger and the one that is deep will actually look smaller and therefore you know a lot of times people will say that you know, why not go for a shallow cut diamond because I’m getting more for my dollar but this is where cut comes in; when you have a diamond that is cut shallow, light enters it and as you can see with the arrow here it leaks out the bottom.  A diamond that’s cut deep, light enters it and escapes out the side.  The diamond that’s too deep looks a bit dark and doesn’t look like it has that fire and brilliance.  The diamond that’s shallow looks a bit blurry and does not look as crisp as the one in the centre would look so an ideal or an excellent cut diamond is one where light enters it, reflects off all the facets and bounces back into your eyes and that’s a result of the fire, brilliance and scintillation.

So I’ll talk a little bit about what brilliance, fire and scintillation mean; brilliance is basically the total light that’s reflected from a diamond, the fire is the dispersion of light into the colours of the spectrum and scintillation is the flashes of light, the sparkle that you see in a diamond when you rock and tilt it, when you’re actually moving it and a combination of all these three are what equal to beauty in a diamond.  So a diamond that is, that is cut well will have that life, will have that sparkle and will have that bling factor which is what I like to call it.

Mark:  So is there a particular shape of diamond that sparkles more?

Sheetal:  Yeah, so the round brilliant cut diamond is the one that’s going to have the most sparkle and that’s why it’s called the round brilliant cut and that’s basically because the way the facets are cut, light enters it, bounces off all the facets and reflects back into the eye in the most optimal way, so the round brilliant cut is actually a personal favourite of mine because of this reason, because of the fact that it has the most sparkle and life.

Mark:  So if excellent cut is sparkles the most then why aren’t all diamonds cut that way?

Sheetal:  That’s actually a really, really great question, yeah, you would think that if cutters have mastered the way to cut excellent cut diamonds because it is at the end of the day all about angles and proportions, very specific degrees to which these facets have to be cut which gives rise to the excellent cut diamond.  It would make sense that all diamonds are cut that way but what happens is, is when diamonds, when the diamond rough comes out of the earth, what cutters want to do is they want to maximize the amount of diamonds that they yield from that rough; at the end of the day it is a business so if you are able to yield more diamonds at a good cut versus fewer diamonds at an excellent cut as a cutter you’ll make more money cutting good diamonds so it is at the end of the day about profit so if it was about, if it was about creating the most beautiful diamonds then most certainly all diamonds would be cut as an excellent cut so, yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Mark:  So the image you showed was labeled an ideal cut is, is that a different or better cut than an excellent cut diamond?

Sheetal:  Yeah, so ideal cut diamond, I’m actually going to take you back to the blog here, an ideal cut diamond is actually a terminology used by another lab so GIA refers to you know, an excellent cut diamond which is the best cut diamond as an excellent cut diamond but there are other labs such as EGL or AGS that refer to their premium cut as ideal, however we have to be very careful with the terms that are used because an ideal cut which is a terminology used by  certain labs may not be as strict as a GIA excellent cut so it’s incredibly important that you get that clarification.  I, you know, in dealing with GIA certified diamonds in specializing in that terminology I like to use is, is excellent cut diamonds which is the best of the best cut.  Also this image here shows you how a diamond visibly looks when it’s cut as an excellent, then very good, good, fair and poor being at the very bottom.  If you can look at just the difference in the cuts in the facets and just the overall brightness even in a picture of an excellent cut versus a poor cut you can see it’s tremendous.  That poor cut diamond is very fuzzy, it has a lot of darkness towards the edge, even in the diamond that’s cut very fair, it looks very blurry and as we get closer and closer to excellent you see that it gets so much nicer and so much more vibrant and the image here which is labeled ideal cut proportions, this is what I was talking about earlier in terms of the facets.  The proportions which are most important in that excellent cut diamond is this measurement right here which is known as the table and the measurement right here which goes from the table all the way down to the culet which is known as the depth, you’ll see that measure on the left hand side.  You can actually see here, they’ve given a specific percentage for depth and they’ve given a specific percentage for table.  In ideal cut diamonds that are graded ideal by other labs other than GIA the range of what is considered to be an excellent or ideal cut is actually broader than a GIA excellent cut diamond so that’s why it’s, it’s, it’s really, really important that we understand the difference between ideal cut diamonds graded by other labs versus GIA excellent cut diamond which is the most beautiful and in fact represents less than 2% of the diamonds worldwide so it’s incredibly rare to have that excellent cut diamond.

Mark:  So to wrap up I guess, why, why do you think that cut is the most important of the 4 C’s?

Sheetal:  Yeah, you know as I mentioned earlier I always believe that balance when you invest in the diamond is most important.  A balance of carat weight, a balance of clarity, a balance of colour as well as having a very good cut but you know if you don’t have a diamond that has been cut for beauty then you’ve got a diamond in which you don’t have that life.  I think when people look at diamonds they equate that with sparkle and they create that with brilliance so when you don’t have a diamond that has been cut to that high level then you won’t have that sparkle and brilliance which is really what makes a diamond so unique and so beautiful so a lot of girls you know, may say that they want to have that larger diamond but in reality what they’re saying is they like the size but they still want to have that sparkle so it’s incredibly important to have sparkle and brilliance in a diamond and that is really the result of cut.

Mark:  So if you’re looking for a diamond the person to call is Sheetal Gupta.  You can reach her at, in Vancouver at 604-727-0149.  You have to book an appointment to come into her boutique studio or check out their, her excellent website maharanijewels.com.  Thanks Sheetal.

Sheetal:  Thank you so much Mark.