Worths Diamonds

A Few Words Worths Knowing

Buying your diamond is naturally going to involve some discussion.

Understanding exactly what some of the more technical terms mean is obviously going to be to your advantage. So here are a couple of pages of definitions and diagrams to help you.

CULET

This is the point on the bottom of the diamond's pavilion. Although it is often faceted to remove the sharp tip, this facet is usually small and may be quite difficult to see.

It is best to select a diamond that has either no culet at all, or at least one that has a very small culet. A large culet may be visible to the naked eye through the table facet on the top. This is not desirable. It may indicate that the original culet was chipped or broken...but was also a common way to cut diamonds early this century (called Old European or Old Mine Cuts).

Here is a gemological laboratory list of abbreviations used to describe the Culet in Certifications.

DEPTH

Depth is vital in achieving a diamond’s brilliance. And value. When cut to Ideal or near Ideal depth percentages, diamonds display a better-balanced brilliance, and thus are worth more. To produce the depth that delivers this extra brilliance, diamond cutters must remove more weight from the original rough diamond crystal.

PAVILION

The facets on the bottom of a round brilliant-cut diamond are called pavilion facets. Looking at the diamond face up, these act as mirrors and reflect the image of the table (the large facet on the top of the diamond).

POLISH

Polish helps light pass through a diamond and so affects its brilliance. You should select diamonds with a polish that is laboratory-certified to be Good, Very Good or Excellent. Diamonds with Poor to Extremely Poor polish are less brilliant because the microscopic polish lines blur the surface and reduce the amount of light that enters or exits the stone. Many diamonds do have poor polish because diamond cutters can greatly reduce labour costs by not taking time to properly polish a diamond.

These are the grades used to designate the quality of a diamond's polish: