The 4Cs of Diamond Quality

by The Jewel Creation Jewelry Making

Diamonds are precious stones that come in versatile sizes and shapes. All diamonds are unique and possess intricate combinations of characteristics, so knowing how to identify the best diamond is important prior to purchase.

However, there is a vast amount of information about diamonds for consumers to know. But the good news is that you can use the same grading system professional jewelers and gem experts use to determine the quality of a diamond. These are known as the 4Cs, combining which you can determine a perfect picture of the quality of your diamond.

The 4Cs of diamond quality are:

Color
Clarity
Cut
Carat Weight

Carat Weight

Weight is usually associated with the quality and value of a diamond, which makes it the most objective among the 4Cs. People are generally familiar with fractional carat weight for diamonds, but actually carat weight is best represented using decimals. You should know that not all carat weights are equal, and a two-carat diamond could be lesser expensive than a one-carat diamond just because of lesser color, cut and clarity. So, weight as a measure to determine quality can give you an inaccurate view on the actual value of the diamond.

Color

The color quality of your diamond has a big impact on its value - as where at one side, perfect diamonds are colorless, hints of colours make colossal differences in the qualities of diamonds.
The colour qualities of diamonds are assessed using a grading scale which has letters from D to Z where each letter is aligned with a subcategory of color quality.

But make sure surroundings do not affect the color appearance when examining the color of a diamond.

Clarity

Another element of the 4Cs is the clarity of the diamond. Wile high quality diamonds have no inclusions or surface imperfections, a poor quality diamond’s inclusions can be spotted by an unaided eye. Diamond clarity characteristics are graded while the diamond is being examined under 10x magnification.

For easily judging a clarity on your own, use the technique of “eye clean” diamond, which means you will not see any inclusions in the diamond with the naked eye. If you want more assurance, just ask the jeweler to examine the diamond under magnification. But that will be hard for you to understand, so the best thing you can make sure is that you are viewing th diamond outside the fancy lights of the jewelry store because those lights are intentionally designed to increase the brilliance and hide the visible clarity of the diamond.

Cut

The cut of your diamond is of aesthetic importance because only a well cut diamond dazzles beautifully when it interacts with light. The general idea of a quality cut is that perfectly cut diamonds have the perfect contrast between the light and dark areas with a sharp appearance.

The 4Cs are the must check things when you want to check the quality of your diamond. A working knowledge of the 4Cs and an accompanied certification will ensure that what you have is real. If you are low on budget, you can consider buying either diamond charms or semi precious stones wholesale.