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How To Buy A Diamond |
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Carat Weight
How To Buy A Diamond: Understanding Diamonds
A good understanding of diamonds is necessary
before you begin shopping. We've put the basics together here to
help guide you. Learning about diamonds is really learning about
the "four Cs" of diamonds - cut, clarity, color and carat
weight. These are the criteria jewelers use when grading
diamonds, and they're the ones you'll need to understand to find
the right diamond for you.
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Carat Weight
A carat is a unit of measurement; it's the
unit used to weigh a diamond. One carat is equal to 200
milligrams, or 0.2 grams.
The word carat is taken from the carob seeds that people once
used in ancient times to balance scales. So uniform in shape and
weight are these little seeds that even today's sophisticated
instruments cannot detect more than three one-thousandths of a
difference between them.
Don't confuse it with 'karat', the method of determining the
purity of gold.
The process that forms a diamond happens only in very rare
circumstances, and typically the natural materials required are
found only in small amounts. That means that larger diamonds are
uncovered less often than smaller ones. Thus, large diamonds are
rare and have a greater value per carat. For that reason, the
price of a diamond rises exponentially to its size.
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What Size Diamond Should I Buy? |
How important size is to you is
probably contingent on how important it is to the person
you're giving it to. A few tips to keep in mind will
help guide you to the right decision.
The general rule of thumb when buying a diamond is "two
month's salary". This is just a guideline, it's not
carved in stone, but it's useful in establishing a
budget for how much you can comfortably invest in her
diamond.
Deciding on carat size is really about striking a
balance between size and quality. If she prefers larger
jewelry items, and you are working within a budget, you
can still find a larger diamond of excellent quality gem
by selecting one which is graded slightly lower in terms
of color and clarity.
Remember that slender fingers make small diamonds look
bigger. If she has small fingers, a 1-carat diamond will
look proportionately large--and an even larger stone may
appear stunningly big!
Think about what sort of setting will hold the diamond.
You'll have to be sure that the setting you choose is
made to fit the carat weight of your diamond.
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Carat |
Carat is the term used to describe
the weight of any gemstone, including diamonds. Although
the definition of a carat has changed over time, since
1913 the international standard has been 200 milligrams,
or 1/5 of a gram. Often, jewelers describe carats in 1/4
increments.
In jewelry pieces with more than one diamond, the carats
may be described in terms of total carat weight (TW).
This is the combined total weight of all the stones in
the piece.
Diamonds can range in size from a fraction of a carat to
several carats. Given the rarity of large stones,
however, the price increases rapidly with size;
therefore, a single 2-carat diamond will cost much more
than two 1-carat diamonds. Very large diamonds with good
color and clarity are very rare.
Expect to pay a premium for stones that are above a full
carat weight. For example, a .95 carat diamond will cost
a bit more than a .90 carat stone, but a 1-carat stone
will cost significantly more than a .95 carat stone.
Because round brilliant cuts follow exact standards, you
can make a good estimate of the carat weight of the
stone based on the stone's diameter. The following chart
compares the relative sizes of stones and describes how
much a round brilliant diamond of a certain size is
likely to weigh. This method doesn't work as well for
other cuts or shapes, though, since some are thicker or
thinner than others; nor does this chart apply to
colored gemstones, which have a different density from
diamonds.
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© Hannoush
Jewelers, Inc. 2004
All rights reserved. Toll Free 1-888-325-3935 |
Last Updated
May, 2005
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© Hannoush Jewelers 2007
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