Cutting Style & Quality | The Diamond Ring Review

Cutting Style and Quality

Cut Quality

Cut quality, also called make, refers to the proportions and finish of a stone.

This is a crucial factor, which can affect prices by as much as 50%. Two of the main considerations of cut are:

1. Do you see brilliance all across the stone when you look at the diamond face up? Diamond brilliance should not be interrupted by large dark areas

2. Are you paying for excess carat weight?

Judge cut with the unaided eye and a 10-power magnifier.

Diamond Cutting Style and Diamond Shape

Currently brilliant round cut diamond costs more than pear and marquise shapes and emerald cut diamonds. The effect of shape on price varies depending on the stone size, demand and available supply. For example, there have been periods in the past where marquise shapes have sold for more than rounds.

Normally square shapes (emerald cut, asscher cut, princess cut) can cost as much as 15 to 30% less than rounds because there is less weight loss from the rough when cutting squares and there is usually less of a demand for square shape diamonds. However, depending on the demand, princess cuts (square shapes) have occasionally sold for more than rounds in certain areas of the world.

The preceding shapes can be cut with various faceting styles. The GIA has simplified the description of these cutting styles by limiting them to three basic types – step cut, brilliant cut and mixed cut.

Step Cut: Used mostly in emerald cut diamonds, has rows of facets that are usually four-sided and elongated and parallel to the girdle. If step-cuts have clipped-off corners, they’re called emerald cuts because emeralds are often cut this way. This protects the corners and provides places where prongs can secure the diamond. Emerald cuts are in essence step-cut, octagonal rectangles. They tend to have more facets than baguettes. Emerald cut diamonds are usually rectangular or square, but they can also be triangular. Nowadays emerald cut diamond engagement rings are becoming more popular as celebrities start to buy emerald cut diamonds.

Brilliant Cut: Round brilliant cut diamonds have triangular, kite, or lozenge-shaped facets that radiate outward around the diamond stone. The jewelry trade generally refers to round diamonds with 58 facets as full cuts or traditional round brilliants, or round brilliant cut.

Mixed Cuts: Has both step –and brilliant-cut facets. The pavilion, for example, can be step cut and the crown can be brilliant cut, but the step –and brilliant-cut facets can also be scattered over the diamond. This cut is used a lot more on transparent colored stones than on diamonds, but some for the new branded diamonds are mixed cuts.

Brilliant-cut square diamonds (princess cuts) may cost slightly more than step-cut squares (emerald cut), depending on size. They have the same shape but different faceting styles. Patented and trademarked cutting styles typically sell for more than generic cuts of the same shape.

The most dramatic impact of stone shape and cutting style on price is with fancy color diamonds because their face-up color can be intensified by the shape and faceting style, and because the rough is so expensive. For example, a 1 –carat, intense-yellow round brilliant cut diamond can cost 10% to over 100% more than a radiant with the same weight and color grade, depending on the diamond and the dealer selling them. This is because the rough of the same round brilliant diamond must be darker than that of the radiant to achieve the same intense yellow face-up color; cutters can’t play as much with the angles and shape of rounds to maximize their color. The stronger the color for the rough, the higher the price of the rough. The final price of the diamond is based largely on the cost of the rough.

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