Diamond Clarity

Recently I was looking at one of our mounted diamonds and came across something really interesting. On the girdle, I noticed what appeared to be a scratch. It looked like something that could have been done in the polishing process, perhaps to remove an inclusion for the purpose of improving the clarity grade. As I was somewhat uncertain of what it was I asked our expert Jodi and she informed me it was part of the original skin of the diamond or what is commonly referred to as a natural. What this means is the cutter was skilled enough to be able to cut the diamond in such a way as to maximize the weight to the point where even part of the original outer coating from the rough crystal was left intact. The skin in this case does not affect the overall appearance, colour or clarity grade, but gives the diamond a very unique mark to identify it and to give it some attachment to both the cutter and the original crystal form it came from.

Clarity grading is interesting. The clarity grade is set based on what is seen at 10x zoom, through a microscope or corrected loupe. It can be helpful to increase the zoom to clarify what something is, i.e. feather, cloud, cluster of needles or pinpoints, but the final judgment comes based on what is seen at 10x.

There are 11 different clarity grades: FL, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, I1, I2, I3. There are two kinds of clarity characteristics that set these grades: blemishes and inclusions. A blemish is something that is only on the surface of the diamond where as an inclusion may begin at the surface of the diamond and extend inward or it might be completely enclosed. There are about 14 kinds of naturally occurring inclusions and several others that are created by treatments to diamonds. There are 11 kinds of blemishes, some occurring as a result of the cutting process and some as a result of wear and tear. While blemishes rarely affect clarity grades below IF, inclusions and their position, size, colour, nature, and number will be what set the clarity grades.

If you are interested in seeing the blemish I described earlier, give me a call or come and see me at the 493 Notre Dame store.

Jewellery | Jeremy February 27, 2010