Diamonds are fascinating gemstones to say the least.  They are formed in the earth, miles below the crust, under pressure and temperature’s that are truly mind-boggling.  They are then pushed up through the crust, also under tremendous heat and pressure.  Estimated time to make a diamond: 1 billion years, give or take.

When talking about the “quality” of a diamond, many people get hung up about the clarity and colour, when in fact, these two attributes are merely characteristics about the rarity of a diamond.  We have no control over clarity, colour, or even carat weight, because these are decided by nature.  What we do have control over, however, is the quality of the cut.  The better the cut, the better the performance of the diamond.  And by performance, I am referring to how the diamond handles light.

Poorly cut diamonds do not sparkle well at all, whereas ideal cut diamonds have lots of fire and scintillation.  The reason for this is because the poorly cut diamond will leak light out the bottom and sides.  The ideal cut diamond returns the maximum amount of light to the human eye, therefore, it is brighter and full of life.  The man who discovered the ideal cut that we know today was Marcel Tolkowsky (1899-1991), and he discovered this through a number of different mathematical equations.

It is easy to convey the colour and clarity of a diamond over the phone, over the internet, through email, etc.  However, when referring to the quality of the cut, the only way to truly know if you like it is by seeing the diamond in person.  Cut quality is on a spectrum just like the other characteristics, from poor to ideal and many variations in between.  Unfortunately, there is no real good way to convey just how beautiful a diamond is, you need to see it in front of you under proper lighting conditions.