A Must Read - Before Purchasing a Diamond For Your Engagement Ring.

Does the thought of purchasing a diamond ring overwhelm you? Don’t think you know enough about certificates, inclusions, grading scales, and colors? Or do you know the basics, but need a refresher course? A good understanding of diamonds is necessary before you begin shopping. Our guide gives you the basics — the all-important “four Cs”, and more,
We will start with the four c’s

The cut of the diamond is perhaps the most important of all C’s as it determines its brilliance. While nature determines the color and clarity of a stone, diamond cut is dependant solely upon the skill of the cutter. A diamond cutter spends years mastering his craft, learning how best to cut a rough diamond to achieve the ultimate cut with the fewest imperfections and the least loss of carat weight. The better the cut, the more valuable the diamond.A good cut gives a diamond its brilliance. The width and depth have an affect on how light travels within the diamond and how much brilliance it will exude.
For starters, find out what shape she likes. Diamonds come in nine basic shapes.

Determining the cut of a diamond extends further than straightforward measurements of the width and depth. Diamond grading laboratories utilize optical measuring devices to create a three-dimensional image of your diamond in order to ascertain its proportions and angles.
Polish and symmetry are crucial to the diamond cutting process. Both polish and symmetry are assigned a grade, which appear on the diamond certificate. The polish grade indicates the smoothness of the facets, while the symmetry grade evaluates the alignment of the facets. With poor polish, the surface of a facet can be dulled and may create lackluster, blurry sparkle. With poor symmetry, light can be misdirected as it enters and exits the diamond.
Because cut is so important, several grading methods have been developed to help consumers determine the cut of a particular diamond. In general, these grades are ideal, very good, good, fair and poor.Diamonds on Fifth uses the measurements from each diamond’s grading report to determine: Table percentage: The ratio of the largest facet on top of stone to the girdle’s overall diameter.Depth percentage: The ratio of the total height or depth of the diamond to its diameter.
From these proportions, Diamonds on Fifth has assigned each diamond a cut grade. The following are the proportion ranges for each grade of diamond cut:
Ideal cut: An exquisite and rare cut that reflects nearly all the light that enters the diamond and creates maximum fire and brilliance. “Ideal” for the person who enjoys knowing that he has one of the finest diamonds that money can buy. Very good cut: Reflects almost as much light as the ideal cut but for a lower price. A Diamonds on Fifth recommended buy.Good cut: Reflects most of the light that enters the diamond. The cutter has chosen to create the largest possible diamond from the original rough crystal, rather than cutting extra weight off to create a smaller but higher quality diamond. Diamonds in this range offer an excellent cost-savings to customers who want to stay in a budget without sacrificing quality or beauty.
Fair cut: A fair cut diamond will not be as brilliant as a good cut, but is still considered a quality diamond.
Poor cut: This includes all diamonds that do not meet the performance standards of a fair cut. These diamonds are deep and narrow or shallow and wide and tend to lose most of the light out the sides and bottom. Diamonds on fifth does not carry diamonds with cut grades of poor.
Diamonds on Fifth carries an exquisite selection of certified ideal-cut diamonds. We do not carry diamonds with cut grades lower than good as these are generally too shallow or too deep to present an acceptable amount of brilliance.
Diamonds on Fifth RecommendationsWhile a good quality round diamond with an ideal cut will certainly be very beautiful, very good and good cuts might be just as attractive without costing as much. Diamonds on Fifth recommends that for fancy shapes, good and very good cut grades will result in the best performance. Consider the length to width ratio of the diamond and the design of the mounting when selecting a fancy shape.