Diamonds

beautiful and rare...
the hardest material known in nature…
desired for their fire and brilliance

Derived from the Greek word adamas, diamond means invincible. Diamonds began forming over three billion years ago under the force of intense heat and pressure, embedded in kimberlite and lamproite volcanic pipes.

Diamonds were first mined in India over 3,000 years ago. Today, Africa, Australia, Russia, Brazil, and Canada are sources of commercial deposits of diamonds. In Canada, diamantiferous areas are located in Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Colombia, Labrador, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Quebec.

When you buy a diamond four factors require consideration. These are known as the “Four C’s”.

1. Cut:
A well-cut diamond is better able to reflect light and displays the best fire and brilliance. The facets ideally are placed at precise angles in relation to each other in order to maximize the amount of light reflected through the diamond. When the cut of a diamond is too deep or too shallow the light escapes before it can be reflected. The proportions in each shape are formulated to maximize fire and brilliance.

Cuts are divided into categories: Ideal, Excellent, and Very Good.

Diamonds are cut in different shapes, namely: round, princess, radiant, emerald cut, pear, oval, marquise, heart, triangle, baguette, and there are also antique cuts such as asscher, old mine, old European, rose cut and cushion cut.

The shape of the diamond can reflect your individuality. Similar to fashion, you can express your personality and make a statement through the shape and setting of your diamond! Selecting a setting is a matter of personal taste. The types of settings can be: prong, bezel, tension, channel, bar, pave.

2. Colour:
The most desirable diamonds are colourless. Colour is graded by using a scale ranging from “D” (the best or colorless) through “Z” (light yellow, brown or gray). To the untrained eye, the difference in colour cannot be detected unless you are able to compare at least two or three colour grades apart.

Fancy coloured diamonds are extremely rare and occur in shades of pink, blue, green, amber, even red. They are evaluated by a different set of colour standards considering hue and saturation, going from fancy light, fancy, fancy intense, fancy vivid to fancy deep.

3. Clarity:
Almost all diamonds have small imperfections, known as “inclusions” when they are internal and “blemishes” when they are external; he fewer the imperfections, the more rare and valuable the diamond.

Clarity is graded by evaluating size, location, and visibility of inclusions. A laboratory-certified clarity rating of SI2 represents the point at which inclusions are technically not apparent to the average naked eye.

Higher clarity does not always mean more beautiful since the marks are not visible to the naked eye, but the price will increase due to its rarity.

4. Carat Weight:
The size/weight of a diamond is expressed in carats. The word carat originated from the carob tree or “Ceratonia siliqua” because traditionally diamonds and gemstones were weighed against its seeds, well known for their uniformity and consistency. The system was later standardized, and one carat was fixed at 0.2 grams. A diamond weighing one quarter of a carat can also be described as weighing 25 points or 0.25 carats.

Click here to download some examples of different weights for round diamonds and their corresponding sizes.

The rarity of a diamond is directly related to its size because statistically the 1.00 carat stone is much more difficult to find than the .50 carat. The exact quality of a diamond is critical to its value. It is important that an independent gemological laboratory grade your diamond. The scientific grading reports provided by these laboratories examine the 4 C’s.

A diamond certificate is a report created by a team of gemologists. The diamond is evaluated analyzing the diamond’s dimensions, clarity, colour, polish, symmetry, and other characteristics. Many round diamonds will also include a cut grade on the report and any defect of the stone structure must be noted on the certificate.

This information is offered to help you select the diamond that’s perfect for you. We invite you to contact us for more information.