(Note: This post was actually on my old website but so many people were finding it via google that I decided to move it over here)
There are two kinds of guys who buy diamond engagement rings:
Guy #1 reads about the four C’s on the internet, walks into a jewelry store, and demands to see VS (or higher) clarity diamonds in the 1 carat range. He looks them over for a half hour (they all look striking), listens to the sales pitch, decides GIA diamonds are best, chooses one, picks a ring, and is done with it. He’s happy, she’s probably reasonably happy, end of story.
Guy #2 reads about the four C’s on the internet, browses a jewelry store, and thinks, “All these diamonds are beautiful and aside from size, I can hardly tell the difference. How do I choose?” Guy #2 goes back to the internet and spends some more time searching around. Maybe he stumbles on the book Engagement & Wedding Rings: The Definitive Buying Guide for People in Love or Fred Cuellar’s How to Buy a Diamond. Or maybe he finds the Pricescope diamond knowledge site, or ends up at the infamous Good Old Gold tutorial. Maybe he is cost-conscious and realizes there is no sales tax (hundreds of dollars!) on a diamond purchased over the internet. However it happens, he finds a source that lets him in on the big diamond buying secret:
The retail jewelry stores could make frozen spit look good with their high-powered halogen counter-top lights. Once you remove a diamond from that special environment, the CUT of the stone determines whether it still sings with brightnesss, fire, and scintillation or whether it darkens into a dud.
By cut, I mean not the shape (round, heart, etc.) but rather the particulars of the cut itself (crown angle, pavillion angle, minor facet size, etc.). If these terms are unfamiliar to you, then you’ve got a lot to learn.
But I should warn you, if you go down this road, your search for the perfect diamond is going to become exponentially more frustrating, complicated, and time consuming. The more you learn–the more discriminating you’ll be, and the pool of acceptable diamonds will quickly evaporate to a small handful. In my opinion it’s worth it, I took great pride in finally delivering one of the top 1% of diamonds to my girlfriend (now wife), but some guys just don’t have the time or interest.
If you want to see how far the rabbit hole goes, here is a brief guide to the things you need to see and experience…
To read…
- The Good Old Gold tutorial. Go through all of the chapters, the information is excellent.
Once you’ve read all that and have your new understanding of the importance of cut, continue to part 2 where we look at tools.