Clarity is possibly the most important of the factors
affecting the quality and price of any diamond.
Clarity refers to the presence of internal features
such as breaks or foreign bodies, called inclusions,
within a diamond, and to external imperfections such
as scratches, called blemishes. Both blemishes
and inclusions lower the clarity grade (and hence the
value) of a diamond, but in most cases they have very
little effect on a stones beauty or durability.
The Gemology Institute of America
clarity scale
Color
Although many people think of gem quality diamonds
as colorless, most diamonds used in jewelry are nearly
colorless with tints of yellow or brown. Color grades
are determined by comparing each diamond to a master
set. Each letter grade represents a range of color and
is a measure of how noticeable the color is.
On the other hand, we use the term fancy color
to describe naturally colored diamons with distinct,
attractive tints. (Artificially colored diamnds are
called treated.)
The Gemology Institute of America
color scale
Carat
The word "carat" came to us from the Greek
work "keration" meaning carob bean; beans,
from a local tree, that are so uniform in weight that
everyone generally agreed on the weight of a carob bean.
Carob beans thus came to be used as the standard by
which precious gems were weighed. A diamond on one side
of the balance scale and so many carob beans on the
other described how many "carats" the diamond
weighed. In modern times, the weight of a carat has
been standardized to mean 200 milligrams or about 3
grains troy. Therefore, today, when the word carat with
the letter "C" is used, it is describing the
weight of gemstones.
The carat scale
Cut
Cut is the human contribution to a diamond`s beauty,
and has important effects on each of the other Cs;
it an both enhance color and hide inclusions.
A polished diamond’s beauty lies in its complex
relationship with light: how light strikes the surface,
how much enters the diamond, and how, and in what
form light returns to your eye.
The result is a display of three attributes :
Brightness, is the combination of all white light
reflecting from the surface and interior of a diamond.
Fire, is the colored flashes that can be seen in a
diamond.
Scintillation, describes the sparkle of light you
see in a diamond, and the overall pattern of bright
and dark areas when you look at a diamond face-up.
Some common cut
shapes
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