A Diamond Buyer’s Guide: An Intro To The Four 4 Cs

Welcome to the blog here at Lonnie’s Custom Jewelers! Here on our blog, we hope to post regular content that will help you learn about the world of diamonds, gems, and custom jewelry. For our first post, we are going to go over the basics of the four 4 Cs of diamonds which help describe quality, and can assist you in picking out the perfect stone. Let’s get into it!

Cut

Cut largely describes the shape of the diamond. Raw diamonds are rough, asymmetrical, unappealing looking things. In order to use diamonds in beautiful pieces of jewelry, the stones need to be cut. Different cuts can impart different qualities on a diamond primarily influencing brightness, fire, and scintillation.

Color

A perfect diamond has no hue. Diamond color is graded on a scale from D-to-Z, with D being the most colorless, and Z having a distinct hue. Most gem-quality diamonds will be nearly colorless, although the closer you get to D, the most expensive the stone.

Clarity

Clarity describes how free a diamond is of internal inclusions or external blemishes. The final clarity grade depends on the number, position, size, and relief of any such flaws. Clarity is grade from I3, which is the lowest, to FL, which stands for flawless. Flawless diamonds have no visible inclusions or blemishing even under 10x magnification.

Carat

Finally, we come around to carat, which is probably the most well-known of the 4 Cs. Carat measure the weight of the diamond. In general, as long as all the other characteristics of the diamonds are similar, the higher the carat weight, the more expensive the diamond will be. However, it is important to note that carat is not the only factor determining a diamonds value. Rather, all 4 Cs play a roll.