Since 1961, Dixon Jewellers has been providing Ottawa and Montreal with high-quality custom design and redesign, bridal jewellery, and repairs with exceptional value. We do almost everything in-house, being control freaks of a sort, and so we have over time developed very specific criteria for our creations. Even though I have been in the business for over 30 years, it still amazes me how often I will sit down with clients who have few facts about crucial aspects of the product they are about to spend three month’s salary on! Just kidding about three month’s salary, although that is what DeBeer’s “Diamonds are Forever” ad campaign recommended long ago. I never recommend a price range to my clients—I’m happy to have them regardless of their means, but I do recommend without fail that they spend wisely. Well, here is Step 1 to diamond wisdom, in my humble opinion. It is intended as a general guide, not a textbook, because, well, they have textbooks for that!

You may have heard and read about the 4 Cs of diamonds, Colour, Clarity, Cut, and Carat weight, but would it surprise you to learn that we don’t think Colour or Clarity are what you should spend money on in a diamond? In fact, we rank Colour second and Clarity third in order of importance. We put Carat weight fourth, if only because it is a somewhat misleading aspect that is tied inexorably to our number one: Cut!!! I might even put Cut in number 2 and 3 positions as well and push the others down a few notches! Cut, Cut, Cut!!! I can’t emphasize it enough!

Okay now that I have that out of the way, let me explain. Carat weight is exactly that—a weight. A carat is one-fifth of a gram, actually. Even so, most buyers still visualize it as a size, like dresses or shoes. Size 9 is bigger than size 8, and 1 carat is bigger than .95 carat, right? Not exactly. One carat or 1.00 ct., is heavier, but not necessarily visually larger, and here is where Cut comes in. Think about a pound of flank steak versus a pound of filet mignon. The former is large and thin, the latter small and thick, but both still a single pound of beef. If our only consideration of quality was visual size from above, we would choose the flank steak every time, but as we know, the filet might be the better cut.

It's the same concept with diamonds, except that with these hardest of gems, we don’t want too thick or too thin; we want it just right, like the Three Bears story. Ok, I’ll stop with the analogies!

So---why? Well, diamond, as it is mined, doesn’t sparkle. It reminds me of road salt, actually. A quadrahedral bipyramid of road salt, but still… It is only as a diamond crystal is cut, facetted and polished, does diamond’s ability to refract and disperse light truly shine. Back in the Olden Days, diamonds were cut and polished to look beautiful, but also with an eye to leaving weight on, because diamonds are sold by weight, and the larger the crystal the rarer it is and thus commands a higher price per carat.

Sometime in the late 1950s, science caught up with the diamond industry and was able to calculate the proportions, angles, and symmetry that would draw maximum brightness and fire from a diamond crystal. Science is great, right? Yay. Except there was a fairly catchy catch. The angles of the ideal cut were not the same as the angles at which the diamond crystals formed. Dang it! To get the perfect diamond, cutters have to remove more raw weight than is optimal business-wise. The higher the weight, the higher the price per carat, so there is almost a built-in benefit to cut diamonds poorly, or more accurately, heavier. Diamond cutters are restricted by the dimensions of the crystal they are given, so, rather than cut a perfect 0.95-carat diamond that would be scintillating, he may be told to cut a deeper diamond that weighs a full carat that can be sold for more money but is, well, less than it could be. But here's the kicker: The two diamonds would appear to be the same size. Hmmmmm.

The middle photo shows well-proportioned diamonds, and the right one diamonds cut for weight. The diameter or visual size is the same.

The way a diamond is cut and polished dictates the maximum amount of light the diamond will refract and reflect. The better it has been cut, the greater will be its brilliance, sparkle and fire. When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light is internally reflected from one facet to another and then dispersed through the top. If the cut is too deep or shallow, some light will escape through the sides or bottom, and will adversely affect a diamond's brilliance.

Let’s say you have a choice between a 1.00-carat F Colour, VS2 Clarity diamond at store A that costs 1000 dollars (a round number for the sake of argument), and a 0.95-carat diamond of the same Colour and Clarity at store B that is 950 dollars. Many people are more attracted to the 1.00-carat diamond because it is a full carat, and don’t mind paying more for it. But how do you think these buyers would feel if they found out that the 0.95-carat diamond had a bigger diameter and more fire than the 1.00, even though they seem the same on paper. If Stone A has a Cut grade of Good, while stone B has a Cut grade of Ideal, this is exactly what can happen. If you aren’t able to compare the two diamonds side by side, you will never know you could have done better with the “smaller” diamond.

So to me, Carat weight is just a number that gives us the general category of size, and not the real stars of the show—Cut, Cut, and Cut!

Where does that leave us with Colour and Clarity? Well, those are for future blogs. Important up to a point, but in the proper proportions. I know, I do harp on proportions, sorry.

I will leave you with this, though. If you go to a store that sells diamonds of mediocre Cut grades and ask how good the cutting is, they will not tell you it is mediocre, will they? I wouldn’t if I were them (glad I’m not!). They will say good, very nice, or generally use vague terms. Insist on certified diamonds graded by an independent lab, ones that grade proportions, symmetry, polish, and if possible, light performance. The certificate should not give a price! There are misleading certificates that are used as selling tools—a proper certificate would only deal with Carat weight, Colour, Clarity and hopefully, Cut grade.

I will talk about Colour and Clarity in upcoming blogs, but if you take nothing else away from this, remember: A diamond with good Colour and Clarity with an ideal Cut will look much better than one with perfect Colour and Clarity and a poor Cut!

I would love to hear your questions and comments!

If you want to dive even deeper still, here is a brief video that helps explain why two diamonds that are graded exactly the same can vary greatly in price (and why it’s truly important to see your diamond in person before making the big purchase). Enjoy!