The meaning of diamond grading – the four C’s

It can be really overwhelming when you first think about buying diamonds. There are so many options, and even if you aren’t as perfectionist and in love with research as I am, there’s still a lot to think about! The most important factors all start with the letter “C,” handily enough. Once you know how to determine cut, color, clarity, and carat, you’ll be well on your way to buying the diamond you want.

Cut refers to the style and shape of the diamond. This is what people are talking about when they refer to a “princess cut” diamond. Some of the most popular cuts are princess, teardrop, marquise, radiant, heart, and cushion cuts. There’s more to cutting a diamond than just trimming a hunk of mineral to the right size and shape! Most diamonds will also have a pattern carved into them, accentuating the lines formed by the initial shape carving. All these lines will catch more light and subsequently sparkle more than a flat stone.

Diamonds come in many different colors, the traditional clear being only one option. You may be surprised to learn that colored diamonds exist outside a lab– I certainly was. A chemically and structurally pure diamond will be perfectly clear, but most diamonds (particularly those small enough to be used in jewelry) are not. When something goes awry in the diamond making process, colorful diamonds happen. Yellowish-white diamonds are considered the least beautiful, so you can often get a great deal on them. The Hope Diamond is made from a sparkling dark silverish-blue colored diamond, and pink and blue diamonds are often considered very valuable. Red is the most rare of all colored diamonds, and is usually priced accordingly.

Clarity determines how many ‘flaws’ a diamond has. Both surface blemishes and foreign materials or structural issues inside the diamond (called inclusions) can affect clarity. In some cases, extremely flawed diamonds can shatter or have a cloudy, dull appearance. This is rare, however, and most of the time these flaws are actually pretty useful. Blemishes and inclusions are like the unique fingerprint of a diamond. They can be used to certify that a diamond is or isn’t stolen, and can also make it easier for buyers to confirm that their diamond is genuine and produced by nature, rather than a lab-created diamond or even cubic zirconium. The more flaws a diamond has, the cheaper it will be priced.

Carat is simply the weight and size of the diamond. In ancient times, jewels and metals were measured against the weight of carob beans, and the word “carat” is derived from the Arabic and Italian words for carob. A 1 carat diamond will weigh 200 grams, and obviously a 1/2 carat diamond will weigh 100 grams, and so on. This is different from gold carats (or karats), which are used to tell people the purity of the gold, or how much gold compared to other metals is in the mixture of metals.