can you help me to look for a half carat diamond for an everyday pendant

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Z

Zahzah

O.G.
Aug 16, 2011
1,902
62
#1
Hi Everyone :)

Im back here again, its bonus time at work and im looking to treat myself to a simple everyday pendant. My budget only allows me half carat or 0.48-0.55 carat.
I really need help finding the stone, and im thinking of bluenile because there customer service is really good, im a UK customer so prefer to buy from somewhere where I can get easy returns so places like Whiteflash or brian gavin is out of the picture (I know there amazing but I don't want the hassle with extra custom charge, and extra charge for converting money from pounds to dollars with credit/bank tranfer)

There is also not many jewelers around me so I thought Bluenile is the first option.

So I was looking at some and wanted to ask what about this diamond?

http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-search?stockno=LD05091466

Im looking for Eye clean (SI1) or VS2, G/F color and obviously excellent cut.

Thank you in advance for the much needed advice :)
 
#5
Find my post in the diamond reference thread with the "cheat sheet" to help narrow down your search. I am not near a computer this week so I am sporadic and you may need to PM me to get my attention. My city is in shambles and its a holiday in the states.
 
#6
ame said:
Find my post in the diamond reference thread with the "cheat sheet" to help narrow down your search. I am not near a computer this week so I am sporadic and you may need to PM me to get my attention. My city is in shambles and its a holiday in the states.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. Totally understand! If your free I help me whenever that would be great. No rush, really appreciate you help.

I was wondering what you thought about this stone?
http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-details/LD05166410
 
#7
Zahzah said:
Thanks for your help. Totally understand! If your free I help me whenever that would be great. No rush, really appreciate you help.

I was wondering what you thought about this stone?
http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-details/LD05166410
Click to expand...

The table on that is way too big and the crown angle is too shallow.

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This is the cheat sheet to which Ame was referring:
Total depth between 59 – 61.8%
Table diameter between 53 – 57%
Crown angle between 34.3 – 34.9 degrees
Pavilion angle between 40.6 – 40.9 degrees
Girdle thickness between thin to medium, faceted (bruted isn't bad, but faceted would be better)
Culet size: none

When you're dealing with a table of 53-54, you want the depth to be in the 59-60 range, not the 61-62 range. I harp on the 55 because it's RIGHT in the middle of the range, and sometimes a 56. The middle of the range is PERFECT, and is always talked about as the perfect table number.

The angles mentioned in degrees are a range, obviously you're going to have interplay, so there's not a specific ratio there. You have to see what the numbers on each stone are. There really is a bigger range of angles than that but ideally those would be great to hit.

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Ame might have some better suggestions, but here are a few options in that same price range which have HCA scores under 2:
http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-details/LD05125431
http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-details/LD05146468
http://www.bluenile.com/uk/diamond-details/LD04466738
 
#9
The third has promise assuming it's eye clean. The clarity being an si1 with a crystal and clouds would need to be looked at more closely.
 
#10
Zahzah said:
Thanks! Theses look like good options however looking at the cheat sheet, are the depth % higher than what we would want?
Click to expand...

They are starting to get a bit deep, although there are those on another forum who are ok with depths up to 62.3 I think, but some of that becomes personal preference. To the best of my knowledge, the cheat sheet and HCA are more intended to be rejection tools to help narrow down search results instead of a guaranteed recipe for success. In addition to looking for individual numbers within those parameters for table, depth, crown, pavilion, etc; the performance of a diamond will depend on how well those percentages and angles work together. I only know enough to be dangerous, like that the 61% table of the last diamond you posted is way too big; I would absolutely defer to someone like Ame who knows way more about this than I do.

There were over 100 diamonds on Blue Nile that meet your basic parameters of approximately 0.5 carat, F/G color, Vs/Si1 clarity - that was after narrowing the table percentage to not exceed 57%, depth to 62% and I capped the price at £1,700.00. I only made it through the first 10 or so this morning while trying to occupy time before work (trying to procrastinate and avoid the snow) and I posted the best of that bunch. There are still plenty of diamonds out there, so you should be able to find a good one for your pendant. :smile1:
 
#11
Yea I don't get why people on there suddenly like above a 62. That seems like a more recent thing bec I'll take a 62 even if the angles are alright. But that's the extent of it. I keep to these numbers based on what the AGS grades as ideal and what works for ideal light return. There are even a few that don't work IN those ranges sometimes bec the angles don't line up right.

I don't rely on the HCA score as a decider. I've seen a few in the ideal range for the HCA that haven't blown me away and a few just outside the ideal range that did blow me away. That's a weeding out tool. Not the final decider.
 
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