Diamonds Knowledge

The modified brilliant-cut  pear shaped diamond  is a combination of a round and a marquise shape, with a tapered point on one end. The diamond is always worn with the narrow end pointing toward the hand of the wearer. Like marquise and oval cuts, the pear shaped diamond comes in a variety of slim to wide cuts, and has the added benefit of making the wearer's fingers appear longer and slimmer. Ideally, a pear shaped diamond should possess excellent or very good symmetry. The point should line up with the apex of the rounded end. The shoulders and wings (the upper and lower curves on the right and left side of the diamond) should form uniform, symmetrical curves, with no straight edges. The rounded top should not appear narrow or squat, but like a semi-circle. In a misguided effort to add weight to a diamond (by incorporating more of the rough stone in the final cut) cutters may give the diamond added girth near the point or top, giving the diamond a squared off ...

The  princess cut  is the second most popular  cut  shape for  diamonds , next to a  round brilliant .The  Princess cut diamond  is a "fancy" (i.e. non-round shaped)  brilliant cut  - and is either exactly square or slightly rectangular when viewed from directly above the crown. Princess cut diamonds also tend to have a slightly lower price-per-carat than round cut diamonds. This is because the four sided pyramid shape of the princess cut diamond is similar to one half of the octahedron rough stone from which a princess diamond is cut. This similarity allows two equally sized princess cut diamonds to be cut from the same rough stone with relatively little waste (roughly 60% of the weight of the original rough stone is retained after cutting). The greater efficiency, or yield, translates to a lower price. Carat for carat, the crown surface area of a princess cut is about 10% less than a same-weight round diamond. However, the cor...