If you want to ditch the traditional round brilliant diamond when buying a diamond ring, but need a good bling like a brilliant-cut stone, then radiant-cut diamonds are your ideal option. These diamonds have a rectangular shape and exhibit good brilliance which makes them perfect for engagement rings and wedding bands. Read along to find more about radiant cut stones and their features. This will help you to decide whether you should give a try for these stones if you are buying diamond rings.
When buying radiant-cut diamonds, it is important to make sure that they have good quality. However, most people are unaware of how to grade a radiant-cut stone. Therefore, we provide some tips for you to determine the quality of these stones, so that you can ensure that the diamonds you buy have a good grade and value.
Properties of Radiant-Cut
The radiant-cut stones have a rectangular or square shape and their corners will be truncated. The outline of this specific cut looks similar to an emerald or a baguette-cut, but the radiant cut is a brilliant cut, whereas the other two are step cuts. Therefore, your ring set with radiant-cut stone may look like a baguette ring or emerald ring. However, it exhibits great brilliance than a baguette diamond ring, as the facets of a radiant diamond are arranged in a manner that will produce maximum brilliance and sparkle.
The radiant cut can be also called as a “mixed cut”, as it has some of the features of step cuts, like the emerald cut.
Grading the Cut
Even though the quality guidelines for grading the radiant cut are not as precise and detailed as those for a round cut diamond, it still has some recommended ranges specified for the most important proportions.
Table ratio, which is the length of the top portion of the diamond represented as a percentage of the girdle, should be around 60-70%.
Total depth, which is the top to bottom length of the stone, should ideally be around 60-65%.
The ideal girdle thickness should be between the ranges of very thin to slightly thick. Extremely thick as well as extremely thin girdles are not desirable.
The facet at the bottom of the diamond, which is referred to as the Culet should be really small or non-existent. If the size of the culet ranges from medium to big, then it will be visible through the top portion of the stone.
Other important factors you should consider for grading the cut quality are the symmetry and polish of the stone. Even though they are only secondary in terms of importance, they have a notable role in the appeal of a diamond. You should avoid stones that are graded Poor, as they will be of very low value.
If the facets are arranged asymmetrically or the surface is polished poorly, then it will diminish the beauty and brilliance of the diamond.
Choosing the Color Grade
The parameters for grading the color of a radiant diamond is similar to diamonds of other shapes. All of them are graded on the same scale. However, you should be aware of the fact that radiant diamonds tend to exhibit more color than the traditional round cuts.
If you are planning to set your radiant-cut diamond in a white metal like white gold or platinum, then it is better to choose a stone that falls under the categories F, G and H. But if the metal is yellow gold, then you can go lower on the color grades, as the yellowish tints in the stone will be absorbed by the color of the metal. For this setting, you may go for an I or J color grade as it will still appear reasonably colorless when mounted.
Selecting a Clarity Grade
Choosing a clarity grade implies that you have to find a stone that is free of any visible flaws. That means the stone should not have any inclusions or blemishes that are visible to the naked eyes.
One of the benefits of radiant cut is that, as it is a brilliant cut, they have good brilliance and sparkle, therefore, the inclusions will be less visible when compared to some other cuts like step cuts.
Even though you can go for stones with the highest clarity grades like FL or IF, they can be quite expensive. Hence, it is wise to choose radiant-cut diamonds that do not have any visible inclusions and are cheaper.
If you look for VS2 or SI1 or SI2 clarity, then you may be able to find an eye-clean stone at a good price.
Carat Weight
The carat weight of a diamond is directly proportional to the price, i.e., when the carat weight increases the cost of the diamond will also increase. Hence, the bigger the stone is, the more expensive it will be.
Also, when the size gets larger, the imperfections (like inclusions or yellow tints) of that stone will become more visible. Therefore, if you choose a diamond with higher carat weight, then it is better to go for higher color and clarity grades.
