What Exactly Are the 4 C's, and Why Should You Care at All?

When diamond browsing, nobody wants to seem like a fool, and they all want to receive the best bang for their buck. We should say it right now, even if you get the deal of a lifetime, diamonds will never be cheap. Out of all the most valuable stones, they are by far the most costly ones on the market, and these are also the ones that are held against the sharpest measures as far as quality can go.

If you're going to be showing off a diamond proudly on your wrist, neck, or ear lobe, of course you want it to twinkle and reflect as much as it possibly can. That's where the 4 C's will come in. These are cut, color, clarity and carat. Let's see each in more detail.

Cut is the actual cut of the stone, it is not the general shape of the rock, as the term is often employed to mean. Now, you need to understnd, diamonds are removed from the earth as entirely raw, unrefined stones, which are shapped much like a pebble from your driveway. These are then cut down the final shape you will see using a series of refining turn-tables. The higher quality the cut, the nicer the angels will be, and the more light it will reflect back to the viewer's eye in the form of spark.

Color is the color of the gemstone. A diamond that has a poor color will usually look to have a amber shade to it, but a truly clean stone is "colorless". These are rated using an easy to understand coloring system, starting at the letter D. The grades D, E and F are all considered to be perfectly colorless for all circumstances, with D having the least color of all.

The second to last C, clarity, references the number of flaws inside the diamond itself, which are fair pieces of minerals which have been trapped inside the stone when it was formed. The clearer the diamond, the more appealing it will look to the naked eye.

Now, for most cases, carat makes sense without explaining it. This is simply diamond's size, measured by weight - nothing more, nothing less. The bigger the carat number, the larger the rock.

The document you just read was put together by Alberto Maeses, a certified diamontologist, and also a successful author. Please see diamond engagement rings as well as animal jewelry.