Glittering Stones » About Diamond » Diamond Cuts

Cut

Cut is the important factor in diamond 4 C's. It is a factor that fuels diamond's fire, sparkle and brilliance. The traditional 58 tiny facets in a diamond, each precisely cut and sharply defined may be two millimeters in diameters. But without this precision, diamond wouldn't be as beautiful. The allure of diamond depends more on cut than anything else. It's difficult to analyze that the cut of any diamond has three attributes brilliance, fire and scintillation.

The shape of diamond is defined based on the diamond cut. The standard round brilliant is the shape used in most diamond jewelry. The other diamond cuts are fancy shapes. Marquise, pear, oval and emerald cuts are the traditional fancy shapes. Heart, cushion, triangles and variety of others are also used in diamond cuts. Though cut refers to diamond's proportions, symmetry and polish, the major components from top to bottom are crown, girdle and pavilion. The more facets on the diamond's surface, the more glimmers across the surface area. Round brilliant cut diamond can have either 57 or 58 facets, and the 58th tiny facet at the bottom of the pavilion is known as culet. The large flat facet on the top is the table. The proportion of diamond refers to the relationship between table size, crown angle and pavilion depth. The wide range of proportion combinations is possible and this ultimately affects the stone's synchronicity with light.

The distance from the bottom of the girdle to the culet is the pavilion depth and the pavilion depth that is too shallow or too deep will allow light to escape through the sides or bottom of the stone. A well cut diamond will direct more light through the crown.

Diamond Cuts

Round
Princess
Emerald
Asscher
Marquise
Oval
Radiant
Pear
Cushion
Heart

Diamond cut is a style or design used to shape a diamond for polishing like brilliant cut or fancy cut. The diamond cut constitutes more of symmetrical arrangements of facets that modify the shape and appearance of the diamond crystal. Generally, cutters use to consider several factors like shape, size and type of the crystal.

One of the popular diamond cuts is the modern round brilliant cut that facet arrangements & proportions have been perfected by mathematical and empirical analysis.

Types of Diamond Shapes

Round Brilliant Cut

Round brilliant cut is a diamond cut in a particular form with numerous facets to have special brilliancy. It is the most popular and most researched diamond shape available and it gives flexibility in terms of balancing cut, color and clarity grades while still getting the fire and brilliance.

Princess Cut

Next to round brilliant cut, Princess cut is the second popular cut shape for diamonds. The shape of princess cut is square or rectangular and is similar to that of inverted pyramid with four beveled sides. The princess cut is also referred to as a square modified brilliant.

Emerald Cut

Emerald cut diamonds have rectangular shapes with cut corners. Due to the large open table, the emerald cut shape highlights the clarity of a diamond. Emerald cut diamond varies greatly in their rectangular.

Asscher Cut

The asscher cut diamonds was developed by Asscher brothers of Holland in the year 1902. It is a stepped square cut and it is often referred as square emerald cut. Like an emerald cut, even the asschers has cropped corners.

Marquise Cut

The shape of marquise diamond maximizes the carat weight and has an elongated shape with pointed ends supposedly inspired by the smile of marquise de pompadour. The brilliant cut diamonds looks beautiful with round or pear shaped side stones

Oval Cut

Oval cut diamonds has a beautiful brilliance that is similar to round diamond cut. It is very popular as their length can accentuate long, slender fingers. It is created and introduced by Lazare Kaplan way back in 1960’s.

Radiant Cut

Radiant cut combines the elegant shape of the emerald cut with the brilliance of the round. Radiant cut diamonds varies in the degree of rectangularity and they have square or rectangular shape. It has 70 facets to maximize the effect of its color refraction.

Pear Cut

Pear shaped diamonds are known as teardrop shape and it is a hybrid between marquise cut and round brilliant diamonds. It is a popular diamond style for pendants and teardrop earrings.

Cushion Cut

The cushion cut is a antique style of diamond cut that is popular for more than a century. It also known as pillow cut diamonds with rounded corners and larger facets to increase the brilliance.

Heart Cut

Heart cut diamonds is a pear shaped diamond with cleft at the top. Heart diamonds are ultimate symbol of love and it makes a distinctive choice or a variety of diamond jewelry.

Carat

Color grades