Gemstones the language of the 4-C’s

We believe all gemstones are an investment and should be considered as such. The value of any gemstone can vary widely. Diamonds for instance, one gemstone may be $1000 and another the same size and weight may be $10,000 based solely on the grade.

Currently there is an ongoing effort to grade colored gemstones based on the same criteria used for diamonds.
This is an ongoing attempt to formalize the system of grading colored gems that we hope someday will succeed.

Cut

The first C is Cut, Cut should not be confused with shape, it means the quality of faceting, are the facets well defined and sharp? Are they well polished or have the facet points been cut off by a second tier of facets? Are there scratches or other blemishes on the facets themselves.
Polish can range widely just in finish, the term cutting is actually a misnomer the process of shaping and polishing a gemstone is actually a grinding or sanding process.

The grit of sandpaper that we are more familiar with is graded according to the size of the particles attached to the paper.
The same scale applies to the grit of particles used in polishing a gemstone usually diamond particles attached to a metal plate called a lap.

While the grit size is recognizable in the initial cutting and shaping of a gemstone, using 220, 600, 1200, that we are more familiar with, In the polishing process used for gemstones  the grit size becomes unrecognizable to the casual observer, 8,000, 14,000, 50,000 and even 100,000.
So the polish of a gemstone will vary noticeably if one is polished to 8,000 and another is polished with 50,000.

The proportions of a gemstone also are taken into account.

Color

The second C is Color, This a very standardized criteria as it applies to diamonds, Diamonds are graded on a 23 grade scale from D to Z with D being the highest and indicates a colorless gemstone. Diamonds are simply compared to a set of calibrated colored stones to determine the grade and while the human eye cannot detect the difference between a D and an E or even F diamond, your pocket book will, the price difference between a diamond of one grade and the next lower grade can be as much as 25% .

With colored gemstones this becomes much more complicated and probably will be left to the eye of the beholder for many years to come, Sapphire for instance has a wide variety of colors from clear to black the best known of course is blue, but even then we find as many as 30 shades of blue perhaps more. But color still significantly affects price of colored gemstones simply by virtue of desirability and uniqueness.

Clarity

The third C, clarity is defined by the number, color, nature, size and natural marks called inclusions, as it applies to diamonds is a 11 part grading scale that while it requires significant education to be come a diamond grader it is a simple system that we can use to determine the clarity grade of any gemstone, at the moment this same criteria is being used to grade colored stone but is being applied rather haphazardly by the unknowing, uneducated or even the unscrupulous. But with an inexpensive 10K loupe the layman can determine for themselves the approximate clarity grading. The scale is as follows

FL & IF (Flawless and internally flawless)
Flawless diamonds rarely reach the commercial market.

VVS1 and VVS2 (Very Very small inclusions) These two clarity grades require a 25x microscope and inclusions should not be visible even with the 10x loupe.

VS1 & VS2 (Very small inclusions) Inclusions are visible with the 10X loupe but not to the naked eye.

SI1 and SI2 (Small inclusions) Inclusions are visible to the naked eye.

I1, I2 and I3 (Imperfect, Inclusions are very visible to the naked eye and are numerous)

Caret weight

The forth C is the weight of the gemstone in carets. There are five carets to a gram and each caret is divided into 100th often referred to as points.  Colored stones may be rounded to the nearest .1 or 10th of a caret. Diamonds are always weighted to the nearest 100th.

Caret scales tend to be expensive but are a valuable tool for the serious collector, otherwise a visit to the local jeweler and most of us can have the weight of a gemstone verified.