Rockingout
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2005
- Messages
- 76
2.09 G VS1 Infinity Princess
AGS 0 for Light Performance, Proportion Factor, Ideal symmetry and very good polish
Here is the story, enjoy.
About 3 months ago we cracked a corner on our original diamond seen here https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/our-new-ags-0-princess-pet-rock.30445/ due to an impact on one prong which in turn caused the crack in the corner. This diamond was an AGS-0 and a very beautiful one at that. We went through our insurer (Chubb) and they settled out extremely quick and we were able to move to finding another beauty that would stand up to the original diamond. I highly recommend Chubb for insurance on engagement rings. To get an appropriate replacement value, they allowed us to go to the jeweler of our choice for an estimate for the ring in today''s $$...and honored that value, which was greater than the original insured value. They truly are an outstanding company with top notch customer service.
That brings us to how we found the Infinity, Whiteflash and the Jared Peerless diamonds. I knew that I would consider looking through Paul''s inventory (Infinity diamonds, http://www.infinitydiamonds.be/) because I knew he carried diamonds up to 2 carats but when I saw the 2.09 I knew it was going to be a looker. A little background history with Paul and I--- When setting out to find our first diamond, I contacted Paul to see if he could locate a rough that would yield a 2+ carat diamond. This was when AGS had just introduced the new cutting guidelines and he had just started cutting to those guidelines. I wanted a diamond cut to the AGS-0 standards because previous princess cuts were hit or miss on optical performance. Months passed and it was unfortunate that he could not locate a starting rough. I have to mention that he had excellent customer service and kept up in emails about the status and process of what it was like to find a rough and even how the cutting and certification timeline was. I let him know that we found another diamond from Wertheimer Fruchter diamonds (WFD, company Oropaz) and had purchased it but wanted to thank him for giving it his best to try and find a starting rough. Knowing how patient Paul was with me in the past, looking for rough and explaining the cutting process, really added to my decision to pull one of his diamonds. It built trust with Paul and I was confident that he cut superior diamonds. I followed numerous posts on pricescope regarding the way he cut diamonds and valued the patience he had in explaining to the new people what to look for in a princess. The diamond we pulled from Infinity can be seen here https://www.visagem.be/External.php?PR=55&SIT=1&SID=abf8f67c921b5b2e7e48f6f765cb19aa&REM=48db4f37bb562b110025bed93470343c
Whiteflash recently came out with their ACA line of princess cuts so I searched their inventory and found one that I liked and had it sent to Martin Fuller (independent appraiser in DC area) to be viewed next to the Infinity Diamond and the Jared Peerless diamond. The Whiteflash 2.177 G VS2 diamond can be seen here http://www.whiteflash.com/aca_princess/A-Cut-Above-Princess-cut-diamond-171980.htm
The Jared diamond was an AGS-0 from WF diamonds, with a gemex report that had triple very highs. I recall vaguely some of the stats (don''t hold them to me), table 68, depth 74, pav angle `38, crown angle `41 crown height 12%. It was a 2.24 H VS2 and they were asking $28,000 which was a lot of money for the diamond. It was a B&M so I expected the price to be more. This was the 4th stone they pulled in for us to take a look at and this one was a beauty with a high price tag. Their customer service was excellent though. They hand carried the diamond over to Martin Fuller''s office so that it could viewed side-by-side with the other diamonds. I was told and got the impression that they do not do this too often. It was a 3 chevron and looked very similar to our last diamond, which my fiancé (now wife as of 4/16/07) adored.
I had Rockdoc do the appraisal on our first diamond, but I grew more comfortable looking at diamonds, so I chose to have my eyes do the picking this time around. I recommend Bill (Rockdoc) 100%. But after getting to know the original diamond and knowing what to look for in diamond, brightness, fire, scintillation, and contrast along with different lighting environments, I was confident in what to look for. And the only way I could gather all three stones was to call up Martin Fuller who is local and explain the situation. We pulled all three diamonds (Infinity, Whiteflash and Jared) and had the meeting which lasted roughly 2 hours.
The Meeting with Martin Fuller:
We had seen the Jared diamond before the other two and Kassia liked the look and performance of it, but the price was not sitting well with us and they would not budge. Kassia also was set on a 3 chevron cut stone because she like the way her original diamond looked. I stressed to her to keep an open mind about the 2 chevron diamonds, because lets face it they do look different and have "have different personalities". The 2 chevron had more of the bold flashes of fire versus the pin point flashes as seen in a 3 chevron princess. Anyway, I am rambling... We show up and the anticipation is intoxicating, we are so excited to have three diamonds (all AGS-0s) in front of us hoping that one of them is THE ONE.
Upon first inspection of all three diamonds, one stood out as having a weird visual property to it. This was the Whiteflash diamond. Let me try to describe what I saw in the diamond. It had an excellent face up presentation, but when you tilted/moved it, the pavilion chevrons (toward the corners) when looking through the table looked like crushed ice and was really busy. Shortly after seeing this, we pulled this diamond from further consideration b/c we did not want to be thinking of this when looking at the other two. We examined it under normal office lighting, outside lighting, direct spotlighting. It was hard to get past this "busy-ness" we were seeing. You can see it in the idealscope on the inside corners of the table and also in the Aset. We spent about 15 minutes on this diamond and then moved on to the other two. Martin confirmed what we were seeing and agreed with our decision to remove it from consideration.
Since we had seen the Jared diamond before, we began with the Infinity diamond. I was really excited to see a 2 chevron cut, because I have never seen this arrangement of the pavilion. What can I say? When I first saw the diamond, it blew my mind how crystal clear and clean it looked. Let me define my terms of clean for you. Clean being like I can see every virtual facet interaction without the clutter of the crushed ice look. This is what really pulled me in. At this size stone, the virtual facets looked the size of that of a round. It had big bold flashes of fire, which were very strong and powerful and it had very fast scintillation in direct spot light (northern sun viewing). The exceptionally fine symmetry is immediately apparent when looking at this diamond. It is funny how Paul mentioned viewing the H&A for symmetry, because I checked all the diamonds with this tool and have to say that Paul''s was superior to the Whiteflash and Jared (WF). The H&A pattern looks like a flower. Kassia was aw struck and blown away by how beautiful this diamond was. I knew it right away when she saw that this was the ONE. She did not come right out and say this, but I knew. When tilting this diamond, it performs just as good as it does face up. The interaction of the combination of 40.8 pav angle and 34 degree for the crown angle reminds me of the angles of a round diamond. This combination at every angle is perfect. Kassia was also worried about the size of the table, our last diamond was 70%, but she was taken back as the small table (59.3%) just blended in with the diamond in a face up presentation, which is awesome. The contrast of this diamond is remarkable, I viewed it under a tree in direct sunlight and was just amazed about how dispersive the diamond is. Martin has seen a couple of Paul''s diamonds before because he works in the same building as Bill (Icemine) who is a great guy and seller of Infinity diamonds. Martin agreed in all aspects of what we saw in this diamond and agreed it was truly an superior performer and beautiful diamond. "The top I have seen in princess diamonds". He kept it over the weekend for us and said "the diamond just keeps on looking better the more time I spend with it." It is always good to hear this because sometimes you find something wrong with an item the longer you have it. Regarding the polish lines and why it received a 2 marking on the AGS document --- He sided with AGS on this matter and said that the marks were external. He got a couple of pictures where you can see the surface interruption of the mark. But he said this is nothing to worry about because it took him a 40x lens to even see them. He mentioned it appeared that the price was taken into consideration for the grading of AGS2 for the polish lines and deserved the AGS-0 for performance. He recommended this diamond for us 150%, but we already knew this. I knew I was looking at an amazing diamond when I first saw it.
The Jared (WF) diamond was quite impressive itself, it looked a little bigger because it was 7.24x7.14 as compared to ours (7.09x7.08 I think?). The size difference was not apparent when the two were separate let alone when in a setting. This diamond was an H and the color was more apparent when placed next to the Infinity diamond face down and from the side. Face up, there was some color but its an H. Martin said it was on the lower side of an H, but he really liked the way the Infinity diamond carried the G color. He confirmed the color with grading stones. The Jared diamond had that busy effect I see in three chevron diamonds. It had the smaller flashes of color under spot light. The contrast was excellent and the symmetry was excellent also. However, this stone did not have the immediate clear and clean look to it, like the Infinity diamond.
So, we made up our minds that the Infinity diamond was the ONE and Martin performed his "techy" stuff on it. He tested for strain, which there was none, then showed us the minute polish lines under 40x magnification which even then were tough to see. The chamfered corners looked great and it had a nice girdle.
We shortly left and said that we would be in touch with him, and we would contact Gary (http://www.diamondexpert.com/) and set up payment. I have communicated with Gary in the past regarding some pictures of Paul''s diamonds and he has always been very open on sharing pictures. He shot about 20 pictures of the diamond and aset pictures. While he was visiting AGS, he took another ASET with their viewer cause his looked a little washed out. It was very helpful. It makes the consumer feel good when the seller is willing to bend over backwards when any questions are brought up. Gary is a winning seller.
What else. I liked the Visagem services that Paul is using. It is better now that the Gemadvisor, H&A and ASET picture up. These are the best things for visualization and showing light performance. These need to be up for the consumer because it shows how exceptional Infinity diamonds are. The more information the consumer has the more confidence he/she can put into the diamond they choose. I always loved how Good Old Gold does everything they do on their website because it shows the consumer that they have nothing to hide and are confident in their product.
We had the diamond set by Quest Jewelers. They are local custom designer shop that specializes in settings. We replicated the setting of our last diamond, which was a solitaire cathedral setting. Simply gorgeous! It really sets off the stone and showcases it. However, it took Quest three adjustments to the setting to get the perfect ring we were after. Quest is a great company but they could improve their communication with the customer (this was the source of our problems with getting the setting to be perfect).
All in all we are extremely happy with our purchase and hope that this diamond will be worn in good health for many years to come!!! If there are any questions or comments, please feel free to ask or comment. Thank you to Pricescope for providing such an open forum where consumers can come to receive and offer honest advice in a positive and pleasurable manner.
AGS 0 for Light Performance, Proportion Factor, Ideal symmetry and very good polish
Here is the story, enjoy.
About 3 months ago we cracked a corner on our original diamond seen here https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/our-new-ags-0-princess-pet-rock.30445/ due to an impact on one prong which in turn caused the crack in the corner. This diamond was an AGS-0 and a very beautiful one at that. We went through our insurer (Chubb) and they settled out extremely quick and we were able to move to finding another beauty that would stand up to the original diamond. I highly recommend Chubb for insurance on engagement rings. To get an appropriate replacement value, they allowed us to go to the jeweler of our choice for an estimate for the ring in today''s $$...and honored that value, which was greater than the original insured value. They truly are an outstanding company with top notch customer service.
That brings us to how we found the Infinity, Whiteflash and the Jared Peerless diamonds. I knew that I would consider looking through Paul''s inventory (Infinity diamonds, http://www.infinitydiamonds.be/) because I knew he carried diamonds up to 2 carats but when I saw the 2.09 I knew it was going to be a looker. A little background history with Paul and I--- When setting out to find our first diamond, I contacted Paul to see if he could locate a rough that would yield a 2+ carat diamond. This was when AGS had just introduced the new cutting guidelines and he had just started cutting to those guidelines. I wanted a diamond cut to the AGS-0 standards because previous princess cuts were hit or miss on optical performance. Months passed and it was unfortunate that he could not locate a starting rough. I have to mention that he had excellent customer service and kept up in emails about the status and process of what it was like to find a rough and even how the cutting and certification timeline was. I let him know that we found another diamond from Wertheimer Fruchter diamonds (WFD, company Oropaz) and had purchased it but wanted to thank him for giving it his best to try and find a starting rough. Knowing how patient Paul was with me in the past, looking for rough and explaining the cutting process, really added to my decision to pull one of his diamonds. It built trust with Paul and I was confident that he cut superior diamonds. I followed numerous posts on pricescope regarding the way he cut diamonds and valued the patience he had in explaining to the new people what to look for in a princess. The diamond we pulled from Infinity can be seen here https://www.visagem.be/External.php?PR=55&SIT=1&SID=abf8f67c921b5b2e7e48f6f765cb19aa&REM=48db4f37bb562b110025bed93470343c
Whiteflash recently came out with their ACA line of princess cuts so I searched their inventory and found one that I liked and had it sent to Martin Fuller (independent appraiser in DC area) to be viewed next to the Infinity Diamond and the Jared Peerless diamond. The Whiteflash 2.177 G VS2 diamond can be seen here http://www.whiteflash.com/aca_princess/A-Cut-Above-Princess-cut-diamond-171980.htm
The Jared diamond was an AGS-0 from WF diamonds, with a gemex report that had triple very highs. I recall vaguely some of the stats (don''t hold them to me), table 68, depth 74, pav angle `38, crown angle `41 crown height 12%. It was a 2.24 H VS2 and they were asking $28,000 which was a lot of money for the diamond. It was a B&M so I expected the price to be more. This was the 4th stone they pulled in for us to take a look at and this one was a beauty with a high price tag. Their customer service was excellent though. They hand carried the diamond over to Martin Fuller''s office so that it could viewed side-by-side with the other diamonds. I was told and got the impression that they do not do this too often. It was a 3 chevron and looked very similar to our last diamond, which my fiancé (now wife as of 4/16/07) adored.
I had Rockdoc do the appraisal on our first diamond, but I grew more comfortable looking at diamonds, so I chose to have my eyes do the picking this time around. I recommend Bill (Rockdoc) 100%. But after getting to know the original diamond and knowing what to look for in diamond, brightness, fire, scintillation, and contrast along with different lighting environments, I was confident in what to look for. And the only way I could gather all three stones was to call up Martin Fuller who is local and explain the situation. We pulled all three diamonds (Infinity, Whiteflash and Jared) and had the meeting which lasted roughly 2 hours.
The Meeting with Martin Fuller:
We had seen the Jared diamond before the other two and Kassia liked the look and performance of it, but the price was not sitting well with us and they would not budge. Kassia also was set on a 3 chevron cut stone because she like the way her original diamond looked. I stressed to her to keep an open mind about the 2 chevron diamonds, because lets face it they do look different and have "have different personalities". The 2 chevron had more of the bold flashes of fire versus the pin point flashes as seen in a 3 chevron princess. Anyway, I am rambling... We show up and the anticipation is intoxicating, we are so excited to have three diamonds (all AGS-0s) in front of us hoping that one of them is THE ONE.
Upon first inspection of all three diamonds, one stood out as having a weird visual property to it. This was the Whiteflash diamond. Let me try to describe what I saw in the diamond. It had an excellent face up presentation, but when you tilted/moved it, the pavilion chevrons (toward the corners) when looking through the table looked like crushed ice and was really busy. Shortly after seeing this, we pulled this diamond from further consideration b/c we did not want to be thinking of this when looking at the other two. We examined it under normal office lighting, outside lighting, direct spotlighting. It was hard to get past this "busy-ness" we were seeing. You can see it in the idealscope on the inside corners of the table and also in the Aset. We spent about 15 minutes on this diamond and then moved on to the other two. Martin confirmed what we were seeing and agreed with our decision to remove it from consideration.
Since we had seen the Jared diamond before, we began with the Infinity diamond. I was really excited to see a 2 chevron cut, because I have never seen this arrangement of the pavilion. What can I say? When I first saw the diamond, it blew my mind how crystal clear and clean it looked. Let me define my terms of clean for you. Clean being like I can see every virtual facet interaction without the clutter of the crushed ice look. This is what really pulled me in. At this size stone, the virtual facets looked the size of that of a round. It had big bold flashes of fire, which were very strong and powerful and it had very fast scintillation in direct spot light (northern sun viewing). The exceptionally fine symmetry is immediately apparent when looking at this diamond. It is funny how Paul mentioned viewing the H&A for symmetry, because I checked all the diamonds with this tool and have to say that Paul''s was superior to the Whiteflash and Jared (WF). The H&A pattern looks like a flower. Kassia was aw struck and blown away by how beautiful this diamond was. I knew it right away when she saw that this was the ONE. She did not come right out and say this, but I knew. When tilting this diamond, it performs just as good as it does face up. The interaction of the combination of 40.8 pav angle and 34 degree for the crown angle reminds me of the angles of a round diamond. This combination at every angle is perfect. Kassia was also worried about the size of the table, our last diamond was 70%, but she was taken back as the small table (59.3%) just blended in with the diamond in a face up presentation, which is awesome. The contrast of this diamond is remarkable, I viewed it under a tree in direct sunlight and was just amazed about how dispersive the diamond is. Martin has seen a couple of Paul''s diamonds before because he works in the same building as Bill (Icemine) who is a great guy and seller of Infinity diamonds. Martin agreed in all aspects of what we saw in this diamond and agreed it was truly an superior performer and beautiful diamond. "The top I have seen in princess diamonds". He kept it over the weekend for us and said "the diamond just keeps on looking better the more time I spend with it." It is always good to hear this because sometimes you find something wrong with an item the longer you have it. Regarding the polish lines and why it received a 2 marking on the AGS document --- He sided with AGS on this matter and said that the marks were external. He got a couple of pictures where you can see the surface interruption of the mark. But he said this is nothing to worry about because it took him a 40x lens to even see them. He mentioned it appeared that the price was taken into consideration for the grading of AGS2 for the polish lines and deserved the AGS-0 for performance. He recommended this diamond for us 150%, but we already knew this. I knew I was looking at an amazing diamond when I first saw it.
The Jared (WF) diamond was quite impressive itself, it looked a little bigger because it was 7.24x7.14 as compared to ours (7.09x7.08 I think?). The size difference was not apparent when the two were separate let alone when in a setting. This diamond was an H and the color was more apparent when placed next to the Infinity diamond face down and from the side. Face up, there was some color but its an H. Martin said it was on the lower side of an H, but he really liked the way the Infinity diamond carried the G color. He confirmed the color with grading stones. The Jared diamond had that busy effect I see in three chevron diamonds. It had the smaller flashes of color under spot light. The contrast was excellent and the symmetry was excellent also. However, this stone did not have the immediate clear and clean look to it, like the Infinity diamond.
So, we made up our minds that the Infinity diamond was the ONE and Martin performed his "techy" stuff on it. He tested for strain, which there was none, then showed us the minute polish lines under 40x magnification which even then were tough to see. The chamfered corners looked great and it had a nice girdle.
We shortly left and said that we would be in touch with him, and we would contact Gary (http://www.diamondexpert.com/) and set up payment. I have communicated with Gary in the past regarding some pictures of Paul''s diamonds and he has always been very open on sharing pictures. He shot about 20 pictures of the diamond and aset pictures. While he was visiting AGS, he took another ASET with their viewer cause his looked a little washed out. It was very helpful. It makes the consumer feel good when the seller is willing to bend over backwards when any questions are brought up. Gary is a winning seller.
What else. I liked the Visagem services that Paul is using. It is better now that the Gemadvisor, H&A and ASET picture up. These are the best things for visualization and showing light performance. These need to be up for the consumer because it shows how exceptional Infinity diamonds are. The more information the consumer has the more confidence he/she can put into the diamond they choose. I always loved how Good Old Gold does everything they do on their website because it shows the consumer that they have nothing to hide and are confident in their product.
We had the diamond set by Quest Jewelers. They are local custom designer shop that specializes in settings. We replicated the setting of our last diamond, which was a solitaire cathedral setting. Simply gorgeous! It really sets off the stone and showcases it. However, it took Quest three adjustments to the setting to get the perfect ring we were after. Quest is a great company but they could improve their communication with the customer (this was the source of our problems with getting the setting to be perfect).
All in all we are extremely happy with our purchase and hope that this diamond will be worn in good health for many years to come!!! If there are any questions or comments, please feel free to ask or comment. Thank you to Pricescope for providing such an open forum where consumers can come to receive and offer honest advice in a positive and pleasurable manner.
congrats to you and kudos to paul!!!!
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