Portree said:Hi, Andlain -- I'll be interested to hear your impressions of that I1. Wink's video will help. He's got a critical eye, so he'll be straight with you. My guess is the inclusion is in the middle will blend in with the sparkle and contrast in the center of the stone. Depending on your eyesight, you *may* be able to pick it out with your eyes once you orient the stone with the clarity plot and know where to look. I think the fact that the stone is under a carat helps, too. A larger carat weight, like the 1.28 I1 I was considering (see post above) is trickier.
I, too, am starting to like higher color in diamonds! I love the whitening effect that SB fluoro gives to a stone! I'm keeping my eyes open for a @ 1 carat G or higher stone with Medium or SB fluro for a future upgrade (don't want to change my setting).
Good luck!!!
If you end up with the CBI, you'll of course be expected to do the brand comparison LALove is asking about in the post above mine!!
Andelain said:Portree said:Hi, Andlain -- I'll be interested to hear your impressions of that I1. Wink's video will help. He's got a critical eye, so he'll be straight with you. My guess is the inclusion is in the middle will blend in with the sparkle and contrast in the center of the stone. Depending on your eyesight, you *may* be able to pick it out with your eyes once you orient the stone with the clarity plot and know where to look. I think the fact that the stone is under a carat helps, too. A larger carat weight, like the 1.28 I1 I was considering (see post above) is trickier.
I, too, am starting to like higher color in diamonds! I love the whitening effect that SB fluoro gives to a stone! I'm keeping my eyes open for a @ 1 carat G or higher stone with Medium or SB fluro for a future upgrade (don't want to change my setting).
Good luck!!!
If you end up with the CBI, you'll of course be expected to do the brand comparison LALove is asking about in the post above mine!!
Hi Portree! I hope you're right about the big center inclusion blending in with the sparkle. It's so big that I'm kind of concerned that it won't. If the stone wasn't an 'F' or higher and EXACTLY the size I want for a future project I wouldn't even consider it. You're right about the larger sizes making it harder to be eye-clean. Once again I wouldn't even consider it over about 1.0-1.1 carat.
I'm real bad about color, and made myself even worse by putting a 'D' in the ring I wear every day. Now even 'F's" are borderline to me. Would you believe I bought a pair of BGD studs that are .34 ct each 'G's' and I hardly wear then becase they're too tinted?
Geez! I think I need to put my ring up for a while and wear my 2 ct 'J' for a while. If you get a stone with floro it would be stunning with those purple sapph's.
I already owe Dreamer and a few others an Eightstar/WF ACA/BGD/JA Truehearts comparison, might as well add a CBI to the mix.
Portree said:LALove said:Portree said:rubyprincess, I'm not sure if you've made your decision yet, but I did find the link to my I color, I1 clarity Infinity that I said I'd post for you, so you could see its inclusion plot:
http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=view-id-diamond-infinity&id=401
Portree your diamond and setting are spectacular!! I really can't believe it's an I1! I'd have NO problem rocking that ring no matter what the paper said! Crafted by Infinity diamonds look really gorgeous but what's the difference between those stones and BGD signature and ACAs?
Thank you, LALove! I haven't seen a BGD or ACA diamond next to a Crafted by Infinity diamond, so I can't say for sure what the differences in appearances are. They are all top-of-the-line cuts, though, and they are all what I call "broad-spectrum performers" cut to look great in all lighting conditions, so my guess is there are more similarities between them than differences in the way they look.
I have, however, owned three CBI stones, and last year when I was at Dimend Sccasi in Chicago, I saw a large number of CBI stones in varying sizes, and I can say that CBI stones have a remarkably consistent "look" to them. I don't have the technical terms for it, but to my eye, the nature of the sparkle is very crisp, a sharp on/off effect (contrast?) that is very noticeable in flat lighting, like an office. This makes them look very 3-dimensional. Other diamonds look flat by comparison.
The major difference between CBI and other top-of-the-line brands, and the reason I chose to purchase my diamond from CBI, is that CBI is a small, boutique cutting house, rather than a mass production house. This means Paul Slegers, the owner, and his business partner, Lieve Peters, have much more control over the cutting of each CBI diamond -- from selection of the rough to finished cut diamond -- than do the other brands, whose stones are cut by larger factories. I believe the control CBI has over their diamond cutting process allows them to take more "risks" with color and clarity and fluorescence than other brands. Most brands* "screen out" stones with flouro, lower clarity stones, and lower color stones because they are not cutting their own stones; they are selecting their stones from mass production cutting houses, and they need to make "safe" choices.
In contrast, Paul and Lieve are literally on site as each CBI stone is cut, and are able to assess the visual performance of each stone as it is cut -- again, more control along each step of the diamond cutting and polishing process. So they know each stone very, very well before it ever hits the market. Again, this is what swayed me toward CBI when I was looking for a diamond 18 months ago (I considered WF and GOG and JA -- I don't believe BGD was in business at that time).
A super-ideal, I color, I1 clarity (eye clean to me), 1 carat diamond with strong blue fluorescence is a very rare thing! CBI offers more choice and a wider range of color-clarity-price combinations in a super ideal cut.
To me, the I1 grade is really just the AGS paper grade and has nothing to do with how the stone performs in real life. I know this because I know that Paul and Lieve have shepherded my 1I through a multi-step process, and viewed it from all angles with a critical eye, so if it passes their standards, that's good enough for me! But if I was buying a super-ideal cut, 1I clarity stone, sight unseen, from another cutting house, I would not be as confident that I would like what I see! Quality control is everything.
*GOG is the only other vendor I can think of that offers lower color, lower clarity stones, and stones with fluoro. And I'd trust Jonathan's opinions of stones in his inventory (the ones with the GOG lifetime guarantee).
egemnoel|1428793603|3860576 said:
Very kind of you to say so!cflutist|1429137917|3862530 said:OoohShiny and egemnoel:
You two don't mess around, do you.
The best of the best: High color and clarity, and of course the precision cutting of a CBI diamond.
Outstanding choices for both of you.
Congrats
OoohShiny|1429718025|3865876 said:Very kind of you to say so!cflutist|1429137917|3862530 said:OoohShiny and egemnoel:
You two don't mess around, do you.
The best of the best: High color and clarity, and of course the precision cutting of a CBI diamond.
Outstanding choices for both of you.
Congrats
I was very fortunate in that budget, CBI stone availability and my lady's size expectations coincided to let me get the perfect ring for her!
I would definitely recommend CBI stones (and Wink's services!) if you are considering them, I can lose hours just staring at the rainbow of colours
Awesome!I guess I missed this while I was on a cruise. Just noticed it today.
https://www.pricescope.com/blog/cflutist-custom-hpd-cbi-diamond-ring-jotw
@cflutist I am not seeing your gorgeous new addition on this thread! You must add pictures and a link to your thread!