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Why doesn't anyone talk about table size on princess?

A

augenbraunj

Rough_Rock
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
18
I am shopping for a diamond for my girlfriend, and we have decided on a princess cut of about 1.5 carat.

At the B&M's we really like the stones that are the premium cut quality (everyone seems to have their own name for their version of a princess ideal cut, I guess since GIA doesn't recognize a princess ideal) . We definitely want the fire, sparkle, brilliance, whatever of an extremely well cut stone.

From reading these forums and wikis, I've learned that there are multiple proportions for princess that have the same "ideal" light characteristics.

Given that, we're now thinking about the buying parameters as Let's find the smallest carat (and therefore cheapest) "ideal" cut princess with 6.3 x 6.3 table VS2 G, no fluor.

1. Is this right? No one seems to be talking or thinking this way
2. Is the premium cut from all of the online vendors equivalent? For some reason I trust BN signature ideal to be beautiful, but I'm not as sure of other vendors' "excellent" cuts
3. Some vendors are definitely lower priced than others. b2cjewels seems to have consistently lower prices, and BN seems to be consistently higher. JA and WF seem to be in the middle. How can I tell that B2C or whoever is OK?

And I guess I'll devolve into asking about particular diamonds. For example, this one is a couple thousand less than others we've looked at, and all of the grades look like they meet what we want. Is this a good diamond with "ideal" sparkle and fire?
http://www.b2cjewels.com/dd-3329706-1.56-carat-Princess-diamond-G-color-VS2-Clarity.aspx?sku=3329706&utm_source=pricescope.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pricescope.com

Thanks for your patience with this newbie!

- Joe
 
I've never heard of anyone shopping by table size but have heard of shopping to make sure the diamond meets a certain minimum face up (LxW) size. You are certainly limiting your self incredibly if you aim for a certain table size. Shop for the best cut within your colour and clarity and the rest should fall into place (the table will usually be smaller on well cut diamonds).

Not all excellent cuts from vendors are evaluated the same way. Some only need to meet a certain depth & table criteria while some have far more stringent requirements. Pricing will vary due to this too. JA and WF cost more than B2C and BN due to tests that they are willing to do (ASET) in order to prove that the diamonds are indeed very well cut. WF's diamonds are all in-house (for their select and ACAs), JA has many in-house but not all, I don't know about BN and B2C pulls their diamonds from some inventory that isn't in-house to them. This has an effect on pricing as well as their funds are tied up with keeping an item in stock versus liquid cashflow.

When buying fancies, it is very important to be able to at least see an actual picture of the stone. The Princess you linked to is only a sample picture and tells me nothing. The 80% table doesn't not inspire promise though. From there, if the pattern and clarity checks out fine, the next step is to request an ASET for light performance verification (if well cut or a dud).
 
From what I understand, that table is huge! I'd stick with JA, WF or GOG even BG.

I'd check on this one:
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/10111/

This one's gorgeous:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1519155.asp

might want to look into this one:

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-2847481.htm

There are other threads on princess cuts that people that have more knowledge about princess cuts talk about table percentages etc. might want to look that up too.
 
Those diamonds seem good and are well-priced, thank you for finding them. Unfortunately my girlfriend is very focused on a stone that is very square. I don't think even a .25 mm difference in squareness would be visible, but she has been focused on diamonds that are within about .03 mm of square.

The only reason I think square might be important is for light performance. Is it?

- Joe
 
Perfect squareness has very little bearing on light performance of the diamond.
 
Then you'll want to stick with stones that are a 1.0 ratio. 1.1 or more means they will be more rectangular. the GOG and JA diamonds are both 1.0 ratios. And I agree with Chrono, it's not going to matter if you stick with a more square stone. With all shapes, CUT is what's going to determine that sparkle factor.
 
Chrono, I think by table size he does just mean the face-up measurements and for some reason is using the wrong term.
 
.03 mm tolerance is OCD when we are talking about 6.3 mm length

Anything less than 1.02 ratio should be fine.
 
distracts|1356105868|3337335 said:
Chrono, I think by table size he does just mean the face-up measurements and for some reason is using the wrong term.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm sorry I guess I was confused about what table size means and was using the wrong term. I do mean face-up measurements.
 
Short answer - a well cut diamond will give you a good (correct and expected) face up size. Focus on cut and everything else will fall into place. Firstly, you must see an actual picture of the diamond, not a sample picture. Next step is to get an ASET for light performance. Depth and table size will tell you very little.
 
Stay with a ratio of 1.02 or less. I am not OCD about perfect squares but even these look a bit off to me.
 
Gorgeous! Can't get much better than that.
 
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