"A diamond is forever." How surprised was I when my platinum diamond ring was caught in the door handle and scratched badly. Luckily it was insured. I took the ring to my jeweler, Kelly Jensen, who owns Plateau Jewelers. He gave me such a simple, yet impressive lesson about diamonds, that I asked him to write this article for you, my readers. You can check his website www.plateaujewelers.com

If you've been shopping for diamonds, you've probably heard something of the 4 C's (carat, clarity, color, cut). Depending on who you've consulted, the explanation of these terms may sound a bit complicated. But I'm here to make it perfectly simple:

The most important of the 4 C's is cut. I say that because cut is the "C" responsible for beauty. The better the cut, the more beautiful the diamond. Believe it or not, the other "C's" don't have anything to do with beauty. Let me explain.

Let's start with Carat. Carat is a weight and not a size. In other words, not all 1 ct. diamonds are the same size. Some are too deep and some are too shallow, neither of which is desirable. A diamond that is too deep or too shallow will be less brilliant and therefore less beautiful. It also will look smaller than it should. The size of the diamond doesn't have anything to do with how beautiful the diamond is. I'm not saying, however, that size isn't important.

Clarity is a measure of how visible birthmarks are under a microscope. What this means is that clarity has everything to do with rarity (a flawless diamond is more rare than one with flaws) and nothing to do with beauty. For those of you who know clarity grades, a diamond that is SI-2 will be just as beautiful as a flawless diamond if all of the other "C's" are comparable. Now, there is one exception to this rule. Diamonds with imperfect clarity grades have birthmarks visible without magnification.

Color is based on the amount of yellow or brown visible in a diamond. I think that yellow diamonds can be beautiful if the diamonds are cut well. For those of you not very fond of those colors, stick to the higher color grades (D color through H). For those of you looking for the exotic, look into fancy color diamonds like pink (think J Lo), or blue (think Hope Diamond).

Finally, let's talk about Cut. As I said earlier, cut is the "C" responsible for beauty. The more precisely a diamond is cut, the more beautiful it will be and the larger it will appear. In the case of round diamonds, there is a standard for what is considered precise. Fancy shaped diamonds (anything other than round) don't have a standard yet, although the American Gem Society is trying to establish one.

The standard for rounds is over 80 years old and until recently was rarely followed. An American company from Boston changed that. Hearts On Fire was the first and only company to cut every diamond to the established standard. Visit their website at www.heartsonfire.com.

I can go into a lot more detail about cut. Suffice it to say that cut is what makes a diamond beautiful, and the better the cut the more beautiful the diamond.  

See the detailed pictures about the fire of a diamond on
www.plateaujewelers.com or visit our store for a demonstration  of the "C's."