30 Jan CARAT
If you’ve looked into diamond in any way you’ve most likely heard about the four C’s, probably repeatedly , possibley Ad Nauseum to be fair. And everyone has a different opinion on what the most important one is so I thought id take a few minutes to scribble own my thought on the subject, possibly to add to your confusion, but hopefully to clear things up Well start with CARAT
What is carat weight?
It is a measurment of weights used for diamonds and other precious stones
the name is a legacy of when carob seeds where used as a measurement of weight
the measurement was metricised in 1907 with 1 carat equal to 0.2gm
1carat is broken into 100points so a 25 pointer diamond is equal to 0.25ct
Bigger carat does not mean bigger diamond?!
Carat weight is only a measure of mass
It will not determine the visible size of your diamond as you will only see the upper face
in a badly cut diamond a lot of the weight can be lost in the bottom(pavillion) of the stone
1ct Diamond Comparison
This is also apparent in vintage or antique jewellery where cuts such as the old european cut where used.
Brilliant cut vs. Old European
What are Magic Numbers?
Certain threshold weights such as 0.50ct, 1.00ct, 1.50ct, 2.00ct, etc are sometimes call magic numbers
these conincide with a large increase in price
for example there is a much larger difference in price between 0.99ct and 1.00ct than there is between 1.00ct and 1.01ct
only magic in the respect of money disappearing from your bank account.
People will often sacrifice quality of diamond to reach these threshold numbers
Total weight and solitaire weight
Sometimes the carat weight given on diamond jewellery is the total weight
e.g a 1.25ct diamond ring might only be a 0.95ct centre stone with 0.30ct worth of small diamonds in the halo or in the band
10 diamonds totaling 1.00ct are a fraction of the cost of one 1.00ct diamond
Thats my tuppence worth on Carat weight. I’ll talk about Clarity next week
See more at