4Cs of Lab-Grown Diamonds: The Cut

In a world charmed by the sparkle and allure of diamonds, it’s easy to become lost in the glamour of carat size or the purity of colour. These characteristics often capture the first glance and hold the admiration of many. Yet there’s one aspect that eclipses all others, one element that truly dictates the symphony of light within the heart of a diamond— and that is the diamond's cut.

More than just a technical attribute, the cut of the diamond is what helps take the stone from its raw state to the iconic gem that we know and love.
 
Just like their mined counterparts though, the importance of cut also applies to lab diamonds.
 
Being virtually identical in chemical composition to natural diamonds, the beauty of a lab-grown diamond also depends on having a cut that maximises its light reflection attributes.
 
In this article, we’ll go over what exactly a diamond’s cut is, why it’s important, and how it’s graded.

The Maestro Of Light: Understanding Diamond Cut

Crafted by human hands, the lab-grown diamonds adorning jewellery are the results of a marriage between technology and artistry.
 
These diamonds begin as carefully controlled products of advanced scientific processes, mirroring the natural formation of diamonds. Transforming a lab-grown diamond from its initial state though, into the stunning gems we see requires both skill and expertise.

Just like with their mined counterparts, lab-grown diamonds require the skill and expertise of a diamond cutter - or diamantaire - to cut the angles and proportions of the stone to achieve an optimal structure and design.

The goal of the cutter?

To take the diamond from its rough form, and cut and shape it in a way so that its light reflective properties are optimized - achieving a maximum level of brilliance, scintillation and fire.

1. Brilliance refers to the total light reflected from a diamond.

2. Fire describes the dispersion of light into the colours of the spectrum.

3.Scintillation is the sparkle a diamond produces when moved.

Fig 1. Excellent cut diamonds have proportions that are optimized for maximum brilliance, fire, and scintillation. 

Although they are chemically identical to natural diamonds, with lab-grown diamonds, the raw state of them are more uniform and contain less physical imperfections. This means that it’s typically easier for a diamond cutter to achieve an optical cut with a mined stone and its imperfections. This aspect is one of the reasons why at similar price points, one can get a higher quality lab diamond than a mined one.

How is the cut of a diamond graded?

The Gemological Institute of America uses the following scale to grade the cuts of both lab-grown diamond and natural diamonds: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor.

This scale evaluates a given diamond based upon:

1. How the diamond appears when viewed face-up based on the attributes of brightness, fire and scintillation

2. The effectiveness of the diamond's design in promoting durability and an optimal weight

3. The degree of craftsmanship with regards to the alignment and polishing of the facets of the diamond.

The GIA uses seven factors to evaluate these three criteria. The first three factors deal with the diamond’s light reflection qualities - brilliance, fire, and scintillation. The remaining four deal with the diamond’s cut and physical properties - weight ratio, durability, polish, and symmetry.

Altogether, these factors come together to grade the diamond accordingly:

Excellent: The diamond has a high degree of brilliance, scintillation and fire, and exhibits a balanced pattern of light and dark areas.

Very good: The diamond still has a high degree of brilliance, scintillation and fire, but the balance of light and dark areas are skewed, with dark areas showcasing in more places than in excellent cuts.

Good: The diamond will be darker and may lack scintillation, it will still exhibit an acceptable degree of brilliance and fire.

Fair: A fair cut diamond will have a very low level of brilliance or scintillation

Poor: A poor cut diamond will exhibit little to no brilliance, fire or scintillation. It would appear dull and lacklustre.

Because of the role that a diamond’s cut plays in maximising light reflection, it’s widely considered the most important C - out of clarity, colour and even carat.

Fig 2. This illustration demonstrates how different diamond cuts affect light reflection. Excellent cut diamonds are designed to optimize brilliance, fire, and scintillation, reflecting most light back to the eye. Shallow cut diamonds, being too shallow, allow light to escape through the bottom, and deep cut diamonds, being too deep, lose light out the sides. As a result, both shallow and deep cuts fail to exhibit the full light play that diamonds are traditionally known for.

This is because a diamond with a lower clarity and colour can still be visually breathtaking given that it is cut exceptionally well. Whereas, a diamond with a great clarity and colour might appear dull if the cut isn’t up to the mark

In Pursuit of Perfection: The Final Polish on a Diamond’s Journey

In conclusion, the transformation of a diamond from its raw form into an object of elegance is significantly influenced by the quality of its cut. This applies equally to both lab-grown and natural diamonds.

When selecting a diamond, it is important to focus not only on its size or clarity but also on its cut and light reflecting properties. Diamonds with lower clarity can still be exceptionally stunning if well-cut, whereas diamonds with high clarity may not appear as impressive if the cut is subpar.

At Vena Nova, our team is here to help you navigate the world of lab diamonds so that you can choose the perfect stone for your next piece.

We warmly invite you to our showroom in Tampa where you can explore one of the largest selections of lab-grown diamond jewellery in all of America.