You wanted to pick out a ring. I wanted to be helpful, so I told you about the 4Cs: carat, color, clarity, cut. I tried to make my explanations simple. Carat is the weight of the diamond. Color is self-explanatory. Clarity is a little more nuanced but not much — a measure of purity and thus rarity, grading the visibility of internal flaws and external blemishes.

When it came to cut we got stuck on it for a while. Cut is, you know, literally how the diamond is cut, how its facets interact with light. It is also the most important part, as far as sparkle goes. Even if the diamond has a high clarity and color grade, if it’s cut poorly, it’s going to sparkle less than a well cut but more imperfect diamond. A good cut is precise in its sizes and angles, symmetrical in its alignments and intersections, and polished for detailed facet placement. It’s also the only part of the 4C that is created by human hands.

I told you that brilliant cut is the cut people most think of when they think of a diamond. It has 58 facets, the most of any cut. But with that it also destroys more of the rough diamond than any other shape, usually ending up with about 40% of the original carat. The more of the stone is sheared off the more it sparkles, and the more people value it, are enchanted by it. In order for a diamond to be dazzling, most of it needs to be destroyed.


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