14 replies to this topic

[Jayz]

Hi all,
I'm in the market for a diamond and have come accross the 'ice' brand of diamonds - [url="http://www.diamondexchange.com.au/index.htm"][url]http://www.diamondexchange.com.au/index.htm[/url][/url] and was wondering if anybody has any experience with this brand of diamonds. The problem i'm having is that i do not have a chance to view the diamonds before purchase.
Another question i have is with regards to the hearts and arrows cut? Does anybody know what it is?

[Princess Tess]

Here's what Google says about "hearts and arrows" :

[url="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-46,GGLD:en&oi=defmore&q=define:Hearts+and+Arrows"][url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls...arts+and+Arrows[/url][/url]

Princess Tess

[jan]

Are you in Austrailia? If not, I would recommend dealing with a company in the United States that will give you a return period . A hearts and arrows diamond is a stone that is lined up in symmetry to view 8 hearts when the stone is upside down under a special viewing device and 8 arrows when viewed right side up. It's a cute feature, however it doesn't guarantee light performance in the diamond. I've seen some stones with great hearts and arrows images that are not as bright as some stones that don't have any hearts and arrows. Also once the stone is mounted, you would never see the hearts again and probably wouldn't be looking at the arrows either unless under the special hearts and arrows viewer. There is one brand that guarantees light performance as well as hearts and arrows. You can read about it here:
http://www.isee2.com/


Also you can put in your zip code and see the dealer closest to you. These you can view in person *before* you purchase or put any money up front.

Here is a picture of the hearts and arrows images on a stone under a hearts and arrows scope.

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[jan]

Here is the hearts side of the stone under the hearts and arrows scope.

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[Jayz]

Thanks Princess Tess and ian for your input... I am from Australia. Any idea on th "Ice" brand?

[jan]

Hi Jay,
It says on the site that you can view them in person in Melbourne Austrailia, however it doesn't give a whole lot of information about the individual stones. Feel free to browse our site. You can view the lab report, sarin analysis and light performance on each stone if you click on our links next to the diamonds. That way you can see how each stone varies.

[jan]

Also viewing the stones in the .80-.90 ct. range they all see to be 62% depth and over which is slightly deep. They don't seem to show the actual lab report so you can view where the inclusions are etc and there is no pictures of the hearts and arrows or light performance. Not very much to go on..... not all ideal cut diamonds perform the same. This leads me to believe that the stones are not in stock but just a virtual listing of stones.

[Jayz]

Hi Jan,
I live in Perth, which is on the other end of the Australian Continent so no viewing for me I'm quite surprised that ideal cut diamonds perform differently. I was under the impression that all ideal cut diamonds would perform similarly. I'm looking for a 0.60 - 0.65 carat ideal cut stone (not really sure if i want Hearts and Arrows). What sorts of proportions should i look out for?

[Princess Tess]

Jan:

Nice H&A pictures!

Princess Tess

[jan]

I wish it were that easy to tell you a couple of numbers and have them all perform the same, however we have to actually look at each individual diamond. I've had some with great numbers that were not that bright and others with numbers that were not that great look very bright. Unfortunately there is no easy answer. There are many ways to cut a beautiful diamond. Most recently we had a supplier send us a stone, that would have graded out as an AGS 10 cut grade based on the crown and this stone was very bright and all of our evaluation tools also agreed. Check out the picture of that one.

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[jan]

Also here is a picture of that stone next to an ideal hearts and arrows diamond. The AGS 10 is on the right and AGS 0 is on the left.

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[jan]

Check out the different symmetry pattern as well. You can see how difficult it can be.

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[jan]

Still had hearts though.

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[Jayz]

Thanks you for your input Jan. You have been very helpful. I suppose the bottom line would be it's always better to look at the diamond before buying it. A bit difficult for me as i'm buying on-line. I narrowed it down to 2 sites now and will definately be buying form the site that provides a 30 day $ back guarantee.

Cheers,
Jayz

[jan]

Yes and look for one that gives you more information on the stone, light performance, pictures of the actual diamond. An upgrade policy in the future might be good too.