The idealscope and the Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool (ASET) viewer are the two most important tools that you need in order to assess light performance. This tutorial is designed to help you understand what these tools are used for, how to use them properly, and how to interpret their results. It's important that you understand that the handheld versions of the idealscope … [Read more...]
Light Performance Part 1: Light Return, Idealscope, and ASET
Light performance refers to how a diamond handles light. Light shone onto a diamond is either returned to the observer or it is 'leaked' away by escaping out the bottom of the diamond. It's important to buy a diamond with excellent light return so let me explain what causes light leakage. Light Return Let's follow a ray of light (in blue) it enters a diamond with ideal … [Read more...]
Hearts and Arrows
Hearts and arrows (H&A) refer to the 8 arrows that can be seen from the top and the 8 hearts that can be seen from the bottom of a well-cut round brilliant diamond. But while many people will have heard of hearts and arrows before, most people probably don't know what to look for in a good hearts and arrows diamond. In fact, there's no official industry standard for hearts … [Read more...]
Blue Nile Review 2013
Blue Nile is a Seattle based publicly traded company. They are the largest and most reputable online diamond retailer. In an industry where trust is of utmost importance, buying from Blue Nile can provide you with some invaluable peace of mind. It's difficult to understate how important it is to know that you will get what you pay for when buying a diamond online. With Blue … [Read more...]
How to Pick a Round Diamond
Have you ever tried to search for a diamond using only the basic 4Cs? Well then you'll know that what you end up with is a long list of diamonds that all look very similar at first. It can quickly get confusing not to mention that it's very time consuming to go through every available diamond trying to find one that is perfect. In this tutorial I am going to show you how to … [Read more...]