Judging custom wedding rings is to a large degree, admittedly, a subjective affair. You either like the look or you don’t.
But when adding in factors of cost, durability and the like, it’s helpful to be aware of some objective criteria used by the pros. You’ll want your personalized ring choice to be a good one. Fine personalized jewelry is not something you want to buy uninformed whether it is a ladies diamond ring or men’s crystal jewellery
WEIGHT
It is often misunderstood that, while diamonds are measured in carats, gold is measured in karats. It’s a measure not of size or weight, but of purity. A 14kt gold ring contains 14/24 pure gold, or about 58%. The purity of platinum (denoted Plat or Pt) is measured on a scale from roughly 900-950 out of 1,000. This translates to a 950PT wedding ring being 95% pure platinum.
Note that the remainder is often comprised of chemically similar though equally valuable metals. While lower numbers can be found, they won’t be found in fine jewelry wedding rings.
A diamond, by contrast, is measured in carats (ct), ranging from near zero and up. 1 carat = 200 mg, a measure of mass. Anything less than about 1/8th of a carat (sometimes 1/4 ct, by some experts) is considered a ‘chip’. Partly, the reason is the difficulty of faceting and polishing such a small stone in order to bring out a diamond’s effects.
Note that technically, a ‘chip’ is any diamond which isn’t fully faceted or properly shaped. They can result from accidents or the crystal structure that makes cutting and polishing nearly impossible. But the smaller the stone, the more difficult this becomes. So, most chips are in the range stated.
The Cullnan diamond, weighing in at about 3106 carats, is the biggest individual gem-quality diamond ever discovered. It was cut down into the egg-shaped stone that sits in the scepter of England, itself about 525 carats.
But there are many other factors that influence the cost and look of a fine diamond intended to sit in an engagement ring or wedding band. CLARITY
A diamond is judged by professionals on how ‘clear’ it is, and the stone is then placed into a category.
FL, IF Flawless, or Internally Flawless represents the highest grade in this area. Such stones are extremely rare and hence invariably very expensive.
VVS1, VVS2 These ratings represent a diamond which is only ‘very very slightly included’. ‘Included’ means, essentially, occluded or cloudy. Inclusions of non-diamond material or structure are responsible for lack of perfect clarity. These stones are acutally of very high quality despite this rather foreboding word. The flaws can only barely be seen under 10x magnification.
VS1, VS2 Very Slightly Included ratings represent high quality stones. No flaw is visible to the naked eye.
SI1, SI2 Slightly Included gems contains flaws that are visible under 10x magnification and may just barely be seen by those with very sharp eyes. Beyond having good eyesight, though, one needs to know what to look for. Generally, non-experts won’t notice much of anything.
I1, I2, I3 These are mediocre quality stones that may still look very nice. But they have visible flaws when one looks closely that will reduce the brilliance of the stone’s appearance. COLOR
Beyond the degree of clarity, diamonds – though usually thought of as clear or ‘white’ – can come in any of hundreds of colors. Fashions change and in one era what might be considered a flaw will be highly valued by the next generation. The color is produced by small ‘impurities’ mixed into the carbon structure that makes up diamond.
A 200-carat blue diamond in the Smithsonian (the Hope Diamond), for example, is valued not only for its unusually large size. Its rare and pure color is also a significant factor.
Blue, pink and yellow are among the most common colors found in ring stones.
D stones are completely colorless and correspondingly rare.
E diamonds are also considered colorless. Any impurities are in trace amounts detectable only by experts with special tools. Still very rare.
F are also graded colorless, but a slight color may be seen by an expert.
G-H are near colorless. Non-experts can detect some shading if they look closely, but these can still be high quality diamonds.
I-J Near colorless diamonds in which the color is slightly detectable. Still a very good value.
K-M are stones in which the color is highly noticeable. Observe, though, that these ratings are for diamonds that are ranked according to how little color they have. Hence, a pure yellow diamond may still be thought of as very attractive.
What’s important is to have the color be uniform. Most people still consider even a small spot of color to be a flaw. Of course, that too is simply a matter of taste and some future trendsetter may decide such diamonds are worth even more.
CUT
One factor that is difficult to rank in terms of price or quality is how the stone is cut. This is due to the fact that detemining the "best" cut is really a matter of personal preference. The different cuts – round, oval, square, princess – are all equally beautiful and choice simply depends on personal preference. Other common shapes are the Marquise (a type of elongated stone), the Pear, Emerald cut, Trilliant (a wedge shape), Radiant, Cushion and Heart shaped.
Diamond experts have much more specific criteria and will evaluate the different angles and the facet numbers. The Radiant, for example, has 70 facets while the Trilliant has 25 on the crown and 19 on the pavilion. But these details need not concern wedding ring buyers.
There are almost as many different styles and types of engagement rings as there are couples planning to get married.
Finding the right types of rings for your engagement is an important step along the path to marriage.
Looking beyond the common, traditional types of diamond engagement rings may be just the opportunity you have been searching for to find a really unique style.
A popular twist on the traditional engagement rings and wedding band sets is to use unique types of metals and gems. Engagement rings can now be made of the standard gold and silver, but platinum, titanium and palladium are also becoming more popular. There is also the option to use pink gold or combine different colors of gold and silver or other types of metals . Shapes of the band can also make a ring look very unique. Traditional flatter or rounded narrow bands can be replaced with curving or interlocking bands that draw the eye and add to the overall visual effect of engagement rings.
The type of cut of the stone, usually a diamond, in the engagement ring can also add to the originality of the ring designs. Many engagement rings feature the more traditional round, heart or oval shapes of diamonds, but just a small change on the shape of the diamond can give a completely new look to a traditional band and ring .
Princess cut engagement rings have always been popular but continue to seen as a great option for any style of ring. The princess cut diamond is square in shape rather than round, but they are also tapered to a point on the underside. The cut increases the amount of light reflected through the ring. This gives a lot of fire and sparkle to a diamond, adding to the overall appearance of the ring .
Marquise cut diamonds are not new but are rapidly overtaking some of the more traditional cuts in solitaire styles. The longer, oval shape ending in tapered points can make a smaller diamond look much longer. It is a perfect shape for those with longer, delicate fingers since it conforms to the shape of the hand .
Ascher, princess cut diamonds and Marquise cut diamonds can be stand-alone stones in solitaire engagement rings but they can also be used in three stone engagement rings. The natural shape of both these cuts lends to being bordered on either side with smaller baguette style gems or diamonds. Other shapes that do well in three stone bands and rings include round cut, oval and princess cut diamonds.
Making the choice of between traditional and more unique styles of engagement rings is really a personal preference. Since this is such an important decision looking at a variety of engagement rings before deciding is important now as well as in the future.
The name Asscher has been attached to many of the diamond industry’s major moments. It’s a name associated with some of the largest diamonds in the world, a name that’s seen it’s share of dark times, and one responsible for a diamond cut that came to symbolize an era. It’s a name with more than one story to tell.
Like all such tales, the origins of the House of Asscher fall onto the shoulders of just one man, master cutter Joseph Isaac Asscher. In 1854 Asscher, already a known entity in the relatively small diamond industry, decided to start the I.J. Asscher Diamond company. That company bore the name of Asscher’s son, Isaac Joseph, and foreshadowed the close ties that the Asscher family would have with the diamond industry.
The founding of I.J. Asscher happened at less than fortuitous time. In the company’s first few years of operation, diamond mines around the world started to go dry. The decreasing number of active diamond mines pushed the diamond industry into a recession the likes of which it had never seen before. The Amsterdam diamond industry was largely decimated, and the Asscher’s watched as other cutting, cleaving, and polishing houses closed up shop. By 1870, a mere sixteen years after the founding of I.J. Asscher, the flow of uncut diamonds had shrunk to a mere 5000 carats for the year. At that rate, the Asscher’s were holding out for a miracle as much as they were holding onto their business.
Holding out proved to be a wise decision. The year 1870 saw the famed first South African diamond strike, an act that flooded Amsterdam with diamonds and saw the creation of De Beers by none other than Cecil Rhodes. With Isaac at the helm, the I.J. Asscher company jumped into action, helping Rhodes’ new company to host the original diamond sights and breathing new life back into the ailing Amsterdam diamond markets.
The sudden wealth of diamonds helped to move the I.J. Asscher Company towards becoming one of the most influential names in the Amsterdam diamond market. De Beers personally requested the Asscher house to cut what was, at the time, the largest diamond ever – the 995.2 carat Excelsior diamond. The titular Asscher, who had remained at the company’s helm into the early years of the twentieth century, passed away just months before the Excelsior diamond was delivered to his company.
With Isaac’s death, the duty of handling the Excelsior diamond fell onto the shoulders of his eldest son, Joseph Asscher. Joseph had made a name for himself as a diamond cleaver and innovator within the company and took that expertise to the cleaving of the nearly 1000 carat gem, successfully rendering several large pear-shaped, marquise, and round diamonds. In 1905, Joseph was tasked with cleaving an even larger diamond – the Cullinan, a stone weighing more than three times that of the Excelsior and who’s stones went on to become part of the Bright Crown Jewels.
The history of the Asscher house wasn’t to be made by large stones, though. No, that path actually predated the cleaving of Excelsior and relates to a patent filed by Joseph in December 1902. This patent was for a square cut diamond with chopped-off corners, a three-step crown, and a seven-step pavilion. The design, which presented a notably small table, allowed for a marked amount of reflected light, thus a sound measure of brilliance.
Over the early parts of the twentieth century, Joseph Asscher continued to refine what was quickly becoming known as the Asscher Cut Diamond. He reduced the steps in the crown to 2 or 3cuts, and the pavilion to a mere 3 or 4 steps. The modifications to the Asscher cut increased the overall brilliance of the stone.
As Joseph was modifying his own diamond cut, the rest of the world was being swept up into the Roaring Twenties. Art Deco became the art style of the day, daring angles were being set off with grand sweeping curves, and the dramatic cut of the Asscher diamond not only fit into this design aesthetic – it came to exemplify it.
In 1936, Joseph Asscher, together with his brother Abraham, decided to officially change the name of the family diamond business from that of their father to the Asscher Diamond Company. For the newly named company, things seemed on the way up. The dark clouds brewing in Germany, however, would soon argue otherwise.
Despite a declaration of neutrality, the Nazi war machine officially began the Battle of the Netherlands on May 10th, 1940. The Dutch army put up a hefty resistance and were able to stave off the invaders for five days. Those five days, which saw Rotterdam nearly destroyed by firebombing, were almost kind compared to the fate which stood before the Amsterdam diamond industry, the vast majority of which were Jewish.
The Asscher Company’s diamonds were quickly seized by the Nazis while those who worked there were shuttled away towards concentration camps. The concentration camps weren’t kind to the House of Asscher. Only two members – Abraham’s sons Joop and Louis – survived internment. Adding insult to injury, the patent which Joseph had filed protecting the Asscher Cut Diamond expired. By the end of World War II, the Asscher Diamond Company was in tatters.
The period following the war was one of tenuous reconstruction for the once powerful Asscher family. Luckily, the De Beers business was able to lend a hand, giving the Asschers with rough diamonds and access to the company’s diamond sights. With this help, the Asschers were able to gain some of the strength that they had before, returning to their status as a first rate diamond cutting company, but the diamond shine seemed to be missing.
The 1980s saw that luster returning. After more than a century in operation, the Asscher Diamond Company was the recipient of the last Royal title handed out by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands before her abdication of the throne. The title brought about the third and final name change to the house of Asscher, recreating the company as the Royal Asscher.
That title was just the start of the Asscher return to glory. Just as the company has gone through three name changes, the Asscher invented diamond cut was slowly starting in on its third innovation. In 2001, nearly a hundred years since the patenting of the initial Asscher cut diamond, the Royal Asscher Diamond company released the Royal Asscher cut diamond. The new cut is a scientifically guided improvement on Joseph Asscher’s initial design, increasing the diamond to a stunning 74 facets. For the Asscher family, which still remains a family affair, the new cut seems to represent both a new chapter in the family’s history and an homage to days of past.
Jill Renee- This article is provided by DanforthDiamond.com a leading authority on wedding rings, engagement rings and fine jewelry. Danforth Diamond provides wisdom and advice to help you choose the right ring at the right price. Visit DanforthDiamond.com or call 877.404.RING
Purchasing an engagement ring is something that most folkes will only want to do once in a lifetime. However, buying an diamond ring is a bit more complicated than buying a new pair of shoes or even a new car. Potential ring buyers have to get an understanding not only the qualities and intricacies of a diamond, but the style and tastes of the recipient. The buyer must then figure out how to make those two things meet at a cost which is within the buyer’s budget. Honestly, there are a lot of things to consider when buying an engagement ring.
Fortunately, many people are able to trust the knowledge of their jeweler, helping to mitigate potential unforeseen circumstances when shopping for an engagement ring. But, there is one thing for which neither the jeweler nor guesswork should be used for: the all important ring size.
This is a detail which seems too important to overlook, and yet many people do. One of the most common justifications given for simply estimating a future-fiancés ring size is the need for surprise and the willingness to “just have the ring resized later.” This logic has one rather significant problem with it – not all rings can be resized.
To understand why, it helps to know how rings are actually resized. First, it’s crucial to know if the engagement ring is being made smaller or larger. For a minor enlargement, a jeweler can sometimes just stretch a ring. However, for major adjustments in size, a jeweler must actually cut the ring. To make a wedding band or any ring smaller, the ring is cut and a piece is removed. To make a ring larger, the ring is cut and additional metal is inserted into the band. The ring is then welded back into one piece, massaged back into a circle, polished to hide the cuts, and finally buffed to a shine.
In a perfect world, the process is easy and quick and the results are not noticeable. However, this process obviously cannot be applied to all rings. Why not? Well, there are two critical flaws which can prevent a ring from being resized.
The first such mistake is related to metal of the ring. In order for a jeweler to insert new material to enlarge a ring, the jeweler must know exactly what metal, or blends of metals, that the ring is made of. For this reason, many antique rings, family heirlooms especially, cannot be resized. However, this can extend to white gold rings if the composition of the alloy isn’t known. Mismatching metals can result in spotted or stained rings. Even if metal isn’t being added to a ring, not knowing the composition can certainly cause staining or spotting when the professional jeweler tries to melt and buff the ring back to the right shape.
Another reason why many rings can’t be resized is because of the process of reshaping and buffing. Rings which have detail lines or contain stones around the band would cause design inconsistencies if metal was to be taken away or added. Stones may be lost, destroyed, or damaged, details and decorative lines may blurred, smudged beyond recognition, and the ring is then ruined.
Yes, there are other options to resizing. A jeweler might be convinced to swap out a ring, if the ring had purchased new. Ring guards, a metal piece inserted into a ring to make it smaller by taking up space, can be used for rings that are too large. However, these are overlooking one very important fact – when you’re on bended knee looking up at the one who just became your fiancé, you want her to be able to wear the ring right away. And you want it to fit.
The big lesson is that ring size isn’t what you should guess about, nor is it something that you should decide is an easy fix at a later date. Finding a ring size discretely might not be easiest task, but seconds after you propose marriage, it will certainly be worth it.
The long awaited day of proposal is on its way and you want it as extraordinary as the girl you love. You know perfectly that the wedding is going to invoke some costs and your budget is limited. So, you would like to find an engagement ring at the correct price but it to look marvelous in the eyes of your love. Correct advice is needed.
The first thing you need to think about is how ready you are for marriage. Marriage is a significant commitment, one that should be made for life, and getting engaged is the first step towards that commitment. Maybe the simple fact you’re thinking about buying an engagement ring is enough. Had you ever think to propose someone before?
The next step is to try to get choice. The more engagement rings you’ll see, the better your choice for her and the better the price you’ll find. So, do not end stopping in the first jewelry shop and buying whatever you find. Go to the phone directory, list all the jewelry stores near you and start making your trip.
It should be noted that you can get an inexpensive engagement ring that is still a real diamond. You see, if a diamond is very small, or has flaws in it, it will cost much less than other engagement rings. Of course, you can always choose cubic zirconium, which looks just like a diamond.
One thing that you should not do is purchase your inexpensive engagement ring online. You surely think that it could be a very good option as it will be a way to find cheaper option but you must consider other aspects. Consider that if, for whatever reason, you ring do not look the same as the one shown on the site, you’ll get in trouble returning the item and getting the refund.
For more information on inexpensive engagement rings, consult your family and friends. Maybe they already have be in that situation or have given the same advice to another friend. That way, they can suggest a place with complete knowledge. You can also check various reputable wedding websites for more ideas. You are sure to find the right inexpensive engagement ring with the proper research.
What is in your mind when comes an idea of deciding on an engagement ring? An engagement ring is a thing you should not overlook when you are going to pronounce your romantic intentions for marriage. It is also as a way to show your love and your commitment to your going to be husband or wife. In consequence, hunting for the most wonderful one to express it is such a must.
In reality, deciding to buy an engagement ring for your partner will rank among the most significant decisions in your life. Consequently, you must give the best effort in searching for the most suitable ring.
Have a Budget in Mind
The first thing to take into account when trying to find the most perfect engagement ring is recognizing how much your budget is. Of course you wish to give the most proper ring for your partner in life. Nonetheless, don t forget to think about your budget.
You may want to browse the internet to view what is on offer and what the costs are. Thus, with a budget in mind, you should not have much problem in selecting a perfect engagement ring which of course, must also have the perfect type of gemstone or laudable stone.
Diamond engagement rings are a clear choice. Although women cannot resist them, it is still prudent to look around at other options including opals and gold. Yet, if you do make decision on buying diamonds for your love, then you need to don’t forget the four C s which are cut, color, clarity and carat.
Another significant consideration with regard to buying an engagement ring is the sort of setting utilized in the ring. In this regard you will require checking out the metals, styles and also diverse designs. Some people even go to the extent of selecting their own designs for the engagement ring while others are contented going along with what a jeweler or jewelry designer suggests.
Nevertheless, it would be most excellent if you had an idea about what your partner would like and then decide accordingly. In addition, if you are buying an engagement ring for your lady love you would want to know whether she prefers a huge diamond or would a few small numbers of diamonds take her fancy. You also need to decide whether to go for a yellow setting or white and also the cut of the diamond as well as its color.
The bottom line is, discovering the most appropriate engagement ring is such a tricky thing to do. But with more effort, there are always large opportunities that you are going to discover the most ideal one. Just do your best!
Still curious about engagement ring? Just explore more on the links here and you will get much more about it as well as any thing related.
Thinking about the practical aspects of buying engagement rings may not be romantic but it is essential in protecting your investment. Since engagement rings are worn all the time they need to be well made and the diamonds secure
Technological improvements and new designs are used to create contemporary engagement rings. They are made using the finest gems and metals and have a modern style and feel. They give the perfect look to that stylish and trendy young bride or an older bride with an eye for style. When you begin your search for a contemporary engagement ring you will have many styles and setting to choose from.
One design classic that is always in fashion is one made using a diamond solitaire. is still the most commonly chosen setting. These rings will have one gem in a prong setting and are simple but stunning. This classic ring can be made to fit just about any budget depending on the stone and setting that you select.
While many people will go with regular silver or yellow gold, white gold and platinum can add some sophistication to your setting. While gold or platinum especially shine when colored gem stones are used. Many young women are choosing colored gem stones over diamonds for their contemporary engagement rings.
If you have a limited budget think about using semi-precious gem chips placed on a white gold band. You may also want to consider a princess cut crystal for you ring. More moody brides may appreciate the complexity of an opal. The colors found in many gem stones are the perfect complement to the personality and style of the bride. Almost any reputable jeweler will be able to sell you an engagement ring in a contemporary style which reflects your lifestyle and personality.
Choose a jeweler who comes highly recommended and has a strong reputation for quality and service. Ask any potential jeweler to see a representation of their work so you can see the type of work they make. Make sure you get a written appraisal for the ring you purchase so you can add it to your insurance policy.
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