Fancy cut diamonds are the new obsession of the industry. A sterling attraction for the buyers, the jewelry industry has heavily invested on these cuts in the past few years. Surpassing or at least matching classic brilliant cuts in popularity, fancy cuts have been catapulted to the stage front for their extraordinary aesthetics and remarkable shapes. Today, shapes like the Asscher, emerald, cushion, Marquise, heart, radiant, oval and pear are all termed fancy cuts. Despite their bourgeoning popularity, there is still much misinformation about fancy-cut diamonds.
Let’s look into some of this information that is passed around as facts, but are only fiction, or in other words, myths.
A Shallow Cut Works Best for a Fancy Shape
The truth is as far as possible from this statement. If you know anything about diamond cuts, you’d know that a shallow cut in a diamond equals a glassy look. Any depth below 70% is likely to produce that undesirable effect in a stone. The same stands for fancy cuts, 70% depth is always better than 65%.
Bow Tie Is a No-No
The bow-tie effect varies from one stone to another. In some stones it is negligible, hardly visible, for others it’s disappointingly pronounced. That said, a bow tie effect isn’t essentially a bad thing. Cut like pear, oval, radiant, cushion and Marquise are more akin to this effect than others. In some cuts, the self-same bow-tier produced a more intense sparkle.
Facets, the More the Merrier
An excess of facets gives a diamond a crushed ice look whereas fewer ones diminish the sparkle. Every cut has a mathematically ascertained facet count and that is the right number of facets for it. More than the required facets can ruin the fire and brilliance of a cut.
Fancy Cuts Can Never Be as Bright as the Round Brilliants
It is true that fancy cuts are less bright in comparison to round brilliant cuts. But that situation is being remedied now, with patented cuts that are naturally very brilliant and the ideal cut fancy shaped stones are an easy match to the classic brilliant cuts.
Find the Fancy Cut Grade on a GIA Certificate
As of today, GIA does not have a grading system for fancy cuts. As a result, it does not grade fancy shaped diamonds as a norm. So, if you buy a fancy cut diamond, expect to find no sight about the cut grade on the certificate.
