Quality

As De Beers adverts state, it is as important in a diamond as anything else you own.

Radiant Cut

Radiant cuts combine the best of brilliant cuts, with a square emerald cut outline.

Reflection

Important optical effect, whereby light bounces off a surface.

Refraction

Important optical effect, the deviation of light when it passes from one medium to another, e.g. air to diamond. See Refractive index.

Rough Girdle

A grainy or pitted girdle surface, often with nicks.

Rhodium

Rhodium is a highly reflective silvery precious metal, one of the platinum group of metals, often used to plate over "white" gold alloys to enhance their whiteness, in and around diamond settings. Not usually needed on platinum.

RingsHUT

Largest collection of all types of ring

Round Brilliant Cut

The most common cut containing 58 facets. Also the most , in terms of most efficient use of light to increase brilliance and fire, hence the name.

Setting

The process of fixing a gemstone into a mount to create a piece of jewellery. A setting is a word used by consumers to describe what a jeweler would call a mount. The word setting is sometimes used in referring to a collet.

Shape

Refers to the way that the stone is cut. Common shapes are: Round, marquise, oval, pear-shaped, heart-shaped, princess (square), and radiant (also square).

Silver

White highly reflective metallic element, used in Victorian times for diamond setting, before the development of white gold alloys, and before platinum could be isolated.

Silver Cape

An obsolescent color grading term denoting diamonds whiter, or less yellow than light cape.

Solitaire

A ring or other piece of jewellery containing a single diamond, or sometimes a single major diamond with smaller diamonds as embellishments.

Sparkle

The combination of brilliance and fire that emanates from the diamond.

Step Cut

An step cut diamond is "glassy" in appearance, since its facets usually span the length or width of the stone.

Single Cut

A very small round diamond with only 16 or 17 facets, instead of the normal 57 or 58 facets of a full cut round brilliant. Single cuts are occasionally used for pave jewelry and other jewelry that utilizes numerous small diamonds set closely together.

Scratch

A linear indentation normally seen as a fine white line, curved or straight.

Surface Graining

Surface indication of structural irregularity. May resemble faint facet junction lines, or cause a grooved or wavy surface, often cross facet junctions.

Swiss Cut

Halfway between a brilliant and an eight cut, with 34 facets in total.

Table

The largest surface on a diamond, located on the top of the diamond facing the viewer. The table culminates the crown of the diamond.

Table Percentage (%)

The width of the table divided by the diameter of the diamond. The table percentage is one of the many metrics used to measure how well proportioned a diamond is cut, and consequently how much "sparkle" it will have.

Thickness

Usually describing a girdle, and often expressed as a percentage of the height or depth of the diamond, often using relative terms such as "medium".

Tone

An aspect of color, important in grading fancy coloured diamonds.

Trap Cut?

Also known as step cut. A traditional way to cut rectangular, octagonal or other non-round diamonds, including emerald cuts. Looses brilliance compared with more modern brilliant cut styles.

Treated Diamonds

A diamond with a body color induced by some form of artificial irradiation, often in conjunction with controlled heating (known as annealing).

White Diamond

The name of Werner Herzog's film about British engineer Graham Dorrington's air-ship expedition over Guyana.

Workmanship

Refers to the overall finish of the diamond, including the polish on the facets, the symmetry of facets with respect to each other, and the shape of the culet.