DIAMONDS
Diamond clarity guide
Clarity grades count what is inside the stone and how easily a trained eye finds it at ten times magnification. What matters to you is whether you can see anything without the loupe.
- FL IF
- Nothing internal at 10x. Rare and priced accordingly.
- VVS1 VVS2
- Very very slight. A gemologist hunts for it.
- VS1 VS2
- Very slight. Invisible to the eye. Our usual buy.
- SI1 SI2
- Slight. Sometimes eye clean, sometimes not. We check each one.
- I1 to I3
- Included. Visible, and often structurally risky.
Eye clean is the real grade
We look at every stone at arm’s length in daylight before we look at the report. If we cannot find the inclusion that way, the stone is eye clean and the grade below it is money you can spend on cut instead.
Where the inclusion sits
A feather under a prong is invisible forever. The same feather under the table is a permanent smudge. Location beats grade, and no certificate ranks location.