Dear SDSTAFF Songbird,
In reference to the information you gave on the “four C’s” of judging a diamond’s quality and price, I have always been told that the “Cut” refers to the actual cut of the diamond, ie. the facets, rather than the shape of the finished stone. Have I been misinformed? Is the cut and the shape synonymous?
JPI’m not Songbird (obviously) but my father was a jeweler and I did teach the 4C’s when I sold diamonds. In the 4C’s, “cut” does refer to the shape. You are right, though, that “cut” can refer to the quality of the faceting. It’s not often talked about in the US, (at least not to customers) since it is generally regarded as a much more minor factor than the other four, but in Japan “perfect cut” diamonds are very popular. There are certain angles and percentage widths considered ideal for the various shapes, and if you get a full GIA cert it’ll probably list them all for that particular stone. You can compare it with the percentages and angles considered “ideal” to get an idea of how good the cut is (the “perfect” cut would reflect the most light possible for that shape), but I don’t believe there is an official rating system for cut quality yet (or at least not one widely used).
And the Mailbag article being referenced is: How did diamonds come to symbolize a wedding engagement?
AskNott
Well done! Thanks for the assist.
SDStaffSongbird
Who has the biggest rock of all on her wedding ring: a recreation of Yosemite’s El Capitain in gold! 
Ooh, speaking of exploitation, have you guys heard the latest? Apparently, the international diamond market is supporting murderous regimes all over Africa. The proceeds from diamonds go to arm various unshaven, uncivilized thugs whose favorite pastime appears to be denying the civil rights of… oh, you know, pick out whoever’s handy. (This is all allegation, by the way, and for heaven’s sake, don’t just take my word for it.)
The international diamond industry is actually discussing putting into place safeguards, such as spectrographic identifications for individual diamonds, to certify that they didn’t fund the bullets in some warlord’s M-16. Kind of like the "cruelty-free"pledge of many cosmetics manufacturers.
Many, many Yuppies were very upset to hear about this.
McJohn
and
Ugh… the international diamond market = the international diamond industry**=** DeBeers. The same people who have been buying diamonds from rebels, etc. for years. They are thinking of stopping, mainly because the international unrest the continuing war is creating in the region may not be as profitable as supporting the local gov’t.
My take on it is that a lot of this has to do with the post cold-war climate. During the cold war, the potential for a communist regime was high, so supporting (i.e. buying the products of) rebels helped DeBeers keep their prices down and insure the supply. Now that it looks like the gov’ts might be relatively stable for some time, it is time for them to shift gears, claiming ‘social responsibility.’ Makes me sick.
[disclaimer]I can’t give an exact source right now for the facts (that is, that DeBeers is a current purchaser of the rebel’s diamonds and will soon be stopping) because I am at work, but I’ve read this in a few sources, chiefly the Economist magazine. The opinions are pretty much a conglomeration of WAGs. [/disclaimer]
A point of minor interest on the left-hand thing:
There’s another thread on which hand bears the ring. In brief: different cultures have different traditions, and even with a culture, traditions change.
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
I noticed the Mailbag answer refers to diamonds as colorless to moderately yellow; a jeweler friend introduced me to green diamonds. Also, red-brown ones the color of root beer. In fact, those crazy carbon crystals come in a spectrum of colors!
Curious, I browsed.
Dozens of jeweler’s FAQs I found referred to diamonds being on a scale from clear to increasing yellowness (and corresponding drop in price).
I thought that settled it until I ran into a link like [url=“http://www.jewelryexpert.com/articles/Diamond3.htm”]this[/rurl].
Seems that some shades of yellow can actually be MORE valuable.
In any case, it seemed these colored diamonds are caused by various impurities and are extremely rare. Songbird should probably be forgiven for not mentioning them. 
On the matter of coloration, do you know the difference between rubies and sapphires? :>
Strongly yellow or brown colored diamonds are valuable; it’s the slightly yellow and brown ones that are considered to have “poor color”. I don’t know how they determine exactly which corundum is a ruby or sapphire; varying shades of red and reddish purple are considered rubies, but pink corundum is called a pink sapphire. So is a dark pink stone a ruby or a sapphire? I suspect it’s a judgment call. Sapphires can also be green, yellow, orange, black, clear and purplish, as well as the traditional blue.