Diamond buying should be a fun and exciting experience. You should feel connected to the diamond salesperson. There is much to know about this magical gemstone. A knowledgeable sales person is your best way to a great diamond. This Buying Guide is an outline of ALLAN Jewelers philosophy for Diamond Shopping. The beauty of a diamond is in its appearance. The price of a diamond is determined by beauty and purity. In our experience, the person buying and the person receiving the diamond are completely fulfilled by the diamonds beauty with little mention of the purity. A diamond is described by a grading system for each of four characteristics, Carat Weight, Color, Cut and Clarity.

The first thing a person notices about a diamond is its size. Size is not just the weight of the diamond. Weight is measured in points and carats. There are 100 points in a carat. The benchmark weights are three-quarter carat [.75], one carat [1.00], one and a quarter carats [1.25], one and a half carats [1.50], one and three quarter carats [1.75]...

The other measure of a diamond's size is its millimeter measurement. Consider a 200 pound person = 1.00 carat diamond. What do you know about the person or the diamond? Are they 5 feet tall and wide or are they 6 feet tall and lean? Is the diamond very narrow or very broad? The millimeter measurement of a diamond will tell you how BIG the diamond will look. ALLAN Jewelers always sells BIG diamonds. 60% of the diamonds for sale do not meet our minimum requirements. We want you to stand out. The diamonds you buy from ALLAN Jewelers are going to be as big or bigger than any other diamond of the same weight.

The second most noticed part of a diamond is its color. Although people will not be able to tell you, in a beautiful diamond, color is what is dazzling them. Where diamonds are formed underground Nitrogen is often present. Nitrogen tints a diamond yellow. The degree to which a diamond is tinted is graded using a scale beginning at D and moving down the alphabet as the diamond becomes more yellow until Z. ALLAN Jewelers recommends staying in the D to F range to be assured of a striking diamond.

The third characteristic of a diamond is its cut. This is not the shape, but the way the master diamond cutter as fashioned the diamond. It is the least clearly graded part of a diamond. You need to determine the importance that cut holds for you by comparing one diamond to another. There are many common names given to describe the cut of a diamond. Do not pay attention to the names, just compare diamonds. This is the way we handle cut quality during our diamond buying trips. We line the diamonds up and look.

Clarity is the fourth characteristic of a diamond. Remember that most people never get past the beauty of a diamond. Clarity is degree to which the diamond shows a flaw(s). 99% of all diamonds have something inside them. ALLAN Jewelers believes that clarity is only important to the extent it is not visible to the naked eye. The flaws become visible at I1 clarities.There is no visible difference between a diamond graded VVS1 and one of SI1 grade. These diamonds are sorted under 10x magnification. A clarity grade of SI1 or SI2 is ideal. A higher clarity costs money without a visible benefit.

Certification is a major factor in the diamond world today. Independent laboratories offer the service of examining individual diamonds and making a document that states the measurements of the diamond and its qualities. The same diamond sent to different laboratories will often produce very different documents with conflicting information. If you are going to compare diamonds according to their documents, be sure they are from the same laboratory.
What most tireless, investigative diamond shoppers come to understand is that they have to trust the person from whom they buy their diamond. The certifications are unable to guide us. You need to compare and talk with an expert while viewing each diamond. This is what we do every time we buy diamonds for the stores.We are available with our expertise and our attention whenever you are ready to see the magnificent beauty of a diamond firsthand.