Quick and Easy Buying Guide
Carat weight: 1 carat = 200 milligrams = 6.5 mm diameter. Doubling weight doesn't double diameter.
Diamond clarity: FL/IF/VVS/VS = super expensive, near perfect. SI = best value if you can check a photo for obvious inclusions (defects).
Color: D-G = colorless, expensive, only if you have money to burn. H-J = best value. Can go lower in gold metal settings than white metal.
Cut: Better cut ratings let more light into a diamond, making it sparkle more. Very important property, don't skimp here.
Set a budget and minimum cut (Premium). Go J color for gold and I/H for white metals. Go searching for SI1/SI2 clarity diamonds at James Allen. Pick a diamond with small/no inclusions. Choose a ring setting and buy it risk-free (60-day returns).
2.05 Carat Diamonds
The shallowness of a diamond, which depends on how the diamond has been cut, will affect the relationship between carat weight and diameter of the diamond - because of this reason, 2.05 carat diamonds will only average a width of 8.32 mm, but will not always be precisely this width.
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Be careful of assigning too much importance to the carat weight of the diamond while neglecting other properties such as the girdle thickness, which is to wide can make the diamond appear smaller than other diamonds of the same carat weight.
Walk into a diamond shop and wait around, and sooner or later you'll hear someone getting confused or frustrated about the fact that the carat weight of a diamond and the width of the diamond are very different things - most likely they will be confused or frustrated because a diamond with double the carat weight is only a little bit wider. If you're willing to try a few things to get a bargain, one thing you can try is searching for a diamond which has a strange carat weight, such as 0.96 carats. Often diamonds with these strange carat weights can be picked up for a bargain because they are not as sought-after even though they are practically the same size as the more popular 1.00 carat diamonds.
In the quest for finding the largest diamond possible within a budget, it can be fun to consider famous large diamonds like ashberg diamond, which had a huge weight of 102 carats - about 200 times the mass of a diamond used in a typical engagement ring.
The idea of the stars raining diamonds into the void: that sounded like a miracle. Salman Rushdie .
Don't mix up carat weights of single diamonds with total diamond weights - the mean very different things and mixing them up can trick you when you're considering different prices.
First-time diamond buyers who are in a hurry often just focus on the diamond carat size, which is a big mistake - other properties such as the clarity of the diamond are important in getting a diamond which is attractive not just in terms of its size, but also its appearance.