When going shopping for bridal ring sets or engagement rings, you might have heard a wide range of vocabulary related to diamonds cuts and shapes. The cut of a diamond is a significant factor that has a great impact on the appeal of a diamond. A diamond is cut to maximize its brilliance and sparkle thereby making it more elegant and shiny.
A jeweler will cut and polish diamonds for making it what we see on pieces of jewelry. Deciding a cut for a diamond is a complex procedure, as it should minimize the wastage of raw stone and enhance its properties including brilliance, sparkle, etc. Therefore, a jeweler will have to decide the cut that is suitable for each raw stone.
When you purchase diamond wedding sets, you may have heard a lot of different terms associated with the diamond cut. Among those, full-cut and single-cut are two terms that are usually used to describe diamond cuts. If you are curious to know what they are, read along, as we provide some important information about themfor giving you a better understanding.
Full-Cut Diamonds
A full-cut diamond can be simply referred to as a stone that is cut into a round brilliant that has 57 or 58 facets. The round cut is considered to be a traditional and classic shape, as opposed to the shapes that are known as “fancy cuts” that can have different forms and vary in the number of facets.
You should be aware of the fact that a stone can be cut into round brilliant without having the standard 57 or 58 facets, however, they are not considered as full-cut diamonds.
Single-Cut Diamonds
Manydiamonds that are round brilliant have fewer facets than the standard 57 or 58 facets. These stones are generally called as “single-cut” diamonds, which are also known as “melee” diamonds.
Usually, there will be 17 or 18 facets present on a single-cut diamond, but some can also have 16 facets too. When a jeweler cuts a stone, he will first produce a single-cut diamond and then the additional facets will be added to it for creating a full-cut diamond. However, many diamonds will not be changed to full-cut and they willforever remain as single-cut stones. This is normally used for smaller diamonds, where having fewer facets will not create much of a difference in their appearance.
How Cut Affects Pricing?
As full-cut diamonds have additional facets, it will be more costly than single-cut diamonds. Therefore, you have to choose wisely when it comes to these cuts. A center stone, that is supposed to produce good brilliance and sparkle will definitely need full-cut. However, when it comes to small side stones, having a single-cut or full-cut will not create much difference. Therefore, you can save a considerable amount on your bridal ring sets if you choose single-cut stones as your side stones.