Judging Clarity

External features

Scratches, nicks, pits, and abraded facet edges are not considered as serious as inclusions because they can often be polished away.Extra facets are additions to the normal number of facets (flat, geometric diamond surfaces). They are usually added to polish away a flaw or save diamond weight. They don't affect the clarity grade of a diamond if they are on the pavilion and can't be seen face up at ten-power magnification.

Naturals are part of the original surface of the diamond crystal left unpolished (fig. 6.18 & 6.19). Sometimes they have step-like ridges or triangular forms (called trigons) on them that indicate your stone is truly a diamond. Naturals do not affect the clarity grade if they are confined to the girdle and do not distort the girdle outline.

Clarity Grading Explained

Now that we have identified diamond inclusions and blemishes, we are ready to look at how they affect clarity grades. There are various grading systems, but those that are best known resemble the one developed by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). You can make yourself understood to any knowledgeable diamond dealer or jeweler in the world using the GIA system.

Clarity grade descriptions of all the major systems assume a trained grader working with ten-power fully corrected magnification and effective illumination These definitions may seem unscientific, and in fact they are unscientific.

However, trained and experienced graders nearly always agree on the clarity grade; an untrained or inexperienced grader will have difficulty in determining clarity grades consistently. Diamonds were not created to fit into well-defined categories. Categories had to be created to differentiate already existing diamonds. This was not an easy process.

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