The Advantages of Buying Loose Diamonds

It’s a well-established fact that diamonds are the ideal way for a man to express his feelings for a woman. This is why there are so many different categories and pieces of diamond jewelry. One way that you can save when buying a piece of diamond jewelry for your spouse, fiancé or girlfriend will appreciate is by purchasing loose diamonds.

Loose diamond have several advantages over a diamond that is already set in a piece of jewelry.The first advantage of loose diamonds is the price. Loose diamonds are more affordable than a preset diamond. The reason for this is that these diamonds do not have any of the labor fees tacked on to jewelry for mounting. In addition, anyone buying loose diamonds can rest assured that they are paying for the diamonds alone and not anything extra.

Loose diamonds also are much easier to appraise and verify as authentic because it is simpler to judge a diamond’s 4C’s – clarity, cut, carat and color – if there are no complicated or intrusive settings to be worked around. This is important because the majority of the appraisal and certification processes involve eyesight and settings often obscure the diamond if it is already set in a piece of jewelry. With loose diamonds, the appraiser or certifier can make use of his eyesight and simple magnification under a microscope rather than having to use complex spectrography equipment.

The greatest advantage of loose diamonds is the sheer number of shapes – also known as cuts -available. Pre-set diamond rings typically have round brilliant or princess cut diamonds in them. A loose diamond can be in any shape imaginable, from traditional shapes such as round, princess and asscher to unique shapes such as hearts, stars and even animal-shaped to mimic animals like dolphins.

Loose diamonds have a wide range of color than preset rings. Typically the diamonds sold in jewelry are colorless or nearly colorless. Colored diamonds are generally considered a rarity, although stones with a yellowish or brownish tint are fairly common and usually used for industrial purposes. However, fancy colored diamonds not featured in jewelry can be any color, including shades of blue, green, black, pink, yellow and even red.
The last advantage a loose diamond has over those already set in a piece of jewelry is the setting. While certain settings work better with specific diamond shapes, the number of options is much smaller if the diamond is set rather than being a loose diamond.

Robert Almeda is a diamond expert with 20 years of experience who sometimes writes for Diamondpriceguide.com.