Cut is considered the most important of the 4Cs. The way a diamond is cut and polished gives the gem its brilliance by allowing the maximum amount of light that enters through the top of the gem to be dispersed back to the eye. A diamond cutter must consider the raw diamond’s Depth, Diameter, Table, Crown, Girdle, Pavilion and Cutlet before he starts to work on creating the finished gem.

Cut is the only one of the 4Cs that relies on a craftsman to make it perfect. Using precise mathematical formulas a cutter tries to produce a gem that is as large as possible while still achieving the greatest optical beauty. It is their efforts during every stage of the fashioning process that reflects the maximum amount of light back to the eye. Most round, brilliant-cut or fancy-shaped diamonds possess 58 carefully angled flat surfaces, called facets. It is the precision of each facet’s placement that will affect the amount of fire, brilliance and ultimate beauty of your diamond.

When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light is reflected from one facet to another and dispersed through the crown, or the top of the stone.	If the cut of the diamond is too deep, some light escapes through the opposite side of the pavilion, or bottom.	If the cut is too shallow, light escapes through the pavilion before it can be reflected.

The diamonds at Charleston Gold & Diamond Exchange are hand picked so that only the best cuts are offered to our clients. Visit the store to speak with one of our certified diamond experts today or view our inventory online.