How To Select A Diamond Engagement Ring
For all the people out there who are currently shopping around for an engagement ring, here are some pointers you must read in order to make a great decision on your engagement ring.
Before I get started on the steps, here’s a little basic information about diamond engagement rings:
- Engagement rings usually consist of two parts: a diamond and a setting (made out of a metal like platinum or gold).
- The most common setting consists of gold for the metal and a solitaire setting type.
- Platinum is the strongest metal. It is rarer and more expensive than gold, and will last for a very long time. Generally, repairs for platinum are needed less frequently than for gold, but the repairs are more difficult.
- Gold is softer and not as strong as platinum. It is usually combined with metal alloys to give it more strength. Repairs for gold usually are needed more frequently than for platinum, but the repairs are easier to perform.
Ready for the steps to choosing the best engagement ring? Here they are!
- First, is the ring and/or engagement a surprise? If not, the best way to get a ring that she’ll love is to let her pick it out herself. Or, if you want to keep a little bit of surprise involved, you can let her give you some guidelines based on her preferences.
- Educate yourself on how to judge and choose the best quality, and value, diamonds. Do you know what the 4 Cs are? Do you know some basic ring terms? Actually, I already wrote two posts on these topics. So, do your diamond ring education right here with my two previous posts: The 4 Cs: Diamond Ring Basics pt 2 and Diamond Ring Basics pt 1.
- Take note of her hints. Has she already dropped some hints about what her favorite kind of rings are? Or maybe what kind of a ring she envisions for her engagement ring? Make sure you pay attention and remember any hints she may drop.
- Look at the style of jewelry she has now. This will obviously give you some clues about her likes and dislikes. Notice what kind of metal her rings are made out of and the style of her rings. If she has mainly rings made out of platinum, then platinum is probably your best bet for setting the ring. If she has mainly vintage-looking rings, then vintage-looking engagements are probably a good choice.
- Find out what size ring would look good on her hands, proportionally. Are her fingers thick or thin? A longer diamond can make her thick fingers look a little longer and thinner, while a ring with a wide band can make long, thin fingers look a little shorter and thicker.
- Find out what size ring she wears. If you have the opportunity, take a ring that she already wears (make sure she wears it on her engagement finger!) and get it sized. This is a simple, but important step. Of course, if you can’t find out her ring size beforehand, just guess at it. You’ll be able to get it re-sized later.
- Choose the shape for the diamond. There are many different shapes that diamonds are cut in, including round, princess, emerald, oval, pear, heart, and more. To start with, round is usually a good choice for a shape that usually works well most of the time. But, to find a more personalized diamond shape, go back to step 4 on this list and take note of the jewelry style she has now. You might be able to see a favorite diamond shape, depending on the rings she already has.
One last thing:
Where to look for diamond rings?
Right on this site, of course! I have listed many different beautiful diamond rings on this site. Go to the homepage, Buy Diamond Ring, and take a look at the rings.
Diamond Rings: The Basics, Part 2
Here’s some basic information about judging a diamond’s quality… pretty important to know if you’re buying a diamond ring, right?
Generally, the information that you need to know about a diamond is called the “4 Cs.” The 4 Cs are cut, clarity, carat, and color.
Cut
This is NOT the shape of the diamond. Cut is the pattern of angled facets on the diamond. Don’t know what that means? Basically, cut is how brilliant the diamond looks. A good cut reflects as much light as possible back to the eye and gives the diamond the bright, brilliant look. A poor cut can make the diamond look dull.
What you need to know about cuts is the different grades of cuts. There are generally 4 different grades of cuts:
-Excellent/Ideal Cut – These are the very best diamonds. They reflect almost all the light that enters and they are beautifully brilliant.
-Very Good Cut – These are the next best, after excellent/ideal cuts. They reflect a lot of light, and they are still pretty brilliant looking.
-Good Cut – These are usually cut to maximize the size of the diamond a little more than both excellent and very good cuts. In maximizing the size, some of the proportions of the diamond have to be slightly off, so they aren’t as brilliant as excellent or very good cuts. These are usually pretty good values, though.
-Fair and Poor Cut – These diamonds don’t reflect light as well as any of the other 3 cuts, so they cost less but don’t look as brilliant.
By the way, cut is generally considered the most important part of the 4 Cs.
Clarity
Clarity tells you how many flaws (also called inclusions) the diamond has. This is the industry standard grading scale for clarity:
Flawless- No internal or external flaws at all. These are very rare and precious.
Internally Flawless – No internal flaws, but some minute external flaws. Again, very rare and precious diamonds.
Very Very Slightly Included – Minute inclusions which are very difficult to detect under 10x magnification, even by a trained gemologist.
Very Slightly Included – Minute inclusions that can only be seen, with difficulty, under 10x magnification.
Slightly Included – Inclusions are visible under 10x magnification, or also by unaided eye to an experienced grader.
Included – Inclusions are visible to the naked eye.
Carat
Carat is a unit of measurement that measures the weight of diamonds and gemstones. The higher the carat, the more weight in the diamond.
Higher carat is usually better, but the quality of the diamond (cut, clarity, and color) are much more important than just the carat number.
Color
Diamonds have very slight tints to them. The less color the diamond has, the higher grade on the color scale it gets.
To keep it simple, because there are two different color scales, I will only include the 5 description classifications for diamond color:
-Colorless
-Near Colorless
-Faint Yellow
-Very Light Yellow
-Light Yellow
The closer to colorless a diamond, the higher quality that diamond is considered to be.
Looking for some diamond rings? I will post some awesome, beautiful, diamond rings here shortly.
Diamond Rings: The Basics
Diamond Rings: The Basics
-by the formerly “clueless about rings” guy
Here are a few great tips to make sure you buy the right diamond ring! Of course, it can be confusing, because there are many different types of diamond rings: gold diamond rings, white gold diamond rings, platinum diamond rings, pave diamond rings, solitaire diamond rings, three stone diamond rings, and many more terms and different kinds of diamond rings.
For the people who are completely new to diamond rings, or rings in general, here are a few very basic things to know about them.
- The metal (usually white gold, platinum, or gold) refers to the kind of metal that the diamond is set in.
- Words like round, princess, oval, radiant, asscher, pear, marquise, emerald, cushion, and heart refer to the shape of the diamond.
- Words like solitaire, prong, pave, princess-cut, trinity, cluster and cathedral refer to the kind of setting that the rings has.
Here are the main types of rings:
-Solitaire rings have one diamond.
-Trinity rings have three, equal-size diamonds.
-Eternity rings have diamonds going around the entire ring.
-Cluster rings have one bigger diamond as the centerpiece and a few stones around it.
In my next post, I will go over the 4 Cs, which will tell you all you need to know about judging the quality of a diamond.
Welcome to Buy Diamond Ring!
If you’re coming to this page, you probably want to buy a diamond ring! So, in order to give my visitors what they want, this page will be filled with mostly beautiful diamond rings, and secondly some information about diamond rings.
So, if you’re reading this, let me tell you that this post is not the main content of this site! Go to the home page (buydiamondring.org) and look around at the diamond rings that I put on this site… you WILL find something that you like!
I will include rings from many different stores, so you have a lot to choose from. Actually, sometimes it’s easier to just look at rings at the store website, and in that case I will just include a link to the store.
Anyway, my main goal is to provide YOU (aka the visitor to my site!) with exactly what you’re looking for. So, I hope that I can provide the diamond rings that you are searching for.
Please, feel free to bookmark this site if you want to.
One last thing: if you have any questions, comments, concerns or anything that you want to contact me about, just leave a comment on any of the pages on this site. Or, visit the contact me page.
Thanks for visiting and I hope this site is useful to you!
Featured Diamond Ring
Diamond Ring of the Week
Diamond Ring Sale of the Week
