What Is The Best Diamond Cut For Your Engagement Ring?

The simple answer is that it is a matter of taste. But if you don’t know the options it is a tougher question. So here is a little guide on diamond cuts that I hope you find helpful. The first thing to be clear about is the “cut” can mean 2 different things in the diamond world. Cut refers to the shape and style of the diamond, as well as the proportions of a diamond. There are many different cuts: Round brilliant diamonds, emerald cut diamonds, princess cut diamonds, etc. Each diamond is also a gemstone that has its own individual shape which is referred to as its proportions (one of the 4 C’s is “cut” which is proportion).

Diamond Cut Styles

Let’s talk about the styles of cut first. There are many shapes diamonds can be cut to. Diamond cutters have followed a traditional path for decades until more recently when technology and competition have spirited creativity and innovation in diamond cutting. Many new shapes and hybrids are in the market today that did not exist a few years ago. We’ll get to them later, so we can start with the most popular cuts first.

Round Brilliant Cut Diamond

There is no doubt the most popular diamond cut today and for most of the 20th century is the modern round brilliant. That is not to say there are many other shapes that are beautiful as popular as well, but the round brilliant is by far the dominant diamond shape for engagement rings.

The reason that round brilliant diamonds are so popular is that weight for weight, irrelevant to any other factor, the modern round brilliant is the most brilliant cut diamond. The modern round brilliant diamond returns more light to the viewer than any other cut. The reason for that is pure physics. The round brilliant diamond has been refined since the early 20th century, both by trial and error and by scientific development thanks to Marcel Tolkowsky, a prominent jewelry of the era.

The modern round brilliant diamond cut in its ideal proportions is the perfect ‘container of light’. The physics of the shape are designed to minimize light ‘leakage’. Light leakage is the loss of lack of return of light from its source. Diamonds are cut with a similar theory in mind. The top of the stone (the crown) is a window. The bottom of the stone (the pavilion) is a mirror. Light enters through the top and is reflected back to the eye by bouncing off the pavilion like a mirror. That is why diamonds are designed to perfect the return of light to the eye, which is what makes diamonds attractive, brilliant, and beautiful.