How impressive is a hearts and arrows diamond?
Whether you are intent on buying a round brilliant cut diamond which exhibits broad flashes of vibrant colors and incredible brilliance, or the incredible level of optical symmetry which is necessary to produce the crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows which is pictured above, Hearts & Arrows cut diamonds are quite impressive in terms of both the level of overall light return and visual performance!
H&A Diamonds Deliver Superior Light Return:
When people look at a diamond, they tend to judge it on the level of brilliance, dispersion and scintillation. The term brilliance is used by the diamond industry to describe both the level of light being returned to the viewer in terms of volume, and the flashes of white light which are being reflected off of the facets of the diamond.
Hearts and Arrows Diamond deliver superior levels of light return, even when compared to standard round brilliant ideal cut diamonds, because the pattern of hearts and arrows can only be produced within a narrow range of proportions, which also happen to produce maximum light return.
Imagine that the top and bottom halves of the diamond pictured to the left, which are indicated as the crown and pavilion of the diamond, are essentially two mirrored surfaces, which when positioned just right, will reflect the light which enters the diamond, around the inside of the diamond, and back up towards the viewer.
If the two "mirrors" are aligned just right, the majority of light will be reflected back out through the top of the diamond, but if they are aligned incorrectly, too shallow or too deep, the light will "leak" out the edges of the diamond and be lost... and interestingly enough, a crisp and complete pattern of Hearts & Arrows will not be visible when the diamond is viewed while unmounted through a reflector scope.
By adhering to a very strict range of measurements for the crown and pavilion angle offset, we ensure that the Hearts & Arrows Diamonds featured in the Brian Gavin Signature Collection exhibit amazing light return!
The Most Beautiful Diamond in the Room:
One of the primary advantages of a Hearts and Arrows Diamond, is the fact that they perform wonderfully in practically every lighting scenario that you are likely to encounter in your daily life! Unlike the majority of diamonds which only seem to come to life when they are being pumped full of light in a retail jewelry store.
Let's face it, unless you work in a jewelry store, it's not likely that you spend the majority of your time under high watt halogen lighting, and thus the diamond cut quality should be an integral part of your decision process, because the optical symmetry of your diamond is going to dictate how it performs when exposed to different types of lighting.
Most people spend their day working under some form of fluorescent lighting, which lacks ultra violet, which is a necessary factor for creating sparkle in a diamond. Thus the majority of people are wearing diamonds which look dull and lifeless throughout their entire work day...
But our Signature Hearts & Arrows Diamonds
Imagine a tile floor which consists of white tiles which measure 12" x 12" across, if you looked across a large room covered with those tiles, your eyes would likely not see any depth in the room, because there would be very little contrast. But if black tiles were added to the design, in a checkerboard pattern, the design would become much more exciting because we would be able to perceive depth due to the contrast provided by the black and white tiles, the same premise holds true for diamonds.
3 Dimensional Facet Alignment Creates More Sparkle!
In order to produce the crisp and complete pattern of Hearts and Arrows which is visible in our Signature Diamonds, each facet must be consistent in size and shape, in comparison to every other facet within that section by shape. In addition, we have to maintain an incredible level of precision in terms of the alignment of each facet, across from each other, and from top to bottom, throughout the diamond.
Even the slightest variation in the indexing of a facet, will have a measurable effect upon the precision of the pattern of Hearts & Arrows. It will change the consistency of the size and shape of the hearts, affect the spacing between the tips of the hearts and the arrowheads which appear at the base of each heart, and affect the degree of contrast which is visible throughout the diamond.
Since each Brian Gavin Signature Diamond is cut by hand, using precision diamond cutting equipment, it requires an incredible amount of skill to produce diamonds which exhibit crisp and complete patterns of Hearts and Arrows! But it's worth it for us to take the extra time and care to produce diamonds of such high cut quality, because doing so produces more sparkle and larger flashes of light, as determined by the American Gem Society Laboratory (AGSL) in their 2007 evaluation of brilliance, fire and scintillation in round brilliant cut diamonds.
