Why do you think the diamond was not sent to renowned labs GIA or AGS for grading? However, that’s not to say beautiful diamonds with an HCA score greater than 2 don’t exist. Is this an actual game changing characteristic or more of a marketing feature?Ok, hole you didn’t take offense to my previous comment…not judging your opinion at all.
Really appreciate your input!Also, should grading date be something I should be concerned about?thanks again for providing some clarity in an otherwise confusing engagement shopping world.I will attempt to explain in plain English on some of the limitations of HCA:None taken. It’s not that hard; just that with their signature line and you saved all your trouble.Do these diamonds all look the same to you? I’m trying to be objective in my comments.Now, if you were to be using the tool blindly (and wrongly) without looking at other data like videos/diamonds images/scope photographs, you would be assuming that another diamond with the same HCA score is going to be identical and going to perform well.Have you seen the stone in person? Do you think that a 360 degree HD video (in conjunction with grading reports and HCA scores) are sufficient information to purchase a diamond online? I have attached the Idealscope image with this email.First of all, please allow me to thank you for your excellent blog – I found it extremely informative and helpful in my search for a diamond.The price of the diamond is USD4,770 (setting is an additional USD830).My issue is this – I have looked through all your recommended vendors (WhiteFlash, BG, James Allen etc) and the ring that I like by far the most is from Brilliant Earth.
Despite this, the simplicity of the tool makes it a good choice for diamond novices looking for a straight forward answer to the complex questions surround diamond cut quality.The HCA tool can be useful to shoppers in the earlier stages of their search as it is a great way of quickly ruling out any dud diamonds. I think the light performance is excellent and get compliments and stares all the time. You can easily do a similar test on another set of diamonds with identical parameters yourself.
Even though the HCA tool returns the same exact score (Excellent – 1.6) for these diamonds, they obviously look different from each other!The VAT and custom taxes are all included regardless of buying online or offline. Thanks so much for your input.When we are talking about diamonds, even a slight change in angles (<1 degree) can change the outlook of the stone and its performance.He also mentioned it has 88 facets, hence the Angel 88 marking. Like you, I come from a science/research background so I really appreciate the research that has gone into providing such detailed information – without just pages of vague terms (‘brilliance’, ‘exacting standards’, ‘rarest diamonds’ and other marketing fluff) like many other websites.So I am emailing you hoping to get some advice regarding my next steps. This includes viewing diamonds in various kinds of lighting condition for prolong periods of time, ASET, Idealscope, HCA score and etc… Granted, it may not always be possible because of physical constraints especially when it comes to buying diamonds online.I personally don’t think it is an end all be all kind of tool. I would suggest that these factors are best assessed by eye, alongside any additional lab reports.Developed by Garry Holloway in 2001, the HCA uses a small set of data from a round brilliant diamond to produce a score that can help the user make an estimate regarding the cut quality. It then matches these values to defined tables which have been assigned by the developer’s specified criteria for cut quality.The HCA also presents a color coded chart to show where the diamond falls within the proportion charts for a GIA Excellent cut grade and an AGS Ideal cut grade. You should look at its this way. Most people prefer diamonds that rate 1-2 on the scale where: 0-2 Excellent, 2-4 Very Good, 4-6 Good, … Usually, we want to take the two closest elements, according to the chosen distance.The linkage criterion determines the distance between sets of observations as a function of the pairwise distances between observations. I tried to narrow down a list of diamonds using your recommendations (ideal proportions, ‘super ideal’ cute, excellent symmetry and polish) and HCA scores as a rejection tool.
The thing about lay people trusting their own eyes when viewing a diamond physically is that lighting conditions can sometimes be manipulated and misleading in itself.