Brilliant Cut Engagement Rings

The brilliant cut is by far the most popular choice for diamonds and gemstones in engagement rings – or any diamond jewellery for that matter.

The brilliant cut is the modern version of the traditional ’round’ cut and it has been perfected for maximum shine.

The reason for this sparkle is that a brilliant cut stone has the best angles for which to shine maximum brilliance. In fact the standard round brilliant cut consists of a total of 58 facets: 1 table, 8 bezel facets, 8 star facets and 16 lower-girdle facets, and usually a culet on the pavilion or base.

Considering that most diamonds are sawn (in the sawing process, a bronze blade impregnated with diamond dust spins at high speed to gradually cut through the stone) and that to saw through a one-carat diamond might take eight hours, followed by all the facetting, it can be seen that to create a perfectly cut brilliant cut diamond will take a long time! The purpose of facetting is to let light pass through and be reflected and refracted from faces on the back of the stone and back out of the front of the stone – this is called internal refraction. Faceted cuts are precisely designed to show off the gem to best advantage, and the brilliant cut is the best example of this process working.

In faceting a diamond, waste is unavoidable. The average weight loss is about 50% of the uncut stone – brilliant cuts generally result in less waste, so represent good value for money.

Saul Spero, a New York diamond appraiser, spent 25 years interviewing over 50,000 people to determine if there was any correlation between personality and preference of diamond shapes. In his book he describes woman who choose brilliant cut diamonds as being family-orientated, dependable and unaggressive. In essence, someone who is family centred.