Category Archives: Misc.

Diamcor Mining is a small publicly traded company (DMI.V) that is based out of Canada and is actively mining in South Africa.  I had the pleasure of taking taking my GIA G.G. program with one of their high level staff. I follow the companies press releases just to see what they are doing.  For years […]

Some time ago a diamond dealer was cleaning out his desk (it must have been VERY dirty).  He found an old wholesale price list for diamond.  He sent it over to me via fax, so I’m posting it here for those who might find it interesting. This price list is from before the current GIA […]

A quick post about calculating diamond depth in a round diamond. If you have a diamonds measurements, you can calculate the total depth of the diamond.  The total depth is a quick guide to ensure the diamond is ‘OK’. To calculate the depth you divide the depth by the average of the  the minimum & […]

Way back in February we sent a 2.13ct diamond to the cutters.  The diamond did not perform as well as it could (it was ugly) so it needed an overhaul. Our little experiment was to be cut by numbers, based on the AGS cut grade scale.  The AGS uses a number scale with the highest […]

I came across this 1.01ct diamond, bought it with plans to recut… but sold it for education purposes. Most round diamonds cut these days fall within a certain range.  For example a total depth would normally be in the 58% – 64%.  These I would consider ‘normal’.  Sometimes the way a rough diamond is found […]

Way back in 1996 The American Gem Society Laboratories released their cut grade system.  The scale runs 0 to 10, with 0 being the best.  It was not until 2006 that the GIA released their cut grade scale, no surprise they are different.  The GIA uses words to describe their cut grades from Excellent to […]

I posted a comment a few months back about diamond prices dropping, based on the official RAP price list.  We are seeing that prices are continuing to drop, which is bad news for diamond sellers.  The amounts of the drop that we are seeing is not massive like you might see on the stock market […]

Synthetic (man made/fake) diamonds produced by CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) have been around for a while.  There are companies making them and selling the finished diamonds on the market but the demand for them is quite small. When our diamond buyers are making a purchase there are a number of diamond type(s) that we do […]

If you deal with old jewelry, you know all too well about prying small stones from jewelry.  When getting a batch of old gold or platinum ready for refining it is best to remove the old stones. Often the result is broken or damaged stones.  Not only does the process take a LONG time to […]

Back in February I did a posting on a diamond that had a fair cut grade, it was not a very attractive diamond.  Of course we sent it off to the diamond cutter to bring it to life.  Our estimate was the diamond would need to come down to 1.17ct in order to greatly improve […]