In our second post in our 'What is?' series, we focus on diamond carat. Diamonds are measured using the weight metric 'carat', a carat is equal to 200 milligrams (1/5 of a gram). Each carat is made up of a total of '100 points', for example a 0.75 carat diamond could be described as a 'seventy five pointer', where as weights over one carat are normally described as a 1.05 carat would normally be described as 'one carat 'o' five'. Throughout the industry sometimes a different term may be used to described diamonds in 0.25ct increments, a 0.25ct could be described as a 'one grainer' continuing in 25 point graduations, a 0.50ct diamond would be called a 2 grainer and so on.
The word carat came from the green word kerátion (κεράτιον), meaning carob seed. These carab seeds were used as a counter weight in order to measure the weight of previous goods, normally gold and gems due to their consistent weight. Sometimes known as metric carat, it was first adopted in 1907 at the Fourth General Conference on Weights and measures.
Although diamond weight does have an effect on the diameter of the diamond, there are no guarantees of consistent diamond widths and lengths. Some fancy shape diamonds (any shape other than a round), can have a dramatic difference in shape, especially elongated diamonds such as the marquise or oval.
Normally when a diamond is cut from its rough to polished form, the carat weight of a diamond usually reaches weights of, for example, 0.50 or 0.52, however these diamonds can sometimes be cut to weights of, for example, 0.79 or 0.99. These become over-sizes and sometimes known as mis-cuts (or ‘mistake stones’) as a diamond cutter would have been expected to reach the next carat weight bracket. These diamonds offer great value for money as they do not step into a different price bracket, yet may appear as large as stones in the next bracket up. This is why oversized diamonds are often referred as ‘financially intelligent.’
If you're looking for a fancy shape diamond, we recommend a visit to a jeweller in order to see preference in shapes and sizes. Take into consideration the size of the finger and shape, more information can be found on optimum ratios of diamond shapes on our diamond shape education page, also further reading into colour and clarity can be found within these pages.
Look out next week for the next part of our 'what is?' series.
