History of Oval Cut Diamonds |

History of Oval Cut Diamonds

By Gem Dynasty
August 6, 2020
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The oval cut diamond was created by Lazare Kaplan in the early 1960s, a Russian diamond cutter who perfected the oval cut process. His technique improved the brilliance of the diamond and consistently ranks as one of the most popular diamond shapes in the industry.

Oval Cut Diamonds

The slender body of the oval diamond creates a beautiful elegance look. It often makes the hand and fingers appear slimmer. The diamond’s shape has no sharp corners, so less prone to chipping. An elongated shape shows a larger look than a round diamond of the same carat weight and is 10-20% less in cost. As guideline for an excellent cut Oval Diamond, below is general parameters for Cut Quality Keep in mind that these parameters are general and should not be applied without looking at the diamond yourself and receiving an expert’s opinion from a diamond dealer.

Bowtie Effect in Oval Cut Diamonds

Like any other fancy shapes, Oval cut diamonds can be affected by a dark gray or black space stretching across a diamond’s center which is considered the “Bow-tie”. This manifests when diamond’s facets fail to reflect light properly regardless of any direction you turn the diamond making the stone dull. The bow-tie is not caused by leakage of light but mainly created by the obstruction of light when viewing the stone. When a someone looks at the stone, the light rays that travel through the stone get shielded by the person’s head. This obstruction creates dark looking shadows reflecting within the diamond. We strongly suggest having a diamond expert review your stone before making a purchase.

Length to Width Ratio

An oval shape diamond’s length to width ratio is important for its value. Popular diamond quality reports from Gemological laboratories do not provide length to width ratios. However, they do provide length, width and depth measurements. Measurements are always calculated to the one-hundredth of a millimeter, while primarily dependent on personal style and preference, the Oval Cut Diamond is usually most appealing with a ratio between 1.30-1.50. You can also visit our website for more ideas of engagement rings on how it looks like in the setting.

Color and Clarity

Color is graded by the Gemological Laboratories on a scale from D to Z. When a diamond has a Z Color grade, it means the diamond contains an easily noticeable brown or yellow tint. On the other end of the scale, the D grade represents the most colorless a diamond. We recommend an SI1 or an SI2 for excellent Clarity with the best value, you can go higher in clarity, but the difference won’t be visible to the naked eye, so your budget is better spent in another area like Cut or Carat weight.

In addition to evaluating the bowtie and receiving the Clarity grade. Inspect the diamond carefully through the eye’s cleanliness. Other’s use a diamond loupe to check the smallest detail inside the diamond.

Prices

In general as we compared the oval cut to the round brilliant cut, we found out that oval cut diamonds are less expensive per carat. This is because the oval cut uses a larger amount of the rough diamond. Since less of the rough diamond is discarded during the cutting and polishing process, you can get better value for your money from an oval cut than from other diamond shapes.