All about Diamond Fire, Brilliance, Scintillation & How they affect the price of diamonds?
Posted by Hari Krishna
October 20, 2020
The eventual thing about the diamonds that fascinate most of the people including us, is its fire, brilliance, and scintillation (sparkle).
But have you ever wondered, why only diamonds have such an incredible shine compared to any other gemstones?
Let’s understand what is diamond fire, brilliance, and scintillation? How diamonds shine brightly with flashes of light? and How does it affect the price of the diamond you are purchasing?
Diamond brilliance is the first thing one notices and the defining factor of its beauty. It is nothing but the lasting effect results due to the reflection of the white light from its facets.
As we all know, rough diamonds have an opaque texture which doesn’t allow white lights to enter into the diamonds.
Through diamond cutting and polishing the true diamond brilliance can be revealed. Diamond brilliance is the harmonious combination of the brightness and contrast.
Brightness refers to the amount of light reflected in the eyes of the viewer. For that, diamonds should be cut in such a way that the entering light doesn’t leak out of it.
However, in addition to the brightness, the diamond needs a contrast for exceptional brilliance. Just like a sheet of white paper appears less lively than a chessboard, a diamond with beautiful angles and a good cut will show outstanding brilliance.
Diamond fire is the rainbow-colored flashes when exposed to the white light. Most diamonds create fire, but not in equal amounts, it depends on the diamond-cut and clarity.
Diamond fire is the result of the white light dispersion by the facets of the diamond and split into the spectrum of the seven colors and scatter that rainbow flashes all around, creating the fire-like effect.
The word fire is used here, as it evokes emotion and creates a unique image of the wide range of warm and cool colors associated with fires in our minds.
Diamond fire is very crucial for analyzing the quality of a diamond, that’s why the leading gemological laboratory – GIA has included the diamond fire in its seven key parameters to rate and certify the quality of the diamond.
Diamond scintillation is the combined effect of the diamond brilliance and the diamond fire when the diamond is in rotation.
When the diamond, surrounding light, the viewer, or all of them are in motion, the blinking flashes of light form towards the center of the diamond and give it life.
Ideally, there must be even and balanced structural contrast in the facets to bounce perfect light around.
As already mentioned, the diamonds don’t inherently have any brilliance, fire, or scintillation in them and leaving them affected by many factors. Let’s see them in detail:
• Cut of the diamond
Diamond cut is the first and foremost attribute that affects the diamond fire and brilliance. After all, a diamond-cut is crucial for the adequate dispersion of the white light.
The exact proportions of the facets in the diamond-cut directly are the deciding factor in the fire, brilliance, and liveliness of the diamond.
In contrast, a diamond with poor arrangements of its facets might misdirect the entering light and reflect it off at odd angles, which reduces its brilliance and makes it look less fiery and brilliant.
For example, in the overly shallow or overly deep diamond-cut compared to the ideal depth, the light will leak out of the bottom of the stone without reflecting the eyes of the viewer.
If the diamond-cut has the ideal proportions, it will disperse and reflect the white light in such a way that maximizes the diamond fire, brilliance, and scintillations.
• Diamond clarity
Though being the physical property, diamond-clarity highly impacts the optical effects of the diamond and gives birth to the diamond fire.
As we all know, natural diamonds inherently have inclusions, blemishes, or any other flaws. If these imperfections are left untouched during the polishing, it makes the diamond of lower clarity.
Moreover, a diamond with lower clarity will have lots of inclusions and imperfections within. These flaws will block the passing of light through the diamond and reduce its fire and brilliance.
In addition to that, if the diamond has exterior blemishes or roughness on its facets, these can act like bumps on the roads, obstructing and deviating the original direction of the light.
A diamond that contains enough inclusions and blemishes will always look dull and fierce, even if the diamond is cut ideally.
• Source of the light
Our ability to view the diamond fire requires proper lighting conditions. Just like the not all aftermath of a rain showers produces a rainbow, a well-cut diamond in certain types of lighting environments will only produce fire.
In the direct sunlight, a diamond exhibits excellent fire. While in enclosed spaces, the direct sources of small angular-sized singular light are more likely to produce fire than the large diffuse sources of the light.
The quality and type of light also affect the diamond fire. For example, LED lights create a fire-friendly environment for diamonds, while fluorescent lights enhance the diamond brilliance, not fire.
In the online purchase of the diamond, the clear images with a 360-degree video of the same diamond give you a proper idea of its fire and brilliance.
As diamond fire relies on light penetration, reflection, and dispersion through the diamond, the external cleanliness of the diamond is very important to retain its inherent fire and brilliance.
Dirt particles in large amounts on the surface of the diamond make it difficult for light to penetrate. Also, when a diamond loses its inherent fire and brilliance, its internal inclusions and blemishes become more visible.
You can also browse our live inventory of excellent scintillating diamonds having exceptional fire and brilliance on HK.CO website/app.
We can proudly say that HK provides you a 360-degree diamond video in Ultra HD resolution on the hk.co website/app, that helps you find the perfect diamond to buy.
Our sparkling diamonds are available in the Brilliant Round Cut and more than 9 different Fancy Shapes, and ranging from 0.30 to 50 carats plus in size with FL to I3 clarity and D to M Color.
Register yourself to explore the world of diamonds on HK.CO. You can also download the leading-edge HK.CO app is available on many platforms, including Android/iOS.
