Radiant Cut Diamonds: Everything Explained
Posted by Hari Krishna
December 30, 2022
Radiant cut diamonds are a combination of emerald and round cut diamonds. This shape is ideal for people who love the emerald cut design but wanted it to be shinier.
Round cut diamonds are the brightest and the most sparkling of all diamond shapes because they have more reflective surfaces that light can bounce from.
On the other hand, emerald cut diamonds are popular because of their long facets. This shape complements the linear symmetry of our fingers which makes it a popular choice for statement rings.
So the radiant cut is a unique in-between shape of these two cuts. It basically gives you the look of the emerald cut with an increased brilliance.
Telling one diamond apart from the other in terms of design and details can be tough. However, recognizing a radiant-cut diamond is pretty straightforward.
It looks square(ish) like an emerald cut with rounded corners.
It is interesting to note that GIA does not define this shape as radiant-cut diamond but as a cut-cornered square or rectangular modified brilliant cut depending on the length to width ratio.
Even though diamond shapes can be differentiated based on how they look, experts need to go beyond that to identify diamonds correctly.
The radiant diamond cut usually contains straight edges, four 45-degree cut corners, and 70 facets (25 on the crown, 8 on the girdle, and 37 on the pavilion).
With these high numbers of facets in the radiant cut diamonds, this diamond-cut is more likely to forgive the inherent inclusions in diamond than any other rectangular diamond shape.
An ideal length to width ratio for square-shaped radiant-cut diamonds should be between 1 to 1.03, and for rectangular-shaped radiant-cut diamonds should be between 1.20 to 1.30.
Although what ratio you choose for your radiant cut diamond depends entirely on what you find the most aesthetically pleasing, you must consider this ideal range before finalizing.
As the L/W ratio of radiant-cut diamonds falling outside this above-stated ideal range may make your diamond look either more bulgy or slender, which is not so cool.
The depth and table percentage influences the brilliance and sparkle of a radiant-cut diamond.
For maximum brilliance in your radiant cut diamond, the permissible range of depth percentage is 61 to 67%, and table percentage is 61 to 69%.
Restricting to the above-stated range won’t eliminate all the poorly performing diamonds in your way, but it will certainly narrow your search.
As explained earlier, the precisely crafted 70 facets in radiant-cut diamonds allow the light to enter the diamond from many angles, which creates a multi-layered sparkle effect.
This multi-layer sparkle effect is popularly known as the crushed ice effect. Also, the name radiant-cut diamond comes from this unique twinkling sparkle (radiant) produced by the shape.
In some cases, this crushed ice effect creates an even contrasting glimmering effect to the diamond. In other cases, it creates a less distinctive mushy effect, which is less attractive.
The Bow-tie effect is not exclusive to the radiant cut diamonds. It appears on the poorly cut diamond of oval, heart, marquise, cushion, princess, emerald, and radiant-shaped diamond.
When radiant cut diamonds are not crafted to the ideal or nearly ideal cut dimensions, it produces a dark-patched sparkle effect, popularly known as the bow-tie effect.
With the octagonal shape and trimmed corners, the radiant cut diamonds are versatile enough to sparkle with the same brilliance in almost all jewellery settings, from vintage to modern.
Radiant cut diamonds have substantial durability against chipping, so they are ideal for those who want to wear them in day-to-day jewellery.
The most common jewellery settings for radiant cut diamonds are 4/6 prong setting, solitaire setting, 3-stone setting, halo setting, etc.
Hari Krishna Exports is one of the leading diamond manufacturers and exporters in India.
Every diamond we sell comes with an in-house Faith certification along with third-party certifications from repeated geological labs like GIA, IGI, HRD, GSI, GSL, and NGTC upon request.
HK diamonds are exported to over 80+ countries, including Australia, Belgium, Europe, UAE, the USA and more.
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