The 4C�s of Diamond selection

When you are buying diamonds, you need to make sure look for the 4 Cs�. These are the various characteristics based on which diamonds are graded and categorized by the diamond industry. The four characteristics which are considered the most important in determining a diamond’s value are as follows.

• Cut
• Clarity
• Color
• Carat weight

There is also a ‘Fifth C’ that you need to look for

• Certificates

CUT

This denotes the brilliance of the diamond and depends heavily on the cut of the diamond. A good cut gives a diamond its brilliance, which is the brightness that seems to come from the very heart of a diamond. The angles and finish of any diamond are what determine its ability to handle light, which leads to brilliance.

Clarity

Usually diamonds have several internal flaws or inclusions that occur during its formation. The visibility, number and size of these flaws/inclusions determine the clarity of the diamond. Diamonds that are clear create more brilliance. This makes them more valuable and therefore more expensive.

Colour

Colorless diamonds are the most desirable since they allow the most refraction of light (sparkle). Off white diamonds absorb light, inhibiting brilliance.

Carat Weight

A carat is the unit of weight by which a diamond is measured. Because large diamonds are found less commonly than small diamonds, the price of a diamond rises exponentially to its size. Read this guide to get a better understanding of what a carat is and how it affects the appearance of a diamond.

The Fifth C: Certificates

The diamond certificate, which is sometimes called a grading report, is a complete evaluation of your diamond that has been performed by a qualified professional with the help of special gemological instruments. Each stone bears its own recognizable, individual characteristics, which is listed on the certificate.    

Authenticity of Gold

The usage of gold jewellery was there for many centuries, though there is no specific reeord saying as to when the usage exactly started. The archaeological findings, statues and paintings – all depicted the wearing of jewellery. Gold is considered to be a noble metal; even the literatures and the religious granthas have mentioned about its nobility. In the olden days, the royal families owned lots of jewellery with precious stones embedded in gold. This gold is found near the banks of the rivers, in deep mines and in the veins of the stones. This may not be very pure when it is mined out. Later, they had the amalgamation of other metals; the refineries took the ores, crushed it and processed it with various chemicals to get fine gold for usage. It has to be refined to 99.99% to get 24 carat. In common parlance it means that 24 carat gold which is also known as ‘fine gold’ has a purity of 99.99%.   Jewellery manufactured in various Countries, have different carat quality. In some places, it is 9 carat jewellery while at other places, it is 14 caratt and in the same way it goes on upto 22 carat to 23 carat. Only very few pieces of jewellery are in 24 carat. The yellow sheen, its luster and the tensile strength (its stretching ability), malleability � are the features that have attracted the goldsmiths to make jewellery out of it. In India, in the past, the practice was to make jewels out of 22 carat. As mentioned earlier, the mined gold which is not pure, is sent to the refinery to be purified to the maximum and is re-converted into carat gold by using other metals.

In South India, people alloyed fine gold with copper to the tune of 8.34% to arrive at 22 carat gold. For you to understand it better, the calculation is given as under :-

Fine gold 99.99% divided by 24 carat and the resultant is multiplied by 22, you arrive at 91.66, i.e. 99.99 24 ct = 4.166 x 22 = 91.66. 18 carat is 75% pure 9 carat is 39.50% pure and etc etc. Normally, the alloy gives a different sheen to the basic metal, for example, fine gold mixed with copper alone, gives an orangish-yellow colour. This is liked by South Indians and they call it sovereign gold. In the North, they mix silver with fine gold and hence the sheen will be pale yellow colour.   In Western countries, normally for wedding bands and jewellery, they use 9 carat gold and mix costlier alloy like platinum, palladium, chromium etc etc. This is because it becomes stronger than the soft gold. In the olden days, a particular community was making jewellery in South India and they were known as the ”Vishwakarmas”. These Vishwakarrnas in turn. passed on the knowledge to their generations that followed. They made fine beautiful jewellery. Our antique jewellery are priced very high in the Indian as well as in the international market. In the past, our artisans were good craftsmen but lacked technical knowledge as regards the quality or the fineness. They crafted only beautiful pieces but to arrive at the quality: it varied from 1% to 30 � 40% and their making place was not modern as it is today.

Let me define the old workshop to you :-

The old workshop was only a poorly managed place, with broken tiles, smoky and dirty walls, broken wooden tools, pot furnace with anvil on the ground, squatting on the ground and pouring water on the furnace to douse it, inhaling the unhealthy smoke and most of them suffered from ill health and the jewellery they made was exemplary by look but the quality differed from 3 to 4 carat, since they did not know the art of modern fusion system. To give you an example a 22 carat gold jewellery with lot of workmanship varied to about 18 carat due to the uncontrollable inferior soldering used. This is because they did not know the modern technology and that is why in conventional jewellery, in the olden days, it was difficult for the goldsmiths as well as the jewelers to give you a correct picture of the purity maintained in your jewellery. But, this is not the case with modern technology. The international people liked our jewellery but since we could not arrive at its fineness in the hallmarking to make good jewellery, they transferred the technique to the trained Indian goldsmiths and others. This institute trains you to know the quality of the metal and how to fusion it with the modern technology, how to maintain the gold standards in the workshop without pollution and also to maintain the waste management, good design with good artisans and catcad methods. This place is called a “Studio”. It is never mentioned as ‘Workshop’ or Tatarai’. The studio will have a good ambience, modern gadgets, electrical instruments and also furnaces of electrical versions, no pollution and no squatting on the floor, instead there will be chairs and tables. In short, it is like a modern laboratory. The jewels turned out from such studios can be hallmarked for its quality since the trained technicians do the job as a teamwork and hence it will cost you a little more than the old method. But everything is fine tuned and we can arrive at the quality at the BIS hallmarking centre. That is why, we can maintain the accurate quality and give the BIS stamp to you. What is BIS ? Bureau of Indian Standard, to give you a correct picture of the purity of the precious metal you wear as also the quality maintained in your jewellery. They are going to make it mandatory for the local market soon. BIS is trying its level best to open its labs in every nook and corner of the country to ascertain the quality of gold. To encourage the jewellers, they have given an option that if all the jewellers have 10% of their jewellery hallmarked (as on date), they can use the hallmark logo for their advertisement purpose, stating that their jewellery store is a hallmarked jewellery shop. About 3 to 4 years back, all over India, only 10% of the jewelers had hallmark jewellery, that too, to the tune of 10% only. In India, both put together, big and small jewellers comprised a membership of around 3.5 lakhs and out of this only 35,000 (10%) jewellers had BIS hallmark and again out of the 35,000, only 700 shops (2%) had full BIS hallmark. We at OKJ are proud to say that we started hallmarking all our jewels since 2005 and hence OKJ is a fully hallmarked jewellery shop. That is the reason why we are unable to compromise on the wastage/making charge, announced by many jewellery stores. OKJ primarily began in 1933 in Kerala and came to Chennai in 1959, under the name of “Kerala Jewellers” and thereafter came to be known as ‘WU. \\e manufacture and procure the hallmark jewellery from our workshop and from the manufacturing unit. OKJ has got a professional purchasing team and a testing unit to give you, both quality of fineness and quality of workmanship with BIS hallmarking stamp. This will definitely cost you a little more than the non-tested and non-checked jewellery. We have proved to the international market and it will take some time for us to prove it to the local crowd. Now, to apply the cost of the fine jewellery, manufactured by the qualified designers, crafted by the qualified artisans through high profile (Studio) manufacturing centres to our local market with the quality marked BIS with 100% buy-back policy will be a little costlier than locally crafted and disposed by other jewellers. Last but not the least, people seem to be of the opinion that tarnished gold does not maintain its quality. This belief is not true. A hallmarked fashion jewellery can get tarnished due to reasons such as the environment, sweat, cosmetics etc. but with the application of a strong polish, this process can be controlled. However, under no circurnstance. the quality of gold change . Inferior finish of the jewellery due to lack of technical knewhot,v can not only reduce the weight but also speed up the process of damage, inspite of the high quality. Next time, when you visit our showroom at OKJ, our qualified sales team will be in a position to explain the intricacies of the jewellery to you to your satisfaction. For us at OKJ, each and every customer is a valued customer and we all extend a warm welcome to you.