Brian Gavin has a huge reputation in the diamond industry. And he particularly has this reputation for his incredible perfectionism in terms of diamonds with the perfect diamond cut. In fact, he was one of the pioneers of the so-called hearts and arrows diamonds.
In 2004 he presented a formal paper at the 1st International Diamond Cut Conference in Moscow and explained how hearts and arrows diamonds should be graded. Major diamond grading labs and industry peers approved and endorsed the new hearts and arrows grading standards set out by Brian Gavin.
Read my post on hearts and arrows diamonds to see what they are all about! Brian Gavin himself claims that his signature hearts and arrows diamonds are optically balanced for maximum visual performance and the best of the best. Let us see whether Brian Gavin can really live up to its promise.
Brian Gavin signature hearts and arrows diamonds
We will get a little bit geeky within this review and really look at the deciding factors of the beauty of a hearts and arrows diamond.
I have randomly chosen three hearts and arrows diamonds from Brian Gavin’s signature series. Let us just call them Diamond 1, Diamond 2 and Diamond 3 You can find the proportions of the diamonds below:
Now, let’s begin with the basics. As you might have read in my post about the round cut diamond the perfect proportions for a round cut diamond are the following:
Now, the suggested proportions for Super Ideal diamonds are already very strict and in fact they are even stricter than GIA’s and AGS’s standard to grade a diamond with the best cut grade.
What is striking is the fact that all the diamonds above match the Super Ideal proportions without a problem! Please be aware that AGS uses the terminology “pointed” for a culet where GIA uses “none”. It is the same and it means that the culet is a finely sharpened point and not a flat surface. Otherwise the culet could appear to be an inclusion.
Idealscope images for Brian Gavin signature hearts and arrows diamonds
Let us have a look at all the single Idealscope images of each Diamond:
Now, I really don’t know what to say but the light performance of every single diamond seems to be perfect. Diamond 2 has a small inclusion as this is a SI1 graded diamond. Other than that there is no light leakage in any diamond! In case you don’t know how an Idealscope image works please read my post on Idealscope and ASET images.
The bottomline is that the fewer white spots the Idealscope image exhibits the fewer points of light leakage can be found in a diamond. Thus, the more light gets returned to the viewer’s eye and the more sparkle the diamond exhibits. In usual diamonds you can always find some white spots of light leakage:
Please keep in mind that Idealscope images are particularly well suited to compare different diamonds to each other.
By the way in diamond 2 you can see a little inclusion in the diamond as this is a SI1 diamond.
ASET images for Brian Gavin signature hearts and arrows diamonds
Now, let’s have a look at the ASET images of all the three diamonds:
What you are mostly looking for in an ASET image is lots of red/organge because this is where light is returned to the viewer’s eye. The blue color just adds a contrast and the green color is for areas that are less bright or where the light is coming froh the environment. It is normal to have some green areas on on the verge of the diamond. By the way, the green dot in the middle is caused by the reflection of the table facet on the pavilion facets. The color that you don’t want to see is the white color because it symbolizes light leakage.
Now, the second diamond does have very tiny whiter spots near some blue pavilions. This means that there is very little light leaking away through the diamond. To be honest, it would be exaggerated to call it real light leakage but the ASET image in this case would show you that diamond 2 does not perform as good as diamond 1 and diamond 3 do.
However, to give you an idea what you can expect from diamonds with a “Very Good” cut grade just have a look at the diamonds below:
All in all, the Idealscope and ASET images provided by Brian Gavin make it very easy for you to choose a diamond with superior light performance. Furthermore, you can compare different diamonds with a superior light performance to each other to really choose the very best diamond possible.
Brian Gavin signature hearts and arrows diamonds viewed through a H&A Viewer
Now, let’s have a look at the three diamonds through a hearts-and-arrows viewer. This viewer provides a contrasting pattern that makes it very easy to see the symmetry of a diamond:
In my post about hearts and arrows diamonds I described how you can distinguish between near and true hearts and arrows diamonds. I think that there can be no doubt that these 3 diamonds are all true hearts and arrows diamonds.
The symmetry of the hearts and arrows patterning is simply perfect and if you want to make sure to have a true hearts and arrows diamond I would go no further than Brian Gavin Diamonds.
Conclusion of Brian Gavin signature hearts and arrows diamonds
Having chosen 3 random diamonds within the Brian Gavin Diamonds signature hearts and arrows series I really got three perfect hearts and arrows diamonds! Brian Gavin really did not promise too much.
I feel like Brian Gavin is the real deal if you want to have a diamond with a truly outstanding and uniquely perfect cut – a true hearts and arrows diamond!
The diamonds themselves combined with the Idealscope, ASET and hearts-and-arrows-viewer images and the outstanding customer service really make Brian Gavin the place to go for all people looking for hearts and arrows diamonds.
Go and check out Brian Gavin and their hearts and arrows diamonds for yourself!
On the next page I will have a close look at Brian Gavin Blue Diamonds. Read on to learn more…
