Hi, this is Ronnie Mervis from Mervis Diamond Importers and I am back and we are going to talk about clarity. Now, clarity relates to what's inside the diamond also known as purity. Diamonds are born in nature and nothing in nature is perfect. Everything has a natural grain. Diamonds too have got growth marks inside them. Some people call then flaws, we don't nothing is a flaw, it's a mark of nature, it's an imperfection. Every diamond even the most perfect diamond has a minor inclusion as well. So we have a standard by which we judge it.
Here we magnify it ten times and the criterion is whether a trained eye, knowing what he or she is looking for can see anything in the diamond. If there is nothing at all to be seen inside under ten power we call the diamond Internally Flawless, abbreviated as IF. Here is a little chart and on the chart in the extreme left in the clarity grading scale, we have IF standing for Internally Flawless.
Coming down the scaler tad if there was a tiniest, tiniest little dots, or marks, or inclusions extremely difficult to pick up under magnification, impossible to see with your naked eye we will call this stone VVS1. Standing for Very, Very Slightly included category one, VVS for short. If it's a tad lower than and it will be code VVS2. The best stones are other ones which have the least imperfections or inclusions as possible so after internally flawless, which is of course the most expensive. We have VVS1 and VVS2 again standing for very, very slight category one and category two.
If we go down a little bit we come to VS. We just drop one V, certainly we drop one very. Instead of being it very, very small, we now call it very small, very small one, very small two. At this point the inclusions are little larger, and little easier to find under magnifications but still beyond the eyesight of the best eye you can get. Going down from there we get a sort of small inclusions. We call them SI1, SI2, SI3. By the time you get to SI2, you could just about begin to see smallest inclusions there. SI3, which is new grade if you got eyes you would see it with your natural eye, under magnification you will see it pretty easily.
Again going down from that point, we go into the imperfect range and we call them I. I1, I2, I3 for Imperfect. An imperfect a good eye will see it. In picking your clarity realize that most times you can't see it anyhow so whether it's there or not is really only something which will be picked up by magnification and see most people don't walk around with the magnifier in their pocket or have one glue to the head. It doesn't really make all that much difference. The reason why it cost that much more if it has higher clarity grading and one which doesn't have the equivalent clarity grading is because the rarity factor.
Diamonds occur much more frequently with minor inclusions in then they occur without them so it's a rarity issue. My advice to everybody out there you don't need to go to the very top of the scale because you are buying a difference that most times you can't see. If you go into the middle of the scale, the diamonds are more plentifully available their price is more easily affordable and you can't see the difference anyhow.
So, selecting in the middle is just fine.
If you are looking to save a little bit of money and that's not a bad idea these days, it's okay to drop down in the scale because nobody is going to see it anyhow. You will receive the certificate, which will say what it is, but that shouldn't bother you too much and if you working with a reputable jeweler, diamond dealer will take your diamond back and allow you to trade up at a later stage with a full value refund. You are paying only the difference between what you purchased and a better one. It's okay to get a starter diamond with some minor inclusions in them because you can always give it back later and get bigger, better different shape, different anything and if the money comes in later that's a good time to step up and get out of any inclusion issue that you might have been into start.
So that's it on the clarity scale and when we come back we are going to talk about color and the color of the diamond is something that going to want to know all about.