Glossary of Terms

Acidizing:

For a diamond to sparkle and shine, it is necessary to remove all the impurities. This process is completed after mining and cutting. So, the rough diamonds should be quickly immersed in powerful acids in order to clear itself from the impurities. This is done to remove the dirt, residue from the girdle and especially to remove oxides or polish residues from the surface fissures. Therefore, Acidizing is a method for cleaning and removing the color coating from rough diamonds, in a solution consisting of hydrofluoric acid. This process is also called as boiling or de-oxidizing.

AGS:

The American Gem Society is a non-profit professional organization of jewelers that was established in 1934 by Robert M Shipley. Around 3,400 jewelers, retailers, suppliers, individual titleholders and affiliates are committed to ethical business, consumer protection and maintenance of superior gemological skills. The Society trains and certifies jewelers, gemologists and jewelry appraisers. The goal of the American Gem Society has always been to create an organization and aid the jewelry purchasing public from misleading and fraudulent advertising. The peer reviewed application process is conducted for every member, which is then followed by the annual recertification exam in order to join the American Gem Society.

AGSL:

With strict standards of diamond grading that would help protect the consumers, the elite group of jewelers, started the American Gem Society Laboratories, which is affiliated to the American Gem Society. The Society was founded since 1996 to provide accuracy in the diamond grading services to the members of the industry. The jewelers are able to assess in accordance of the Four C’s: Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight. To verify the quality on diamonds, a diamond grading quality report is issued to the consumers on their purchase. Laser inscription services are also provided by the American Gem Laboratories that does not affect the quality of the diamond.

AGTA:

The American Gem Trade Association is a non-profit organization in Dallas, Texas. The AGTA is an association of United States and Canadian trade professionals and devoted in the awareness of colored gemstones and cultured pearls to the consumers and jewelry professionals. The AGTA assists in the educational and professional development that will boost and improve knowledge on gemstone products, stay updated with latest trends and enrich your gemstone sales skills. An online e-learning platform is also launched to provide quality and get affordable educational modules on colored gemstones and pearls.

A Jour:

À jour is a French term, literally meaning allowing light to penetrate. It is used to describe an open style of setting of a gem in any mounting, which permits a view of its pavilion. Most modern mounts are of this type, unlike earlier closed setting. To identify a real diamond, a halo is produced around it as soon as the light is passed through it. And in the fake one, the light that passes right through the diamond will be observable on the other side.

Alloyed:

Alloy is a substance composed of two or more metallic elements with non-metallic elements, such as steel. Alloy is produced to obtain properties such as durability, strength and hardness. It is generally alloyed with copper, silver, nickel or platinum in order to increase the strength of the gold. Carats or Karats are used for measuring the alloys of gold. A karat is a unit equal to 1/24 part of pure gold in an alloy. Twenty four karat is the supreme, softest and pure quality gold whereas 14 karat gold is 14 parts pure gold mixed with 10 parts of other metals.

Anneal:

Annealing is the method by which the metals are heated and slowly cooled to give them more tenancies and make them less brittle by eliminating various stresses and weakness. When the piece is coated with boric acid and alcohol before annealing gold or silver, it helps minimize cleanup and reduces oxidization. For proper annealing, the metal is brought up long enough to a hot temperature that causes annealing. Many times, either the temperature is not held enough or the metal may not have possessed a high temperature. Annealed diamond changes its color from green of reactor-treated to yellow orange or brown, by 200 degree Celsius to 800 degree Celsius.

Appraisal :

A diamond appraisal evaluates the value of the gemstone or jewelry item. A detailed appraisal document contains the cut, clarity, carat weight, color of all the diamonds, style of the rings, the carat weight and shape of any colored stones, the metal and fineness of the jewelry item along with any identifying marks, hallmarks or stamps. It can be acquired from a retailer or an independent diamond appraiser. Diamond appraisal documents are a must for the jewelry insurance purposes. Since, it will be added to your policy for the proper insurance coverage rate of the item.

Assay :

The assay test analyzes the purity of the gold or silver and represents the true value of the metal. A tiny piece of metal is scraped from the piece and the percentage of gold or silver is determined. Official assay offices determine whether a piece qualifies for an appropriate hallmark. The assay services include the potential to increase the diamond value, receive the current cut grade and improve the re-cut grade, obtain the estimated dollar value before and after re-cutting, verify the diamond authenticity, view the comprehensive diamond 3D models with information for re-cut improvement and print the customized grading report.

Asscher :

The asscher cut diamond similar to a square emerald cut diamond, was first created by the Asscher brothers of Holland in 1902. The asscher diamond is a square shaped diamond having dramatic cut corners that forms an octagonal outline with rectangular facets. In the 1920’s, the popularity of the asscher diamonds was at its zenith. Also, it was mostly found in the antique jewelry shops. After hundred years, the asscher diamond made a comeback with ultimate modifications and in recent trends, asscher diamond rings are immensely popular. The modern asscher cut includes the larger step facets and a higher crown. The diamond maintains its unique shape when held in four prong setting in.

Wax Injector:

A device for forcing molten wax into a rubber or metal mold in order to make a wax pattern. Pressure for the wax injection is supplied by compressed air or hydraulic pressure.

White Diamond:

A diamond color grade approximately equivalent to GIA grades F, G, H, and AGS grades 1 and 2.

Window:

Is the facet polished on a rough diamond in order to see inside it.

Yellow Diamond:

A color-grading term measured by grade Z on the GIA scale or grade 10 on the AGS scale. Stones that are deeper than Z or 10 are designated fancy yellow. The yellow diamonds come in variation of yellow shades ranging from fancy light yellow to fancy vivid yellow. The fancy light yellow diamonds are extremely affordable and their price is similar to I color diamonds whereas the fancy vivid diamonds are very rare and glitter like very few diamonds. Fancy deep yellow diamonds have a distinctive color that is not preferred by everyone. Fancy intense yellow diamonds are also called Canary Diamonds because of its extremely pure and clear yellow shade.

Yellow Gold:

Yellow gold has always been a popular gold alloy. It is an alloy of gold, silver, copper and sometimes zinc. The gold is purest when the carat is higher but the metal remains less durable. It is also known to be the purest of all the gold colors. It doesn’t cause any unlikely allergic reactions among all the gold colors. Yellow gold is known to maintain its value and looks significant with platinum, white gold and silver. The other prime benefit is that it doesn’t lose its luster. It is also the most malleable. Yellow gold engagement rings or other gold jewelry complements the people with warm skin tones.