Diamond Facets - Single Cut vs Full Cut Diamonds

If you are like most folks wearing a diamond, you don’t know how many facets that rock has. Nor do you particularly care, if the ring looks sparkly. You might be interested to learn, however. Or you may be one of those folks who do care, and you are just setting out to shop for one. Read on to gain insight that will save you aggravation as well as money.

Full Cut Diamonds

Yes, this is a real term. A classic round diamond has 57 or 58 facets; and this cut is considered “full”. This cut brings out the maximum brilliance of the stone, because all those little facets reflect, refract and disperse light. In fact, brilliant is also usually in the name of the cut. You can take our word for it. We know you are not going to count those facets, but you should be able to rely on the jeweler’s word.

Now, the more facets the stone-cutter has to cut, the more expensive the diamond is going to be. Stands to reason, doesn’t it? But if you choose a ring that has little tiny diamonds in the setting, all those stones might not be full cut.

Single Cut Diamonds

Those smaller diamonds are probably single cut. For one thing, it’s very difficult to make 57 or 58 cuts on that tiny gem. For another thing, it would cost you a small fortune. So the so-called single cut diamonds have 16 to 18 facets – big difference. Those side diamonds on the setting are probably something like 1/10 of one carat. You really don’t want to pay extra to have them full cut anyway, because you won’t actually see the difference.

While shopping, it should be sufficient to inspect all the diamonds in the setting for obvious chips, cracks or other imperfections. You will feel better knowing you received the best value for the money by being aware of full cut and single cut diamonds.