HEARTS AND ARROWS PHENOMENON
HEARTS AND ARROWS PHENOMENON
To see and confirm this hearts and arrows pattern in a diamond, one must use a specially designed light directing viewer called a Firescope which was developed by another Japanese Ken Shigetomi. The Hearts and Arrows Viewer is a rather simple device that allows the viewer to analyse the physical symmetry, contrast and alignment of facets of a diamond by viewing the stone through both the crown area and pavilion area of a diamond, by directing white and coloured light at set angles in order to catch and reflect light back from specific facets and angles of the diamond.
The first Hearts and Arrows diamonds surfaced in the mid 1980’s in Japan and embodied three important design factors. First, they have to be polished to “ideal proportions”, very close to those summarized by the most famous polisher of all time, Marcel Tolkowsky in his 1919 book, Diamond Design. Second, they needed to be cut with superior physical and optical symmetry so that they would garner a grade of Excellent Fire in the Japanese laboratories when the phenomenon started. The third and very important factor was that they were cut to a very specific brillianteering scheme to produce the accepted hearts and arrows pattern. This faceting scheme involves prescribed lengths and ratios as well as smaller tables sizes that are imperative in producing a distinctive, repeatable and gradable hearts and arrows pattern.
Less than 1% of gem rough crystals are pure enough to become a hearts and arrows diamond. Using 100 times magnification and analysis through all stages of production, the expertcutters create perfection at 10 times global standards for grading and evaluation.
A Hearts and Arrows Excellent cut diamond with excellent polish and symmetry takes up to four times longer to cut than other diamonds. The polisher and nowadays the rough diamond cutting software developer require additional expertise to prepare the rough diamond to be polished in such a way so that perfection is achieved. A Hearts and Arrows diamond is deemed to be more expensive than a normal brilliant cut diamond as the rough diamond loses more of its weight when polished to ideal proportions.
Marlows Diamonds are a firm believer of supplying the finest quality diamonds to the discerning consumer. Hence we have one of the largest stockholdings of Hearts & Arrows Diamonds in Birmingham in a variety of colours and clarities to choose from.