If you are planning of buying a diamond, it is essential that you must know about its grading. These are assessed based on four quality elements or four Cs in order to determine its value. These four quality elements or four Cs of ranking are the Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat. These four quality elements along with the carat weight determine the value of the diamond. Most people believe that clarity is the most important aspect of all the quality elements, however, color and cut has more weight on the visual.



Carat

Carat is the unit used in measuring all gemstones. The carat weight is the calculation of the mass. A single carat is subdivided into a hundred points. Hence, if a diamond has a measurement of 75 points, it is 3 by 4 carat in weight or 0.75 carat. A single gram is composed of five carats. The word carat is derived from the Greek word keration meaning fruit of the carob. The seeds of the carob tree pod where used primarily for their reputation of having the same weight. Carob seeds were used during the earlier centuries to weigh precious gemstones.

Clarity

Clarity is an important element that determines the number, nature, position, size and color of internal features called inclusions and blemishes. The clarity is mostly determined by looking for flaws and on the surface of the diamond. The clarity categorized in six levels. From F which stands for flawless to I for imperfect and included.

Colors

The color ranges from vibrant hues of the rainbow to colorless. These are categorized into four groups. These are colorless, nearly colorless, light yellow, gray or brown and fancy colors. One with hues contrasting yellow or brown shades are more valuable and much rarer. Gemologist have developed a grading system for the diamonds that has fancy colors, although these grading system of colors for these kinds of colored are not widely used because of its rarity with fancy color.

Cut

Cut is the most neglected diamond grading element. The stones can be cut in various ways. It is not determined by the shape of the diamond but the manner of the workmanship and the angles of how the diamond is cut. One of the easiest ways to determine this element in the ranking is by looking if it does not flash in the light or if it does not glitter when it is shined with a direct beam of light, chances are that it is not well cut.