Mens’s Diamond Wedding Rings: Masculine and Stylish
Men’s diamond wedding rings can be more sophisticated than originally perceived.
In order to get a good idea on what we would consider a quality diamond ring, lets take a look at the metals and diamonds used to make a good ring.
This information will certainly help you make a better purchase when the time is right to start shopping for one.
Although gold has a beautiful luster, on its own, it is not a very practical metal in regards to jewelry applications due to its softness.
This is why gold is most often mixed with other metals such as copper, silver, nickel or even zinc to create a more sturdy metal composite that will better last the test of time.
The mixing of other metals is also used to give men’s diamond wedding rings their variation in colors and tints.
White gold rings for example, usually have a distinguishing grey hue because they can contain on average 10% white metals such as palladium or nickel. Rose gold rings will usually comprise of 25% copper mixed in with yellow gold to give it its rich rose or pink tones. Depending on the ratios of different metals used, these will effectively alter the hues and tones of the rings. Copper will add a reddish tone, silver will add a greenish tone, nickle and palladium will whiten the tone, while zinc will bleach the gold altogether.
To measure the pureness of gold, karats are used to determine the mix of alloys. For example 24 karat gold is a 100 % pure gold, 18 karats would be 75% pure gold, while 14 karats is 58 % pure gold.
It is important to note gold standards in relation to karated gold vary somewhat depending on where you are in the world.
For European jewelry, 18 karat gold is the standard, however in the US, while 14 karats is the standard, gold can also be sold in 18,14, and 10 karats as well.
In regards to diamonds used in men’s diamond wedding rings, there are 4 criteria used for determining their evaluation, these are Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat.
Now it is important to distinguish between Karat and Carat. The first being for metal alloys, the other “Carat”, is used for the measurement of weight in gemstones.
In most cases the most important consideration by experts in regards to the quality of the diamond is color, where the whitest color is prized as the most valuable.
However it is important to note that the scales, or grading systems that are used to determine a stones quality can vary some what depending on where you purchase them.
There is an alphabetic grading system to label the quality of diamond in regards to their color.
This begins with the letter “D” which stands for colorless and moves down to “Z” for gemstones that have shadings or traces of color. In most cases, with out the aide of a trained eye, it can be near impossible to determine the slight traces of color in a diamond, therefore sophisticated equipment is used to make a proper identification of classes. The scale is D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z . There are certain categories as well such as “fancy colors”, “colorless”, “near colorless “, “faint yellow”, “light yellow”, “very light yellow “.
One last thing to take note is that if you have a diamond with a weight of say one carat total (1 ct TW), it would be far more
valuable than a having a group of smaller stones on the same ring adding up to the same 1 carat weight. This is because the
larger the stone, the rarer and more valuable it becomes.
And finally, remember that a diamond weight is usually stated in carats where a one carat total weight (1 ct TW) is far more valuable than a one carat stone which is made up of a grouping of smaller diamonds that add up to one carat.
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