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Diamond Terms R

~ Diamond Terminology from A to Z ~

There are thousands of terms being used in today's jewelry industry. Some common knowledge, others are obscure and baffling. We've created a database of terminology from A to Z to make it easy, and of course if you still have questions, please do not hesitate to send us an email or give us a call.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Radiant Cut

It's more of rectangular fancy shape cut for a diamond. Unlike the Emerald Cut where the edges appear more beveled, the Radiant Cut has an appearance of the corners being rounded and trimmed.

Rapaport

The main listing of diamond prices and news relating to diamonds. Basically what Rapaport says a certain Carat weight, combined with a certain color and a certain clarity, and a specific cut and shape is then that is usually the standard for pricing. So if Rapaport says a 1ct, G, Si2, round cut is worth 4000/ct then that diamond is worth 4K.

If you plan on selling your diamond to a company that buys and sells diamonds, the company would look up your diamond in the Rapaport listings and see it's actual worth and offer you approximately half to three quarters what the listing says. If you say to yourself, NO WAY, I bought that diamond for much more than what this "company" is offering, then you probably bought your diamond at a retail price. Jewelry stores, especially offline jewelry stores look at the Rapaport price and charge about 1K to 5k more for it. But there is no way a diamond buying company will pay what you paid for it when they can get the exact same quality diamond at the Rapaport price or lower. Sometimes your best bet when you want to sell a diamond you bought at a jewelry store is trade it in, or sell it yourself to another person not in the diamond business.

Reflection

Reflection is light bouncing off an object. In the case of diamonds it's the light bouncing off all the facets (mirror like flat surfaces). If the light can bounce or reflect off each surface at the perfect degree then all of the light will reflect back out the top of the diamond giving it it's shine, brilliance, fire and sparkle.

Rhodium Plating

Rhodium Plating is the process used to describe turning yellow gold into white gold. White gold does NOT naturally occur in nature. Yellow gold, however, does occur naturally, and it must go through this chemical process to obtain the white gold look. Rhodium plating does wear off over time. Eventually your white gold jewelry will revert back to it's yellow gold look, when this happens you need to send your jewelry back in to wherever your purchased it and have it re-rhodium plated.

River

This term actually means the color D. It's not very common. The color E in actuality means white, while River or the color D is actually referring to "void of color" When it comes to anything besides fancy colors the more void of color the diamond is, the more valuable it becomes assuming all other 4C's are equal or close to it.

Rose-gold, Rose Gold

The only gold that is pure gold is 24K gold. The others like 22K, 18K, 14K, and 10K, all have metal alloys mixed in with them, and depending on what alloy you use you will achieve different colors, hardness, and looks. In the case of Rose Gold the more copper you mix in with the pure gold the more pink or rose color you'll achieve. However add to much copper and you'll end up with slop that will harden with a very unattractive color and brittleness to it.

Round Cut

The round cut is the most common cut in the diamond industry. It's also the priciest. Partly because you lose a lot of my rough diamond to make a round cut, also because it has the best properties for reflecting light through and up, and back out again to create a brilliant sparkle. Hence the term Round Brilliant Cut. It has 58 facets like the old styles such as old miners cut, however the culet comes to a point instead of being faceted.