A dirty diamond knows no class.

Regardless of what anybody tells you, the maximum light return for any diamond in any shape is 91% (Give or take .1). Class 1; A.G.S. 000; American Ideal; Kaplan; 8-Star; Hearts on Fire or High Definition, 91% is all you get. In the end mathematician Tolkowsky’s numbers for rounds hold up and mathematician R.W. Ditchburn Ph. D proved in his monumental book "Light" that the same concepts could be applied to any shape diamond. In simplistic terms you need three things to appreciate the sparkle of a diamond:

1. An observer
2. A diamond
3. A light source

Remove any one and you’re left pondering does a tree that falls in the forest make a sound if there is no one there to hear it. Or better said how much beauty can a diamond possess in the dark or how well received can a diamond be if never viewed?

I’ve spent the better part of my adult life helping people critique, evaluate and eventually choose the best diamond for them. With each passing day, the diamond buying public is becoming more savvy. However, many of you are buying magnificent diamonds, then allowing them to gather so much soot, dirt, oil, hand lotion, soap, hair spray and grease that any benefit from buying a well-proportioned, white, eye-clean, gigantic rock is negated. Please remember this fact: A dirty diamond knows no class! Repeat it again, A DIRTY DIAMOND KNOWS NO CLASS. It doesn’t make a difference whether you have a well-proportioned, Class 1 versus a poorly proportioned Class 4, if you don’t keep it clean. If you as the wearer of a new diamond aren’t prepared to clean your diamond everyday, day in and day out, religiously, then throw my book away or anybody else’s book that you have read on diamonds! It won’t make one bit of difference what clarity or color grade you have if you don’t keep it clean! And I’m not talking once a week clean or clean it when it gets dirty clean. I’m talking EVERDAY clean! Taking 60 seconds of your day to drop your ring in an ultrasonic cleaner. If you’re not willing to do that, you’ve flushed a lot of money away.

If you’re a man reading this and you’re about to plunk 6K down for a 1carat diamond and you know your fiancé to be can’t keep her own car clean much less a new diamond clean, then stop!! Re-evaluate your purchase. When the only benefit of a good diamond is increased light return (when clean) then don’t purchase a good quality diamond if the diamond can’t be properly maintained. At the end of any given day, even the 91% diamonds will have only 67% light return due to the oil and dirt that accumulates from normal wear. Within a week the diamond will look like a tropical depression has moved in, hazy and foggy with poor visibility. For off-makes (poorly proportioned stones) the effect is more rapid; within two days lifeless city! But in the end if neither the cheap half-price Class 4 or the expensive sparkly dynamo is cleaned, they will look the same!

I tell my clients everyday, a great diamond is like a battery operated toy at Christmas. It’s fun and exciting as long as you’ve got working batteries in the toy. Allowing a diamond to get dirty is like removing the batteries from the toy. Please keep your diamonds clean and if not, trade them in for crummy ones and pocket the savings.

Remember: A dirty diamond knows no class.