Metal & Diamond Guide

METAL GUIDE

Sakkijha online store retail 09, 14 and 18 karat gold, hallmarked jewellery. Hallmarking involves the use of X-ray fluorescence technology, a non-invasive method of accurately defining the precious metal content to ensure the jewellery meets the legal standard for precious metal composition in the UK. The hallmark will be applied to jewellery items weighing 1g and above prior to dispatch of your gold jewellery. Your jewellery will be hallmarked based on the item’s shape and construction.

For jewellery items weighing below the UK hallmarking Act’s mandatory weight for hallmarking, the Sakkijha online store ensures certified and established goldsmiths manufacture the jewellery item with full paper trail documenting gold karat at the point of manufacture to ensure fineness requirement are confirmed.

For your peace of mind, Sakkijha online store is registered with Hallmarking Office in the UK, ensuring your 09 14 and 18 karat gold jewellery complies with hallmarking regulations prior to dispatch to your address

DIAMOND GUIDE

Before we can explore whether an earth or lab grown diamond is right for you, let us explore what a diamond is?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond

Diamond is a precious stone bearing crystal structure called diamond cubic where the arrangement of atoms is extremely rigid, leading to the highest hardness for a precious stone. Diamond also has a very high refractive index and a relatively high optical dispersion. It is not uncommon to have small number of defects or impurities leading to different colour diamonds. For example, blue colour is indicative of (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure) to name but a few.

Natural Earth Diamonds

The earth diamonds may take between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years to form. Most earth diamonds were formed at depths beyond 150 kilometres in the Earth's mantle. These have been formed due to high pressure and temperature where carbon-containing fluids dissolved various minerals and replaced them with diamonds. Earth diamonds were pushed to the surface through volcanic eruptions and deposited in igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. The first diamond was discovered in India in 4^th century BC. Today, as they have been for centuries, diamonds are one of the most beautiful and coveted objects on Earth symbolising love. Explore more here Five-reasons to choose earth diamonds on why you may want to buy natural earth diamonds

Laboratory Grown Diamonds

Laboratory grown diamonds are created using high-purity carbon under high pressures and temperatures (HPHT) or from hydrocarbon gases by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Both HPHT and CVD methods produce Laboratory grown diamonds that real diamonds, chemically, structurally and optically upon rigorous testing. Laboratory grown diamonds must not be confused with diamond simulants. Simply put, diamond simulants are manufactured to look like diamonds, but they are in fact cubic zirconium or moissanite. Therefore, diamond simulants like cubic zirconium and moissanite are not real diamonds and also referred to as imitation diamonds. Imitation diamonds/simulant diamonds are most commonly distinguished using optical techniques or thermal conductivity measurements. For your information diamonds rank 10 on Mohs Scale of hardness, moissanite ranks 9.25 and cubic zirconium ranks 8.5. Diamond’s hardness lends itself to its forever precious stone whereas moissanite and cubic zirconium are more susceptible to surface scratching. Explore more here Five reasons to choose lab-grown-diamonds

4 C's OF DIAMONDS

To help you be better informed about diamonds, we suggest you take time to read and understand the 4 C's: cut, colour, clarity, and carat of the diamond you wish to purchase. This 4 Cs rule was created by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in the 1940s, the 4 C's act as a universal scale to describe and determine the quality of diamonds.

Diamond Cut

Cut is the proportion and arrangement of facets that determine a diamond's brilliance, sparkle, and fire. The scale ranges from Excellent to Poor.

Diamond Colour

Colour scale ranges from D (colourless) to Z. Colour D is absolutely colourless or icy white. The highest colour grade—extremely rare and most expensive. Diamonds outside D to Z range are considered 'fancy colour.'

Diamond Clarity

Clarity refers to the absence of internal inclusions and surface blemishes on a diamond. The scale ranges from Internally Flawless (IF) to Included.

Diamond Carat

Carat is a measurement unit that describes a diamond's weight, not its size. One carat is roughly the weight of a paperclip.

Diamond Size

Diamond carat (ct)	Round brilliant cut diamond size (approximate size)
0.25 ct	3 mm diameter
0.5 ct	5 mm diameter
1.0 ct	6.5 mm diameter
1.5 ct	7.4 mm diameter
2.0 ct	8.1 mm diameter
4.0 ct	10.2 mm diameter

Diamond Certification

It is important to recognise that many diamonds are certified by independent institutions such as the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA), the International Gemmological Institute (IGI), HRD Antwerp, International Gem Society (IGS) and the Gem Certification & Assurance Lab (GCAL) amongst others. To grade a diamond, trained professionals use specialised equipment to assess the cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight. They may also plot a diagram of its clarity characteristics and graphic representation of its proportions. Certifications may also include notes on symmetry, polish, fluorescence, shape, or measurements.

Certifications are helpful as they detail not only the quality characteristics of your stone but also its authenticity. During the certification process, most diamonds are laser inscribed with a unique number that correlates to the number on its certification — meaning that, under magnification, you'll always be able to visually confirm that the diamond you have is the same one that was certified. We provide the shop diamond certificate to customers with their purchase for solitaire diamonds over 0.5 carat.