Once you have an understanding of the 4 C’s you can start to make an informed decision about the particular diamond you would like to own. Sometimes you have to make a compromise on either the colour, clarity or size to enable you to keep within your budget and even a small drop on the colour grade or the clarity grade may allow you to retain a larger size diamond, or drop a fraction on the size and you could keep the higher colour and clarity. The cut area of the 4 C’s refers to how well the diamond has been cut in terms of symmetry and whether the stone is too deep or too shallow to allow the light to pass through correctly.

Diamonds tend to be the traditional gemstone of choice for engagement and eternity rings, either alone or with coloured gemstones. They can be mounted in yellow or white gold or platinum – personal choice. Often, even if the ring shank is yellow gold, the diamond is set in white gold or platinum as a yellow setting can make the diamond appear to have a yellow tinge. Bear in mind that if you choose a white gold ring mount it will be rhodium plated to give it a bright white finish and, as with any plating, over time this will wear off and you will need to have it re-rhodium plated, a process which involved stripping off any remaining rhodium, thoroughly cleaning and polishing the mount and then re-plating. For those who wish to avoid this process and being without their jewellery whilst the work is carried out then the best choice would be platinum which is a naturally white metal and therefore does not need any plating.

As far as styles of mount are concerned, whatever the item is, ring, pendant, earrings, the ideal setting for a diamond is one that allows the light to penetrate the gem, and exit from the top of the gem to create the maximum dispersion (projection of the rainbow colours). Claw settings are usually very good for this. However, for many reasons, some people prefer a smooth, rub over style of setting and although they do enclosed the diamond more than a claw setting, some rub over mounts have slits around the edges to allow the light to pass into the diamond. Another smooth style of setting is the channel setting, frequently used for eternity rings where the diamonds are in a straight line and are held either side of the setting in a small channel. This style is often used for round brilliant cut diamonds, square princess cut diamonds or rectangular baguette cut diamonds.