Is the Quadex – Square Hearts And Arrows Cut Any Good?

It’s hip to be square…

Even though the ideal round brilliant cut has been developed more than a century ago in 1919, it has become the industry standard of diamond shapes despite its short history of less than a century.

Today, the two most popular shapes in the consumer market are the round brilliant cut and the princess cut; which is also often called a square modified brilliant.

One of the most compelling features of the standard 57 facets round brilliant cut is the display of a “hearts and arrows” effect. When looking at a perfectly cut stone from its pavilion using a special viewer, you will see an optical image of 8 symmetrical hearts. On the other hand, when you are looking at the brilliant cut from the crown, you ought to see shapes resembling arrows.

While this kaleidoscopic image was discovered by accident, the effects brought about by a well proportioned stone is evident in a rhapsody of sparkles exhibited by the diamond. Obviously, this unique effect is desired in many other basic shapes and fortunately, diamond cutters had enough time since 1919 to answer that need.

What Shall We Call Our Precious?

If you love the brilliance and scintillation of the standard round brilliant cut, you are also likely to be drawn by the play of hearts and arrows patterns. What if you would like to stick with a rectangular or squarish shape instead of a round? At first glance, the original cushion cut might seem to be a good solution to incorporate these cutting techniques.

However, if you do a little reading up about the history of the cushion shape, you will soon find that they have been around for more than two hundred years. In fact, this makes them much older than the brilliant cut. Also, with modern research and development, there has already been success in creating cushion cut diamonds with a facet layout resembling the modern brilliant cuts.

By doing so, features of the hearts and arrows scheme had also been successfully transcended into these new cuts. The Brellia company is one that specializes in the cushion hearts and arrows diamonds.

What about implementing a similar facet layout of the round diamond to a square diamond? Could this be doable? Even though squaring the circle was something the great Archimedes had headaches in achieving, the result of cutting technologies and research has yielded square shaped stones that exhibit the H&A patterning too!

Facet Structure of the Quadex Diamond (a.k.a. Angel Cut)

In order to achieve the same stunning visual effects round diamonds display, cutters have to pay very close attention to the diamond’s design on a facet by facet basis.

Symmetry is essential when it comes to h&a diamonds and facet placements have to be extremely precise. Even a difference of a few hundredths of millimeters can cause alterations that savvy eyes can detect. And when a stone is cut to such perfection, it is going to be so good that it would outperform round brilliants in terms of light performance.

So, is the Square Cut H&A Diamond Actually a Good Choice?

Without any doubt, the hearts and arrows pattern is a phenomenon that most people think of and associate with well cut diamonds. Combining this wonder with one of the most laid-back and elegant shapes of a radiant cut, you are obviously going to have a winner.

Now, the square hearts and arrows is a proprietary cut. It has been developed by a business company and its distribution is limited to selected vendors. Keep in mind that this will probably lead to a somewhat higher price tag than that of round brilliants with identical specifications. The upside to this is these proprietary diamonds are usually well-screened for quality since they represent the image of a company behind them.

One of the best examples is Brian Gavin’s Quadex.

Review of Brian Gavin’s Quadex Diamonds

Let’s take a look at one of the diamonds from this signature series…

1.081 G VS2 Hearts and Arrows Quadex

The price tag on this stone is $10,373 and it is very close to what an ideal cut round brilliant (with similar specifications) is selling for.

For people who like to have a unique diamond shape without sacrificing optical performance, the Quadex is one of the best diamond cuts which displays broad flashes of scintillation and fire.

Beautiful Shape – Unique Design. Enuff’ said.

The Idealscope and ASET Data Simply Scream FIREWORKS!

Thanks to the stunning light reflection capacity of the cut, you might even get to save some money by going for a diamond with lower color and clarity.

Whichever route you choose between the round or square hearts and arrows diamond, it is definitely going to be a blast for you. It conveys true exquisiteness and really represents a unique choice.

You want to make your bride the princess of any ballroom? Just get her a Quadex engagement ring from Brian Gavin and sit back to enjoy the stream of compliments coming in.

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