Border City Jewellers has access to a vast international array of diamonds world wide as well as our own Canadian diamonds from the Ekati mine in North West Territories. Check out the links to these diamonds and pick the one you like from the comfort of your own home and let us design a special piece for you or your loved one.

Diamonds are graded in 4 catagories, being cut colour clarity and carat,a poor qulity diamond is yellow in colour, vrey included meaning many fractures in it black carbon vislible to the eye,cut not completly round making them hard to set for the craftsman,you should not be paying high prices for,take a pc of white paper and put it behind or side of the diamond to purchase and look for the colour, a good one being white, a poor one yellowish or black carbon spots visible to the eye,this adds up to what a diamond should cost.

There are four essential characteristics that define the value of a diamond; cut, color, clarity and carat weight. Often these diamond characteristics are referred to as the 4 C’s (four C’s).

The only diamond characteristic man has any control over is cut. Color, carat and clarity weight were all determined by nature when the diamond was formed beneath the earth’s surface millions of years ago.

Diamonds are available in all colors of the rainbow. However diamonds which contain yellow and brown colors are most common. Colorless diamonds are extremely rare and very valuable - most are nearly colorless with yellow or brown tints. The GIA Diamond Grading System uses letters to represent colors, beginning with D (colorless) and ending at Z (light yellow or brown). Many of these color distinctions are so subtle that they are invisible to the untrained eye but these slight color differences make a big difference in price.

Diamond clarity refers to minute pieces of non crystallized carbon called inclusions as well as surface defects called blemishes. Because they are created deep within the earth, most diamonds contain unique birthmarks called inclusions (internal) and blemishes (external). Diamonds without these clarity characteristics are rare – and rarity translates to higher cost when purchasing diamonds. Using the GIA Diamond Grading System, diamonds are given a clarity grade that ranges from Flawless to Included (I3).

The unit of measure used to determine a diamonds weight is called ‘carat’. One carat is equal to 200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams, and is known as 100 points. Diamonds are weighed in carats with one carat weighing about the same as a paper clip, or 0.2 grams. Just as a dollar is divided into 100 pennies, a carat is divided into 100 points which means that a diamond of 50 points weighs 0.50 carats. But two diamonds of equal weight can have very different values depending on their clarity, color, and cut. Carat weight is the most intuitive of the 4Cs – you expect a larger diamond to be worth more.

Diamond Cut does not refer to the shape of the diamond. Rather, cut refers to the manner in which the diamond cutter has transformed the dull rough diamond into a bright, sparkling polished diamond. While diamonds come in many different shapes, including round brilliants, hearts, pears , and marquises, cut has to do with proportion and the arrangement of facets. The sheer beauty of a diamond depends on cut more than anything else, using light to create brilliance, sparkle, and flashes of fire. The GIA Cut Scale ranges from Excellent to Poor. GIA provides a cut quality grade for standard round brilliant diamonds that fall in the D-to-Z color range.

Diamond Cut

Diamond Cut does not refer to the shape of the diamond. Rather, cut refers to the manner in which the diamond cutter has transformed the dull rough diamond into a bright, sparkling polished diamond.

When you buy a diamond you should always ensure you buy a well cut diamond as the better the cut, the brighter the diamond. Diamonds which have been poorly cut are usually dull and dead and lifeless in appearance.

No matter the diamond shape you prefer, there are angles and proportions to which the diamond cutter must conform during the cutting and polishing process in order to ensure the diamond is well cut. A well cut diamond will be bright and beautiful and it will scintillate and shine as it should.

When a diamond is cut too deep or too shallow, light will escape from the diamond in such a way as to make the diamond appear dull and lifeless. However when the diamond is properly cut light reflects back out of the diamond through the top of the diamond making the diamond sparkle and appear bright and scintillating.

The best cut (round) diamonds money can buy are diamonds which exhibit Hearts and Arrows. Hearts and Arrows is a phenomenon exhibited only when a diamond has been perfectly cut. When you look at such a diamond through a Hearts and Arrows viewer the diamond exhibits eight perfectly symmetrical Hearts (when viewed from the top) and eight perfectly symmetrical Arrows (when viewed from the bottom). This is the image you see through the viewer, when a diamond exhibits Hearts and Arrows:

Insist on a well cut diamond, because brightness and sparkle and scintillation of the diamond are the first thing people notice when they look at a diamond. In fact diamond cut is the only one of the diamond 4 C’s which over which man has any control.

Diamond Color

Diamonds are available in all colors of the rainbow. However diamonds which contain yellow and brown colors are most common.

Pink diamonds and blue diamonds and red diamonds are the most sought after and rarest diamonds colors and are therefore the most expensive diamonds.

Aside from pink, red and blue diamonds the majority of diamonds available are in the yellow color spectrum and so we will focus on that color spectrum (the most common).

There is an internationally accepted system for grading diamond color and the terms used to define a diamonds color are the letters of the alphabet, from D through to Z.

D color diamonds are completely colorless (like water) and are the rarest and therefore most expensive. As you progress down the alphabet towards Z, the diamond appears more and more yellow. Beyond Z, the diamond will fall into the ‘Fancy Color’ range and will appear ‘canary’ yellow in color.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is world renowned and established the professional color scale used world-wide for white diamonds



The color grading system for fancy color diamonds is far more complicated and intricate than for white-yellow diamonds.

TopRock Diamonds are available in a wide range of colors. Use our diamond search to find a diamond with your preferred color.

Diamond Clarity

Diamond clarity refers to minute pieces of non crystallized carbon called inclusions as well as surface defects called blemishes. The size, nature, location, and amount of inclusions and blemishes present in or on the diamond determine the diamond's clarity and subsequently affect its value.

These unique and identifying features were bestowed by nature when the diamond was formed millions of years ago deep beneath the earth's surface. The fewer the amount of inclusions present in the diamond – that is the better the diamonds clarity; the rarer and consequently the more valuable the diamond is.

The internationally accepted diamond clarity scale is as follows:



Size, quantity, color, location, visibility, and orientation of inclusions and blemishes all influence the clarity of a diamond. Diamond clarity grades are determined based on the overall appearance of the diamond when viewed under 10 x magnification.

Diamond Carat

The unit of measure used to determine a diamonds weight is called ‘carat’. One carat is equal to 200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams, and is known as 100 points.

Larger diamonds are rarer, and harder to find, and consequently are more expensive than smaller, more common, easier to find diamonds.

Diamond price does not have a direct relationship to diamond carat weight. Rather the relationship is exponential. In other words a diamond of half a carat (referred to as 0.50ct or fifty points) is NOT half the price of a one carat (1.00ct) diamond all things equal. The one carat diamond is more likely to be 2.25 times the price of the 0.50ct diamond.

The Diamond Carat Weight chart below indicates relative diamond carat weight:

Diamond Carat Weight Chart: