Hearts and Arrows Diamonds

Hearts and Arrows Diamonds are the most beautiful diamonds in the world. The secret to their beauty is revealed here! 

For centuries, diamonds have remained the ultimate symbol of love. When a man buys an engagement ring or diamond gift, the goal should be to find a diamond as beautiful and special as the one who will receive it.

Hearts and Arrows diamonds are unmatched in precision, beauty and perfection in cutting. They offer edge-to-edge “electric” brilliance with explosions of white and colored light, even in low light conditions i.e. from across the room at a party or a candle-lit restaurant. While delivering high brilliance, fire and sparkle, they are superior in returning the maximum light back to the eye. Computerized light technologies covered in this website have proven that Hearts & Arrows quite simply outshine the competition! The phenomenal brilliance of these incredible gems makes them appear larger and whiter than other fine cut diamonds of the same size. Buyers recognize that the extraordinary brilliance of a Hearts & Arrows Diamond is so superior, that it’s not necessary to buy the highest grade to have a gorgeous diamond!

Hearts and Arrows are not for everyone. They are for the individual that seeks the best in everything and won't settle for second best. True Hearts & Arrows are rare and limited in production; so only select jewelers can offer them. These new age, high tech creations are not your Father’s diamonds, so you don’t have to settle for an “old school” diamond from the last millennium. You can own a masterpiece that is extraordinary in brilliance and sparkle like none other. Our website will guide you in your quest for the best. Seek out and buy a Hearts & Arrows Ideal Cut Diamond. No ordinary diamond can match the fire it will light in a woman's heart.

 

Hearts and Arrows Diamonds are cut to ideal proportions with superior optical symmetry and a specific faceting pattern. When all these factors are in harmony the result is a repeatable, near perfect pattern of eight symmetrical arrows in the face up position and eight symmetrical hearts when viewed in the table down position.

The original Hearts and Arrows were diamonds that embodied three important design factors. First, they were cut to “Ideal proportions”, very close to those summarized by Marcel Tolkowsky in his 1919 book Diamond Design. Second, they were cut with superior physical and optical symmetry so that they would garner a grade of “Excellent” in the Japanese laboratories. The third and very important factor was that they were cut to a very specific brillanteering scheme to produce the accepted hearts and arrows pattern. This faceting scheme involves prescribed lengths and ratios as well as smaller tables sizes that are imperative in producing a distinctive, repeatable and gradable H&A pattern.

In this Website starting in 1998 (updated-2010) we introduced an exciting new revolution in diamond cutting that was far beyond anything that the world has known. Thanks to modern optical science, improved precision tooling and new age technology these diamonds slowly moved in to the American market and rightly earned their place as state of the art creations.

Over the years people have attempted to “cash-in” on the Super Ideal craze without having the real item and have tried to market stones sorely inferior to their Japanese predecessors. Either out of lack of understanding, greed or both, many have tried to sell rather ordinary diamonds as Hearts and Arrows. We have seen stones with H&A inscribed on the girdle that just don’t make the grade. Our goal here is to define the real item and to expose the imposters. We discuss the history of Hearts and Arrows, development of cut grading technologies, the anatomy of the Super Ideal H&A diamond and explain why they are superior to other fine cut gems. Finally, we disclose the “secret formula” for creating these incredible diamonds.

After reading the information in this website the reader will understand why these diamonds are considered by knowledgeable people to be “wonders of the cutting art” and arguably the most beautiful diamonds on the planet. When considering the purchase of a diamond for someone special in your life, we invite you to spend a few minutes here, before you “take the plunge” and spend your money on an ordinary diamond.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why aren’t Hearts and Arrows available in lower colors and clarities?

The labor costs and weight loss incurred in manufacturing these goods can be quite substantial. In lower priced diamonds, these costs have a much higher impact on price (by percentage). Cutters would have to ask a very high price to be profitable, so they choose more expensive rough to cut into hearts and arrows and relegate the lower qualities to factories that produce average cuts.

Why don’t more jewelers carry Hearts and Arrows?

There are many reasons ... here are a few:

• Some sell only lower priced diamonds, which are normally cut for weight retention and not for top beauty.
• Some lack the expertise to sell high performance diamonds.
• Hearts and Arrows are still so new that some jewelers don’t understand or embrace them. Though, this is changing.
• Still others do not have reliable suppliers of these diamonds and therefore they choose to sell what’s readily available.

How does one know if a diamond is really a Hearts and Arrows?

Our DNA of Hearts and Arrows section shows cutting parameters that must be adhered to in making these extraordinary diamonds. Sellers check them for the hearts and arrows pattern with a special magnifying viewer as shown on our Website. They are happy to show the H&A pattern to prospective buyers in their stores. Our Grading the H&A section shows exactly what to expect when viewing the diamond in the viewer.

If a diamond is AGS 0 or GIA EX/EX, will it always be Hearts and Arrows?

No, Hearts and Arrows go way beyond ideal cutting. When cutting these extraordinary diamonds, cutters must adhere to a specially prescribed formula of facet placement and limited proportion sets throughout the cutting process. Again, the faceting arrangement is paramount. Unfortunately, many sellers today refer to ideal cuts as H&A, if they show some sort of H&A pattern. These would never have passed for Hearts and Arrows in Japan and must be rejected today. Diamond companies often settle on cutting GIA Excellent or some other premium cut instead of committing the time and weight loss necessary to produce a super ideal H&A diamond.

How come AGS and GIA don’t use the term Hearts and Arrows on their reports?

Currently, GIA and AGS do not include the term Hearts & Arrows on any report. The term is not widely understood and until now there were no guidelines or charts for cutting them. It is highly unlikely that GIA will ever include the term on their reports.

 

If the diamond has H&A inscribed on the girdle, doesn’t that prove that it’s a real Hearts and Arrows?

The gem laboratories will laser inscribe almost anything on the girdle to identify or personalize a diamond. This alone is no assurance of ideal light performance or real Hearts & Arrows. This is why our website is so important in laying out, in great detail, the prescribed formula of faceting and limited proportion sets necessary in creating these extraordinary gems.