Whiteflash-Diamond Playground

Diamond rough, the raw material from which diamonds are polished, occurs naturally in nature; it’s not made to order. People are surprised to hear that it takes many tons of ore to locate even one piece of rough that will finish as a 1ct diamond. Only a small percentage of the rough found is gem quality, and the vast majority finishes as diamonds far smaller than a carat. That rare rough material that can finish > 2cts is exceedingly hard to find and when it’s found the factory (logically) wants to get as much yield as possible. Manufacturers can save weight if they don’t shoot for precise numbers or the best possible cut precision. This is why a lot of the big diamonds you will see are not of the cut pedigree our company insists on. It’s logical: Why would a commercial manufacturer polish a rough diamond into a near-Tolkowsky AGS0 with true Hearts & Arrows at a finished weight of 3.88 carats when he could stop at a 4.02 ct diamond of average cut quality? He would not. Those pieces of rough are too rare for him NOT to get the 4ct yield, and most buyers are not aware of the difference in cut quality anyway.

Fortunately, at Whiteflash, fifth generation diamantaire Brian “The Cutter” Gavin is committed to the world’s best visual balance in his diamonds, regardless of size. Even our larger rough is planned for ‘A Cut Above’ quality, making the extremely rare large diamonds we produce even more rarified. In fact, we boast the largest ‘A Cut Above’ Superideal Hearts & Arrows diamond, a 7.5 ct beauty that is the only one of its kind (click to see).