Welcome to Johnson's Olde Raleigh!
Helping people celebrate the hallmarks of their lives with fine jewelry is what we do best. And we've been providing the highest level of integrity and honesty as a family owned business since 1929.
As members of the American Gem Society, our staff of Certified Gemologists and Registered Jewelers will share their wealth of knowledge so your decision will be a more informed one.
Our exacting standards, technical expertise, and tradition of uncompromising service has earned us an untarnished reputation that's as good as gold.
Carat
The carat weight is often seen as the most intuitive of the four aspects of diamond grading—generally, you expect a larger diamond to be worth more when assigning values to stones.
Diamonds, as well as other gemstones, are weighed using carats
In the diamond industry, weight is measured a thousandth of a carat and rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Color
Color, or lack there of, is also key.
Diamonds are valued on how close they are to colorless. The less color a diamond displays, the higher the value.
As shown the Color ranges from D (Colorless) to Z (increased presence of color).
Clarity
Clarity is based upon internal inclusions and external blemishes.
The GIA Clarity Scale puts size, nature, position, color, and relief into consideration for grading. The scale contains 11 grades ranging from VVS1 (very very slightly included) to I3 (Included).
Cut
Finally, cut creates the sparkle and brilliance.
To understand cut, it is important to first understand shape. While the round brilliant is the most common, other “fancy” shapes like oval, emerald cut, pear, princess, and cushions are becoming ever more popular.
As far as value, cut refers to the proportions, symmetry, and polish of a stone.
