Nothing can be as beautiful as a sparkly halo princess cut diamond ring. However, there are many things, which determine how stunning the sparkler will look on your fingers. One of those things is the depth and table proportions of the diamond. While there is no standard table and depth for every diamond, it can significantly affect the appearance and overall worth of the stone. Below is a quick look at the best depth and table ranges for a few popular diamond cuts. This will help you to select the right depth and table values for your halo princess cut diamond.
Table of the Diamond
The table of a diamond refers to the flat surface facet that you can see looking at the stone from the top. This is the largest facet of the diamond, which is why it plays an important role in deciding the brilliance and fire of the stone. The table allows light to enter into the diamond, which is refracted by the other facets to create a scintillating effect.
Having a large top facet will not only let maximum light come inside, but also disperse the refracted light more effectively to give a beautiful sparkle. That is why the size of the table is often taken as a key factor when choosing a diamond. However, it is not necessary that a large table will always be the ideal choice. The top flat facet should be big enough to capture maximum light, but not so big to refract the light onto the crown. Instead, the table of the diamond should be well balanced to get the best brilliance and fire.
The table percentage of a diamond is calculated by taking the width of the top facet into account against the total width of the stone. That means the wider the top flat surface is in proportion to the diamond’s total width, the higher the table percentage of the stone will be. Note that the table is also graded as per its quality, from poor to excellent. Therefore, you should choose an excellent quality table percentage for the best sparkle.
The ideal table percentage for round cut diamonds will be around 54% to 60%, while that for a halo princess cut diamond will go up to 68% to 74%. For a cushion cut diamond, it will be between 61% and 70%, while for an emerald cut or Asscher cut diamond, the excellent table percentage can range from 60% to 68%.
Depth Of The Diamond
The depth in a diamond refers to the measurement of the stone from top to bottom, or from the table to the culet. The depth percentage of a diamond is calculated by taking the total height of the stone and dividing it by the total width of the diamond. This means that the farther the table is from the culet in the diamond, the higher the stone’s depth percentage will be.
Finding the best diamond is all about how well you understand the depth and table proportions. When the values of table and depth work in tandem, you get the most excellent brilliance and scintillation from the diamond. Most of the diamond grading reports include the diamond’s depth in millimeters aside from mentioning its percentage. This will help you to get a good idea of how well the natural light will interact with the stone to give you a better and more vibrant sparkle.
A small diamond having a shallow depth will not retain any of the light captured by the table, and will let it pass through to the bottom. This means that the fire and brilliance will be much lesser in such diamonds. However, when you have a diamond cut too deep, it will create an uneven weight distribution, making it appear thinner and smaller than a shallow cut diamond of the same carat weight. That is why you need to find the right balance of depth when choosing a diamond for your engagement ring.
The perfect depth percentage for the diamond will depend upon your preferred cut. Just like the table, the depth percentage is also graded from poor to excellent. For a round cut diamond, the ideal depth will be around 59% to 62.6%, while for a halo princess cut diamond, it will range from 68% to 75%. In the case of a cushion cut, emerald cut, and Asscher cut diamond, the excellent depth value will be between 61% and 68.
The ideal diamond table and depth ranges mentioned above for the popular diamond cuts are meant as general guidelines only. However, this would have given you an idea of how important it is to choose the right depth and table for your diamond engagement ring. These values denote how good the dispersion of light in the diamond will be. So keep these standards in mind when you shop for a halo princess cut diamond ring. This will help you to rule out the diamonds that are not cut well, so that you can steer clear of low-quality stones for your engagement ring.