The Ideal Scope - What Is It?

Since we feature actual Ideal Scope Photos on our website for each of our featured loose diamonds, it would be appropriate to give a short explanation of what the Ideal Scope is all about.

The Ideal Scope, which was developed by Mr. Garry Holloway is based on a principle discovered by Mr Okuda in the 1970’s. A 10x lens with a hot red / pink reflector in front of the loose diamond has a central viewing hole, which allows you to see just how much of the red/pink light refracts back from the diamond.

The instrument is a simple brilliance gauge; white areas in a diamond show light transmitted from behind the diamond; often called leakage - the enemy! The blackness of the lens mimics an observer's head blocking out the light. The most brilliant diamonds look bright pink/red with a black star and minimal white or pale areas. Most ideal cut diamonds have small ‘V’ shaped white leakage features at the girdle.

Invented originally for brilliance assessment, the ideal-scope shows a diamonds symmetry. Diamonds with perfect symmetry and good proportions show a black eight-pointed star. Hearts and Arrows (and H&A’s viewers) are a by-product of Mr Okuda’s discovery.