Hearts and Arrows - Hearts and Arrows Guidelines

Hearts and Arrows Guidelines

Every polisher knows that polishing Hearts and Arrows is not easy. Some knowledge about the optical formation of both the hearts and the arrows can ease the job.

The pattern is evaluated for each guideline. Each guideline has a safe zone, a border zone and a reject zone. If the pattern fully complies to the guideline the pattern is in the safe zone (zero penalty) for that guideline. In the other case, the pattern does not fully comply to the guideline and a penalty is given proportionally to the defect in the pattern. The pattern evaluation is situated in the guideline border zone when the penalty is between 0 and 1. A penalty of l, reject zone, results in immediate rejection of the pattern.

8 REGULAR SHAPED HEARTS: A pattern of eight regular shaped hearts should be visible. Missing hearts or extremely irregular shaped hearts result in rejection.

UNIFORM INTENSITY: The eight hearts should be sufficiently bright and the overall pattern brightness should be uniform. Remark: Reflections of impurities in the diamond have a negative effect on the uniformity of the brightness of the pattern.

NO COLOURATION: The hearts should not show any colour. The presence of the typical blue or yellow colour in one or more of the hearts results in a penalty proportional to the total area showing colour and the saturation of the colour

SMALL VARIATION SIZE: All hearts should have the same size. A variation in size results in a penalty proportional to this variation

NO OR SMALL INCISION: An extra incision in the split of the heart should be avoided. Incisions in the hearts will result in a penalty proportional to the size and the variation in size of the incisions.

NO POINTED SHOULDER: The shoulders of the hearts should be flattened. Hearts with pointed shoulders result in a penalty proportional to the number of pointed shoulders. A majority of pointed shoulders leads to rejection.Remark: Pointed shoulders is a result of large tables (>60%)

SMALL VARIATION SHOULDERS WIDTH: All shoulders should have the same width. A variation in shoulder width of the hearts results in a penalty proportional to this variation.

SYMMETRICAL HEARTS: The hearts should have symmetrical points. Asymmetrical points are a result of an offset between the left side and the right side of the hearts. This asymmetry results in a penalty proportional to the offset.

GAP BETWEEN HEART AND V : There should be a space between the heart and the V. The separation between the heart and the V must be crisp to avoid rejection. For border cases a penalty is given.

BALANCED V`S : The center pattern consisting of eight V`s should be well balanced. A disturbance of the symmetry in the V pattern results in a penalty proportional to the disturbance. An upperlimit on the penalty prevents immediate rejection.

8 REGULAR SHAPED ARROWS: A pattern of eight regular shaped arrows should be visible. Missing arrows or extremely irregular shaped arrows result in rejection

UNIFORM INTENSITY: The eight arrows should be sufficiently bright and the overall pattern brightness should be uniform.

NO COLOURATION: The arrows should not show any colour. The presence of the typical yellow or blue colour in one or more arrows results in a penalty proportional to the total area showing colour and the saturation of the colour.

SMALL VARIATION IN SIZE: All arrows should have the same size. A variation in size results in a penalty proportional to this variation.Remark: Variation in size often occurs together with excentricity of the central pattern

CENTRAL PATTERN—DIAMETER: The star shaped central pattern, formed by the basis of the shafts of the arrows should not be too large or too small. Large central patterns result in a penalty proportional to the diameter of the central pattern. Very small central patterns result in rejection. Remark: A large central pattern is a consequence of short arrows.

CENTRAL PATTERN—SHAPE: In the ideal case the central pattern is a perfectly symmetrical star shape. The central pattern may show deviations from this ideal star shape as long as the pattern remains regular shaped. Regular shaped implies an 8-fold symmetry for the central pattern. The presence of symmetry deviations in the central pattern results in a penalty proportional to these deviations.

NO CLUSTERING: Clustering is the disturbance of the arrows pattern by white areas that surround the shafts of the arrows. Clustering results in a penalty proportional to the total cluster area and the cluster brightness.Remark: Extreme clustering annihilates the star shape of the center pattern

POINT-SHAFT ALIGNMENT: The point and the shaft of each arrow should be aligned. In other words the major axis of the point and the shaft of each arrow should coincide. A difference in angle or position of the major axis of the point and the shaft results in a penalty.

The cut will be excellent/excellent/excellent (This is the highest quality) when proportions/polish and symmetry has the lowest penalty of each of the guidelines there are used for certification.