Like other fancy cut diamonds, the GIA does not grade asscher cut diamonds for cut. For this reason, it is important to note that any website or store that advertises a GIA-certified asscher cut diamond with a cut grade is offering their own grade based on the stone specifications (the accompanying GIA certificate will not have a cut grade). While there is no problem with this, we strongly recommend you verify the cut grade yourself.

The table below serves as a general guideline for evaluating the cut grade of an asscher cut diamond.

The color grade of an asscher cut diamond refers to how much color (or lack of a color) the diamond shows. In general, asscher cut diamonds reveal more color compared to other diamond shapes because step cut diamonds do not hide color as much as brilliant cut diamonds. This isn’t anything to worry about, but you may want to get consider getting one color grade higher than you would plan to get if you were buying a different diamond shape, like a round diamond.

The good news is that smaller asscher cut diamonds hide color better than larger asscher cuts do, so depending on the size of diamond you purchase, you may not need to buy a colorless (D-F) diamond even if you want your diamond to appear colorless. The chart below will help you decide on what color asscher cut diamond to purchase based on if you want a colorless diamond, a diamond with limited color, or a warmer diamond.

The clarity grade of asscher cut diamonds discloses how many and how severe the imperfections are on the diamond. It’s harder to see flaws on smaller asscher cut diamonds than larger ones, so if you are buying a smaller stone you can get away with purchasing one with a lower clarity rating while keeping an eye-clean appearance. However, you can see imperfections in an asscher cut diamond more easily than you can in other diamonds because the step cuts make them easy to spot. While in many shapes you can find “eye clean” SI2 diamonds, this is very rare in asscher cut diamonds unless it is a very small diamond.

Evaluating clarity in asscher cut diamonds is subjective because each consumer has their own standard for clarity. Some may be perfectly comfortable with inclusions as long as they cannot easily see it, but other may insist on a more technically flawless appearance. The clarity chart below provides general guidelines for picking a clarity rating for your asscher cut diamond, based on your inclusion tolerance. Please note that the ratings in the Clean to the Naked Eye column assume that your jeweler will check to ensure it is actually eye-clean. For example, every time a customer purchases an asscher cut engagement ring from us, we send a gemologist to check and make sure the diamond is “eye-clean” and inform the customer if it isn’t. If you want an eye clean stone, make sure you ask your jeweler to do the same because basing it off the GIA-certificate is not enough.