Asscher Cuts are square-shaped gems with long, rectangular facets and clipped corners. Due to this unique faceting pattern, Asscher Cuts glimmer, like a hall of mirrors, as opposed to the traditional “sparkle” of round diamonds.

Like all other fancy cut diamonds, the GIA does not grade the cut quality of Asscher Diamonds. So, any jeweler who advertises an Asscher Cut with a cut grade is merely offering their own opinion. The stone’s GIA Certificate will not list a cut grade. For this reason, choosing a great Asscher Cut can be challenging. Furthermore, there is no industry standard of what makes an “Ideal Asscher Cut Diamond.” Because Do Amore strives to educate and help its customers, we provide our opinion on each of our Asscher’s cut grades. We have also have assembled the table below as a general guideline for evaluating Asscher cut grade.

Pro Tip! Because Asscher cuts vary so much in proportion, it is imperative that you double check the gem visually for beauty. Here’s two tricks:

– Windmill: Do you have a nice square stone whose facets create a four-armed windmill effect? That’s what you want!

– Black Box: Do the facets reflect to create an ugly black box in the center? Stay away.

The color grade of an Asscher refers to how much yellow or brown tint (or lack of tint) the diamond shows. In general, Asschers reveal more color compared to other diamond shapes because its long facets do not mask color through traditional sparkle. Because warm candlelight was much more common in the early 1900’s, many Asscher Cut Engagement Rings from that time are warmer-toned colors like I and J. In contrast, with bright LEDs all around us today, many couples prefer colorless Asscher cuts for a whiter look.

Smaller Asschers mask color better than larger Asschers do. So, depending on the size of diamond, you may not need 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 to select based on if you want colorless, a slight tint, or a warmer colored diamond.

The clarity grade of an Asscher reflects how “crystal clear” the diamond is, or, in other words, the amount of birthmarks (“inclusions”) it has. How obvious these inclusions are informs which clarity grade a diamond receives. For example, a larger gem with a small inclusion will receive a better clarity grade than a smaller stone with the same size inclusion. This is because the inclusion is less noticeable in the larger stone. However, because Asscher cuts do not sparkle the same way brilliant cut diamonds do, inclusions are easier to see in them. So, even a small inclusion is pretty obvious. As a result, couples choosing larger stones will mostly need to consider VVS1 or VVS2 grades for an eye-clean look. The clarity chart below provides general guidelines for picking a clarity for your Asscher.

Pro Tip! Always have your jeweler check to confirm eye-clean appearance. We check every Asscher Cut Engagement Ring we sell and inform our couples if it is not eye clean. Because of Asscher’s unique faceting, the GIA Certificate is not enough!