The certificate says VVS1. The stone on the tray looks clean. Before you sign for the parcel, pull out a 10x loupe. This is the check that separates a supplier who face-up grades from one who does not, and it takes about ninety seconds per round. We built the routine below from the QC bench at HOLYCOME, where every stock round is inspected before it is inscribed.
Why 10x and not the naked eye
A naked-eye inspection catches the obvious: a stone that is too dark, a girdle that is chipped, a face-up that windows. The 10x loupe catches the things that become warranty claims six months later. Under magnification you see feathering at the pavilion, bearding on the girdle, and a culet that is polished off-center. None of these fail a VVS1 certificate on paper; all of them come back through the repair loop if you miss them on receipt.
The ninety-second checklist
- Face-up under diffuse light. Does the center read bright, or is there a gray or dead patch? Rotate the stone; a moving dark patch is a proportion problem.
- Girdle around the rim. Look for chips, nicks, or a feather reaching the edge. A feather that touches the girdle is the most common chip-in-waiting.
- Culet point. The pavilion tip should be sharp and centered. A rounded or off-center culet means the stone was recut or dropped.
- Table and crown. Check for abrasion on the table facet. Moissanite resists scratching, but a stone that has been tumbled in a tray with other stones can show fine wear.
- Inscription. The GRA number should be legible on the girdle and match the certificate. Hold the loupe at a glancing angle.
- Measure. Caliper the diameter. A 6.5mm stone should measure 6.48 to 6.55; a 0.2mm oversize tells you the sorting was loose.
The defects that fail inspection
Not every imperfection is a reject, but these four are the ones we send back.
- Girdle-reaching feather: a crack that runs to the edge. It will propagate into a chip under prong pressure.
- Bearded girdle: tiny feathers around the rim from over-zealous cutting. It looks fuzzy at 10x and dulls the stone face-up.
- Off-center culet: the pavilion point sits to one side. The stone rocks in the setting and the prongs seat unevenly.
- Mismatched inscription: the girdle number does not match the certificate. Treat the whole parcel as suspect until the supplier explains.
| Check at 10x | Accept | Reject |
|---|---|---|
| Girdle chips | none visible at 10x | any chip reaching the edge |
| Culet point | sharp and centered | rounded or off-center |
| Caliper vs label | within 0.02 mm | over 0.10 mm off |
| Girdle inscription | legible, matches report | blurry or mismatched |
What a passing stone looks like
At 10x, a clean VVS1 round should show no visible inclusions to a trained eye, a sharp centered culet, a girdle free of bearding, and a crisp table facet. The stone should rattle gently when dropped on a tray, which is the acoustic signature of a dense, well-cut moissanite. A dull thud can mean a heavily included stone that the certificate understates.
Document your inspection
Photograph each rejected stone next to the caliper reading and the certificate, and send the batch back with that record. Suppliers replace stones faster when the evidence is attached rather than described in an email. Keep the photos with the packing slip for your own quality log; over a year, the pattern tells you which supplier parcels are slipping.
When to reject a whole parcel
A single failed stone is a replacement. A pattern of failures is a supplier problem. If three or more stones in a ten-stone parcel fail the same check, that points to a sorting issue at the factory rather than bad luck. Send the whole parcel back rather than cherry-picking the good stones, because the remaining ones tend to fail within a month. Keep the photos and the packing slip; the supplier will usually refund the parcel and send a re-cut batch. Over time, this pattern tells you which parcels to expect from that supplier and whether the next order belongs with them at all.
Training the eye
The first twenty stones you inspect will feel like guesswork. After fifty, the defects become obvious. Keep a reject pile on the bench for a month and compare it against the passing stones; the contrast is the fastest training we know. New receiving staff at HOLYCOME sort a tray of ten stones, five good and five with planted defects, and get close to perfect within a week. The loupe is the tool, but the eye is the instrument, and it improves with every tray you look at.
Keep the reject stones in a labeled vial rather than discarding them. They are useful for training new staff and for showing a customer what a defect looks like, which builds trust when you hand them a clean stone.
Stock rounds that pass this routine live in the loose stone catalog under Round Brilliant Cut.