I designed the Ideal-Scope as an affordable and portable version of an idea discovered by Mr. Okuda in the 1970's. A 10x lens with a hot red / pink reflector in front of the diamond has a central viewing hole, which allows you to see just how much of the red / pink light refracts back from the diamond.
 
With it anyone can gauge any diamonds brilliance; white areas in a diamond show light transmitted from behind the diamond; called leakage - the enemy! The blackness of the lens mimics an observer's head which blocks out some light sources.

The most brilliant diamonds look bright pink/red with a black star and minimal white or pale areas. Most ideal cuts have small 'V' shaped white leakage features at the girdle. This is not bad.
 
The ideal-scope also 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.

Every diamond at Precious Metals has been selected using an Ideal-Scope. Typically, we reject 80% of all diamonds based solely on what we see through the Ideal-Scope.

The Ideal-Scope idea has been used as part of a new cut grading system developed by American Gem Society Lab. My R&D partners from Moscow State Uni and I have had considerable involvement in the development of their new cut grading system released for Princess Cuts in May 2005 and Rounds in June 2005.

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