Needle as represented by GIA report
Welcome to the next installment of our diamond inclusions series! We’ve covered all manner of inclusions thus far, from cavities to feathers and everything in between. Today, you’ve come to learn all you ‘needles’ to know about needles!
Before we move on, though, please make sure that you have looked at our wonderfully insightful introductory blog post on all things inclusions here, then get back to immediately.
What are Needles?
Needles are part of the same family as other crystal inclusions, such as pinpoints and clouds. They are all in the same crew. While pinpoints are tiny ‘dots’ of crystals and clouds are ‘clusters’ of crystals, needles are elongated crystal inclusions. They can look like tiny streaks of light inside the diamond, or mini whitish ‘rods’ inside the stone, like this:
Needles are very common inclusions, so don’t be surprised if you come across them on a diamond grading report. The good news is that a few tiny scattered needles are usually fairly innocent. Generally speaking, they only become an optical/clarity problem when they decide to band together in a cluster… this is when you risk a cloudy/hazy situation on your hands (similar to what happens with clouds). This is rarer with needles.
We suggest that if you see a few needles plotted on the diamond grading report, you should request a 10x magnified photo or video. If you find it impossible to spot them in the magnified photos, you probably won’t notice them when the diamond is set in a ring and displayed on that finger.
