Brilliance 94 · Fire 78 · Scintillation 83 · in our census, where the T73 scores 93 · 78 · 80 in diamond
A T73 with eight hairline facets polished into its pavilion, made for a split-heart pattern that forms in diamond. Against the T73 in our census it neither gains nor gives up anything past our margins.
Take a finished T73 pavilion and add eight narrow facets, one on each ridge where two lower girdle halves meet between the mains. That is DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows: 81 facets, with the T73's 53.0% table, 34.5° crown and 40.75° pavilion mains, 61.7% deep. Each new facet sits at an angle between that of the mains and that of the lower halves, and they are tiny: on a 6.5 mm stone about a tenth of a millimetre wide.
The pattern is the reason the cut exists, and it belongs to diamond. In a simulated Hearts and Arrows viewer each of the eight hearts is split down its middle by a thin straight line, red from the notch to about halfway and dark to the point, while the arrows stay crisp. In moissanite, cubic zirconia and the coloured stones the hearts do not form.
What the census measures is light, and here it sets the cut against the T73 Round Brilliant it was built on: Brilliance 94 against 93, Fire 78 against 78, Tilt 92 against 92, and 2% of the light leaking where the T73 loses 2%. Not one of the scores we count moves past our margins, up or down.
None by our margins: scintillation is up on the T73's, but not by enough to count.
None: light, fire, tilt and leakage all sit within our margins of the T73.
Compared with the T73 Round Brilliant in diamond. A difference counts from 3 points (Brilliance, Fire, Tilt, Leakage), 5 (Scintillation, Symmetry), 4% (face-up size per carat) or 5% (weight); Tilt counts as a pro only for a stone within 5 points of the brilliance it is compared with. How we measure.
At a glance: the DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows in diamond (white) against the T73 Round Brilliant in diamond (dashed): solid white where it reaches further, hatched where it falls short. Each pro and con is explained, with pictures, below.
Against the T73 Round Brilliant in diamond: ahead on 3, level on 5.
Nothing beats the T73 by our thresholds. Scintillation comes closest, 83 against 80: our score follows the number of facets that can flash, and 81 against 73 lifts it, though not as far as our margin. The eight new facets are also very narrow, and what they add to the sparkle a viewer sees is beyond what our census measures. Brilliance edges ahead too, 94 against 93, again inside the margin. What the cut offers instead is its split-heart pattern, which no score on this page counts.
Nothing falls behind the T73 by our thresholds. Fire reads 78 to the T73's 78 and Tilt 92 to 92, the same figures, and 2% of the light leaks against the T73's 2%. Face-up size, taken from the model's outline, is 100 to 100, and Symmetry 100 to 100. If leakage is the concern, the lowest figure we measure in diamond belongs to the T105 Round Brilliant Diamond: 1%.
Choose DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows for a round diamond when the hearts-and-arrows view is part of the point: a stone that will be shown in a viewer, with a pattern a standard round does not have. For that pattern our census finds no cost past our margins, and no gain in light either: you choose it for the hearts.
If you want unbroken hearts, the T73 Round Brilliant Diamond is the same stone without the eight facets. For far more scintillation with the T73's light, DG-Vitruvio Diamond reaches 98; for the most light we measure in a diamond, DG-M5 Diamond at 97.
In moissanite, cubic zirconia and the coloured stones the split hearts do not appear, so there the choice rests on light alone: see DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows Moissanite.
As good as the T73 in our census, and no better: Brilliance 94 against 93, Scintillation 83 against 80, and no score ahead or behind by our margins.
A hearts-and-arrows round whose eight hearts are each cut down the middle by a thin line, from eight narrow facets added to the pavilion; the arrows stay whole.
No. In our simulated viewer the hearts form in diamond only; in moissanite, cubic zirconia and the coloured stones they do not appear.
1.01 ct in our model, the same as a T73 of that width: the eight facets take away almost nothing.
The DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows Cut as exact geometry: 81 planar facets, real-world scale, ready for CAD, rendering, printing and casting.
The DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows Cut as a faceting design: 65 + 16 girdles = 81 facets, 96 index, 8-fold mirror-image symmetry, ready for the machine.
Questions before you buy? Email us.
Diamond: optical properties and the top ten cuts · The DG-Broken Hearts and Arrows: specifications, model and files