The Montare Journal

Cheap vs Premium Ring Manufacturing: What Actually Differs
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 8, 2026 · Updated September 8, 2026 · 16 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto The difference between a cheap ring and a premium one is almost never the design — it is the order of operations and how much bench work is skipped. Two rings can look identical in a photograph... Read more...
Oval vs Radiant: Which Diamond Shape Should You Buy?
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 7, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto Both are elongated brilliant-cut shapes, so the choice comes down to outline and light pattern: an oval is soft, continuous and elongating; a radiant is architectural, cut-cornered and broader. At three carats an oval faces up longer... Read more...
3 vs 4 vs 5 Carat: What Actually Looks Best on the Hand
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 7, 2026 · 12 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto Going from three carats to four adds a third more weight but only about a tenth more length. That single fact explains why carat jumps disappoint people, and why shape choice moves the needle far more than... Read more...
Which Hand and Finger Does an Engagement Ring Go On?
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto In Canada, the UK, the US, France and much of the world, the engagement ring is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand. In Germany, Russia, Poland, Norway, India and several other countries it goes... Read more...
Travelling With and Storing an Engagement Ring
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto The two riskiest moments in an engagement ring's life are taking it off somewhere unfamiliar and putting it down somewhere temporary. Most rings are not lost dramatically — they are left on a hotel bathroom shelf, slipped... Read more...
A Diamond Fell Out of My Ring: What to Do
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto If a diamond has fallen out of your ring: stop wearing the ring, search carefully before you clean or vacuum anything, and take both the ring and the stone to a jeweller before wearing either again. If... Read more...
Diamond Certificate vs Appraisal
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto A diamond certificate describes what the stone is. An appraisal states what it would cost to replace. They are different documents, produced by different people, for different purposes — and confusing them is why some people insure... Read more...
Proposing With a Placeholder Ring
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto Proposing with a placeholder ring means proposing with an inexpensive stand-in, then designing the real ring together afterwards. It is not a compromise or a sign of an unprepared partner — it is a deliberate choice that... Read more...
Diamond Girdle Thickness Explained
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 11 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto The girdle is the thin band around a diamond's widest point — where the top half meets the bottom half, and where the prongs actually grip. It is graded from Extremely Thin to Extremely Thick, it appears... Read more...
Brilliance, Fire and Scintillation Explained
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 12 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto "Sparkle" is not one thing — it is three, and they compete with each other. Brilliance is the white light a diamond returns. Fire is the coloured light. Scintillation is the flashing pattern you see when the... Read more...
Crown Angle and Pavilion Angle Explained
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 12 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto Crown angle and pavilion angle are the two measurements that decide whether a diamond returns light or leaks it. Table and depth percentages get quoted far more often, but they are downstream of these two angles —... Read more...
Hearts and Arrows Diamonds Explained
MBy Vish Singh, Founder · Montare Diamonds, Toronto. Built on three decades of family diamond manufacturing. Every diamond is personally reviewed before it ships.Published September 6, 2026 · Updated September 6, 2026 · 12 min read IGI-certified diamonds Triple Excellent standard Lifetime setting upgrades Free, fully insured shipping Made to order in Toronto Hearts and arrows is a pattern that appears in a round brilliant diamond cut to near-perfect optical symmetry — eight arrows seen from the top, eight hearts from below. It is not a grade, it does not... Read more...