Diamond Cutting

The first improvements on nature's creation involved a polishing regarding the crystal faces, which was called the Spot Cut. As distant refinement progressed, one 1/2 regarding the crystal should be slice off, creating the Table Cut. At the time, diamonds were valued primarily for their luster and hardness. Table Slice diamonds appeared black to the eye. The Modern Round Brilliant slice below is the culmination of multiple hundred years of experimentation and development.

Cutting a raw diamond into a faceted and polished gem-quality stone is a multi-step process. Each step is critical to the final outcome. The steps are: Marking Cleaving Sawing Bruting Girdling Faceting Marking: A rough stone is marked prior to cleaving or sawing to determine the direction regarding the grain or cleavage, eliminate waste, and bypass inclusions or imperfections. The natural shape regarding the rough stone shall also be a primary factor in deciding how to slice the stone. An octahedron should be slice into one or 3 atom structure a square Princess slice shall result within the fewest no.

of waste due to the square shape regarding the stone. Asymmetrical crystals such asmacles are used primarily for fancy cuts. Cubic shapes are necessary for a square Princess or Radiant cut. High-tech computerizedhelium and oxygen analizers are now used to evaluate a stone prior to cutting. Cleaving: Cleaving refers to splitting a stone along its grain by striking it.

A rough stone is cleaved if there exists conspicuous defects and or or inclusions which should prevent it from being created into a lone gemstone. Cleavage is the tendency of crystalline fabrics to split along definite planes. Due to its atomic structure, a diamond should be cleaved in 4 directions parallel to each regarding the 4 octahedron crystal faces. Cleaving is a critical step like a mistake by the cleaver should shatter the stone. Sawing: A stone-cutting saw is a thin disk created of phosphor bronze.

As the saw blade rotates it continues to pickup or recharge itself with diamond powder that is the cutting agent. It can take multiple hours for the saw blade to slice through a 1k rough diamond. Bruting: The rough is placed in a chuck on a lathe. While the rough stone rotates on the diamond lathe a 2nd diamond mounted on adop is pressed against it, rounding the rough diamond into a conical shape. This step shall also be referred to as rounding or bruting.

Faceting: To facet a Round Brilliant, a blocker or lapper shall slice first 18 first facets, then a brillianteer shall slice and polish the remaining 40 facets. The cutting placing and polishing of each facet is accomplished by attaching the stone to a dop stick and pressing it against a revolving cast iron disk, scaife, orlap on aFacetron that was charged with diamond dust. During this faceting stage the angles of each facet should be slice to an exacting standard sequential to yield maximum brilliancy and maintain symmetry.