How is a diamond cut?
♫ July 17th, 2011 10:41 pmA newly mined rough diamond looks more like a piece of glass washed up on the beach than like the polished gems sold in jewelry stores. Bringing out their beauty requires the skill and art of a trained diamond cutter.
While incredibly precise, computerized machinery is now used in some parts of the cutting process for some diamonds, most of the work is still performed by hand using exacting and meticulous techniques passed down over the generations.
As a first step, cleaving or sawing is often used to separate the original rough into smaller, more workable pieces that will each eventually become an individual polished gem. Next, bruting grinds away the edges, providing the outline shape (for example, heart, oval or round) for the gem. Faceting is then done in two steps: during blocking, the table, culet, bezel and pavilion main facets are cut; afterward, the star, upper girdle and lower girdle facets are added.
Once the fully faceted diamond has been inspected and improved, it is boiled in hydrochloric and sulfuric acids to remove dust and oil. The diamond is then considered a finished, polished gem.
