Cutting Diamond

By Woro Swasti

The rough diamonds from diamond mines are treated in a process called cutting diamond, to convert them into gemstones.

Cutting diamond is an art of changing a diamond from a rough into beautiful faceted gem. This job requires special skill and knowledge. And also specialized tools, equipment, and techniques.

The term ‘diamond cut’ means the shape of the diamond. Examples are round cut, oval cut, princess cut, emerald cut, etc. The diamond cut relates to specific quality of the shape. The more quality of a diamond, more expensive is the diamond, and this greatly based on the cut quality.

Diamond stones are the hardest materials ever found. The stones are very hard to cut, so cutting diamond needs special diamond cutting blades.

The process of cutting diamond includes several steps: planning, cleaving, bruting, polishing, and final inspection.

In the planning process, the rough diamond stone is analyzed to decide how the diamond will be cut. This process include the considerations of maximizing value, weight retention, color retention, and turnaround minimization. All of these process is the most time-consuming part of the cutting.

Cleaving or sawing is the separation process of rough diamond into pieces, each piece will be finished as separate diamond gemstone. This process is using diamond saw or laser for cutting the rough diamond stone.

When two diamonds are set to grind against each other in spinning axles, this will make each diamond shaped round. This process called bruting or girdling.

Polishing process is when the diamond is cut and give facets on the gem. This is also the time consuming process which removes material by gradual erosion.

The last step of cutting diamond is the final inspection. This include cleaning the diamond in acid, and examining the quality of the diamond.

Please also check out my other guide on Diamond Wedding Rings and Diamond Designer