INHERENT QUALITIES 123
absolutely
correct cutting would often entail too much cost. Very many more
persons recognize the beauty of a perfectly cut stone when they see it,
than the number of those who are willing to pay the extra cost in time
and material necessary to secure it. For that reason, though the
average cutting to-day is very good, and conforms generally to the
proportions of excellence, a large number are not mathematically exact,
and when they are so, the price appears to many unreasonably high.
Although
a knife-edge girdle requires care in setting the stone, and renders it
liable to chip and splinter from contact with others if it is set in an
open or clamp setting, it is ideal cutting. Mr. Ernest G. H. Schenck
patented a process for forming the stone with a continuous polished
curved facet running around it at the girdle, thereby eliminating the
unfinished appearance of a rough edge and the liability of a knife-edge
to chip. Some cutters cover thickness at the girdle by polishing the
edge. As the price of rough went up, many cutters, in order to get as
much weight in the finished stone as possible, and therefore more
money for it without adding to the price per carat, made the girdle
very thick. In that way considerable weight was added without
attracting attention, as the extra thickness lay through the body of
the stone at its greatest dimension. These were called bicycle-tire
stones. This kind of cutting makes a diamond cost less per carat, but
the stone costs as much as one of the same size with a fine edge which
weighs less and is more brilliant. There was a time, not long ago, when
the public commonly demanded a thick or deep stone, because they
thought the thicker it was, the better.
