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Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting

Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting Page of 448 Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
INHERENT QUALITIES                127
an inexperienced eye, diamonds have a grain along which they can be split as wood is split, only much more evenly and exactly. This grain is parallel with the faces of the octahedra. Advantage is taken of this to save material and the labor which would otherwise be expended in grinding away superfluous parts, to eliminate interior flaws, and also to improve the color, for by judicious cleaving a number of parts of a crystal may be made to yield a finer color than that of the crystal in its entirety. To be a good cleaver one must be familiar with rough diamonds and have good judgment; the operation itself is simple. Having studied a crystal and decided just where and how to cleave it, the cleaver takes the edge of another rough diamond fastened in a convenient handle, and grinds it across the edge at the point where the stone is to be split, until there is an incision proportionate to the size of the crystal being operated on. He then uses other " sharps," as the cutting edges are called, until the incision has the appearance of a V-shaped nick. Placing the blunt edge of a flat piece of steel like a short ruler, in the incision, he strikes the other edge a smart blow with a small hammer, and the crystal divides, the two planes of the cleft smooth and shining as glass. After examining the pieces, he places them in the little lock-box always before him, lights a fresh cigarette, and picks up another crystal for examination. About twenty-five per cent, of the diamonds found require cleaving.
Another form of cutting is the " rose cut," used prin­cipally for cheap cluster work in countries where the peo­ple are not as critical and have less money to spend than those of the United States. Rose cut diamonds are high
Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting Page of 448 Ch. 6: Inherent Diamond Qualities & Cutting
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