CUTTING DIAMONDS
dam
and Antwerp, and later in New York City. At present the roughest and
smaller ones are cut in the former place and the finest quality stones
in New York City which is a big diamond cutting center.
It
took two years of steady work to cut the Pitt diamond. But art is long,
and diamond-cutters are patient. Sometimes two rough diamonds are made
to cut each other; as fast as one facet is completed the solder is
melted out of the stick, and the diamond replaced by a different
position.
Some
stones are naturally more brilliant than others, but many diamonds
would be more brilliant if cut better. As very many crystals are quite
irregular in shape, 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 today 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.
Cutting
is the most important stage in the diamond career. In diamond cutting
the apparatus is simple but its manipulation requires both skill and
experience. The American invention of the diamond saw enables one
workman to do the work of twenty or more and turn out a more perfect
product. This marvelous little tool measures but one-thousandth of an
inch in thickness and is turned at a speed of 2,000 to 3,000
revolutions per minute. Even with
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