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Ch. 10: Cutting and Mounting

Ch. 10: Cutting and Mounting Page of 252 Ch. 10: Cutting and Mounting Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
cut which can be seen while in the rough to have the necessary desir­able qualities.
The first effort on the part of man to improve upon the natural appearance of gems was confined to giving them a simple polish. At first only the natural surfaces were polished, but later the rough corners were rounded, and gradually the plan of giving them a symmet­rical shape developed. To this day, however, the treatment of gems
in the Orient is confined largely to rounding and polishing the stones, with little alteration of their natural shape. The Kohinoor diamond in the form in which it reached England is an illustration of the unsymmetrical shape which is allowed by Orientals to be retained by even their most costly gems. The appliances by which this work of polishing and cutting gems is still performed in the East are of the crudest kind, and show little advancement from the earliest types used. The accompanying cut shows how a Ceylonese gem-cutter of the pres­ent day plies his trade. His wheel is supported on two upright pegs set in the floor timbers of his house. A wooden axle, on the end
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Ch. 10: Cutting and Mounting Page of 252 Ch. 10: Cutting and Mounting
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