and a stone can be divided in whatever way it may suit the owner's convenience or interest.
The
cleavage or sawing of a diamond is only one of the several operations
that are necessary before the stone can find its way into the market as
a "brilliant". Perhaps this is the right place to point out the
difference between the terms "diamond" and "brilliant". A brilliant is
a diamond, but a diamond is not necessarily a brilliant. Only after a
diamond has been faceted and polished into brilliance does it become a
brilliant.
The
second operation is the so-called bruting, when two stones, each of
them a diamond, are rubbed against each other in order to rough shape
them. You need not imagine that the small particles which come off in
the process of bruting are allowed to go to waste. Every precaution is
taken to save the diamond powder that flies on to the floor and among
the workmen's clothing, and the weights of the rough stones and the
finished products are carefully checked, so that not the tiniest
fraction of a carat escapes. The grains are collected and added to the
stock of diamond dust, which is indispensable for the third operation
in the making of a diamond.
It
is a literal fact that only diamond cuts diamond. If a diamond cutter
has no diamond dust, he cannot hope to coax a stone into mirroring
light. Incidentally, it may be here remarked that a brilliant has the
property of absorbing light rays and giving them out again in the
dark. That peculiarity is known as phosphorescence, a word that
suggests that this property is due to some chemical action within the
stone, which, of course, is not the case.
