by the girdle into
two parts, top and bottom. The girdle is that part which impinges upon
the metal setting. The top is, of course, that portion of the stone
which is visible in a piece of jewellery and the bottom that which is
hidden when in wear.
The most prominent facet is the flat surface on top, called the table. Grouped around it are the eight star facets, four bezels, four lozenges, eight cross and eight skill facets.
These facets, thirty-three in all, account for the light-reflecting
surfaces placed at different angles in the top part of a representative
diamond. There are, of course, other methods of cutting, both old and
new, but that subject demands half a dozen chapters to itself, and
would probably not interest the layman anyway. Enough to add that the
underside of a diamond cut like the above has fewer facets than the
top, twenty-five to be exact. Their respective names and numbers are:
The culet (that part which is opposed to the table), four pavilion facets, four quoins, eight cross and eight skill facets.
Another
very common way of cutting diamonds is that which provides the stone
with twenty-four triangular facets. Diamonds cut in that fashion are
called rose diamonds, or roses for short. One meets with sizable
stones of that kind frequently in old jewellery, but nowadays only
small stones are cut in the rose fashion. The jeweller uses them at the
dictates of economy, and the layman who notices the difference between
a rose-cut and full-cut diamond is quite often heard to say: "These
are chips, aren't they?"
An ultra-modern way of cutting diamonds is the
