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Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones

Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones Page of 366 Sec. I, Ch. 4: Working of Precious Stones Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
24                The Working of Precious Stones.
DIAMOND CUTTING.
The Diamond, the hardest of all known bodies, can only be manipulated by means of powdered Diamond. This powder is prepared generally from bort, or faulty Diamonds, and from the refuse in cleaving and cutting, which, being put into a mortar of hardened steel, is pounded until it is fine enough for use.
The industry of Diamond cutting has been more or less in the hands of the Jews for the past 200 years. This may be attributed to the scientific and elaborate system they established of naming every facet on the Diamond and training the workman to detect at once the exact grain of that particular facet. They divide the work into four branches, assigned to the cutter, polisher, setter and cleaver, and these, all work into each other's hands.
As an example we will take the cutter first. All the rough stones pass through his hands. His first care is to examine every stone minutely for flaws and imperfections, enabling him, to decide in which way the Diamond will give the best attainable results. This done he takes a cutter box having two iron pegs for levers, and affixing two Diamonds on the ends of two boxwood sticks, made specially for this purpose, he proceeds to cut the Diamond on the old fashioned principle of " Diamond cut Diamond," technically known as " bruting." This is practically con­tinued throughout the process, as there are no tools made of sufficient hardness to make any impression on the Diamond. Having decided which way to obtain the best result, the operator proceeds to cut the rough stone into a two-point, four-point, wass, drop briolette, rondelle, or table stone. We will now follow the first mentioned of these, the two-point, in its passage through the other branches of the trade and the system carried out to the finish.
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