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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 conÂtinued 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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