CUTTING DIAMONDS AND OTHER GEMS
P
RECIOUS stones in
the rough are seldom things of beauty. The most valuable gem stones
might be dismissed with contemptuous glance by an inexperienced finder,
as no doubt has often been the case. Ancient gems that have been
benefited only to the extent of the crude handiwork of the artisans of
their period, reveal but little of the imprisoned chromatic beauty and
flaming splendour that would make them magnificent under the scientific
and artistic treatment of a modern diamond-cutter or lapidary. Thus
the work of the highly skilled artisans, who cut diamonds, with their
co-operators, who set the diamond in a tool with which the cutter
applies the rough stone to the grinding wheel, and the toil of the
lapidary, who cuts, forms, and polishes semi-precious stones, are of
the greatest importance in making possible the beauty and value of
gems. Here
it may be said that the craft of the diamond
195
