CUTTING AND POLISHING DIAMONDS

Turning a rough, newly mined diamond into a piece of jewellery is a fine art

1 PLANNING

The first step is deciding the most efficient way to divide and cut a particular diamond. Today’s cutters use state-of-the-art technology to help them visualise this.

2 CLEAVING

If the plan involves making two or more finished gems from a single rough diamond, it first has to be cut or split into the necessary pieces.

3 LASER CUTTING

The next step is to carefully cut away unwanted parts of the diamond to produce the required shape – something that can be done using a laser today.

POLISHING 4

This step is self-explanatory, but not as easy as it sounds. Because diamond is so hard, it can only be polished using fine diamond powder.

5 GRADING

Once the diamond has been finished, it’s ready for grading according to the ‘four Cs’: colour, clarity, cut and weight in carats.

Different colours are refracted at giving a diamond different angles, its characteristic ‘fire’