For many centuries, the work of jewelers has been highly valued all over the world. Cutting diamonds is the peak of their careers. Almost everyone knows that a diamond is one of the hardest minerals on our planet. The extracted precious stones, as a rule, have an irregular shape, therefore, to create an excellent jewelry, they need to give a certain form. Cutting diamonds is a very laborious and difficult work. During it, from the precious stone remove all unnecessary, which allows you to see the true beauty of the diamond.
For a long time, when still technologies were not allowed to process the hardest gem, the crystals did not have the beauty they get now. Diamonds only grinded and polished, they did not have clear edges, so they did not shine with their graceful beauty. Over time, jewelers have learned to give stones the right shape. They realized that the friction of one diamond about another leads to the appearance of faces, thanks to which the brilliance increases many times. First of all, natural octahedral crystals were processed by uniformly rubbing all opposite vertices to form a large flat face. The ancient cut of diamonds was different, but octahedral crystals were most valued.
Over time, the processing of diamonds became more and more complicated. Jewelers tried to create a large number of faces, because due to this increased the number of refracted rays of sunlight, which revealed all its beauty. The natural mineral (depending on its configuration) was given the shape of a certain polyhedron with an established orientation of the faces. It is believed that in Europe, the first jeweler who learned to perfectly process diamonds, was Ludwig van Berken. It was he who in 1475 restricted the world-famous "Sansi" stone.
Treated by a jeweler, diamonds are called diamonds. Despite the fact that during grinding work, most of the natural stone is lost, its value only increases. Of course, if a jeweler spoils one of the faces, the entire diamond will lose significantly in its price. The first stage of jewelry processing natural stones is their sawing. The quality of polishing diamonds largely depends on the structure of the crystal itself. After sawing the stone, the jeweler sees all the advantages and disadvantages of the diamond and decides how he will process it further. This process is very laborious. It often takes days and months (depending on the size of the crystal). Today sawing of diamonds is made by ultrasound, laser and by means of electronic cutting.
The turning of the crystal is an important process, during which the workpiece is given a certain shape. The defects of the stone are eliminated, and it is prepared for cutting. This work is performed on special machines, invented in the early twentieth century, but greatly improved in our day. Cutting diamonds is the final stage of the jeweler's work. In the course of it, the stone is given an aesthetic form, cracks, deformations and other defects are eliminated. The jeweler carefully polishes the diamond, gives the edges a clear shape, and then polishes them.
Cutting diamonds is a responsible process, on which their price largely depends. In addition to working skills, the jeweler still has to have an artistic taste. Cutting is carried out with the help of a cast-iron disc, which rotates very fast. In its surface rub diamond powder, combined with olive or burdock oil. The shape of the stone should be such that most of the light that enters it does not pass through, but is reflected back from the mutually arranged faces.
The basic forms of diamonds are: rectangular (baguette), round / fancy (oval, marquise, pear), rectangle with cut corners (emerald). The parameters of round and fancy stones are set when turning, and the rest are achieved during the cutting.