How are Diamonds cut?

Being the ever so educated reader that you are (considering you’re smart enough to read my blog!), it would probably come as no surprise that diamonds are the hardest substance known to man.

So how is a Diamond cut and shaped if it is in fact the hardest material? Well it comes down to two main properties.

The first of that being Cleavage, this property which occurs in most gemstones is responsible for the first process of cutting a diamond. Although a diamond may be incredibly strong, they can be broken if enough force is placed in the right position.

Think of it as the grain in wood, one sharp hit down the centre and the wood can split in two. This is much like how diamonds are initially separated into crystals, although recently lasers have been a more common  way of doing this.

Next comes the shaped and faceting of the diamond. A very careful process where only a skilled craftsman can ever so precisely add all the facets that will bring a diamond to life. These cutting tools of course have to be at least as hard as diamond, so what do we use? Other diamonds of course! Much like a record on a turntable, only covered in diamond dust, and doesn’t sound quite as pleasant.

Although before any tool is laid upon a rough diamond, every diamond is carefully study before any tool is laid on it to ensure the highest quality gem will be the end result. As you can see in the picture above(excuse the poor photography, quite nerve racking hold a gem like this!), this rough diamond has many markings on it, weighing in at over 100ct this gem went on to create two 30ct+ diamonds! Truly something remarkable.