Diamond Cuts: The Art Of Cutting Of Diamonds
The diamonds that are extracted from the mines do not really look like that stone that you have on your diamond engagement ring. In most cases, the diamonds that are extracted for the mines actually look like a lump of sparking crystal stone and not that well polished thing that you sport on your engagement ring. To give a diamond that distinctly and elegant look, it must be cut first. To come up with a specific diamond cut, the diamond cutter has to chip off a considerable part of the stone. The more complicated the diamond cut, the more pieces of the stone have to be chipped off. The task of doing diamond cuts is actually very challenging. One wrong move of the blade and the whole stone will be ruined.
The Evolution Of The Diamond Cuts
It was not until the Middle Ages when diamond cuts become popular. Before the dawn of the middle ages, people were actually content with using diamonds in its pure form. In fact, before the middle ages, diamonds were not really used as gemstones or jewelry. History tells us that many people in the olden times use diamonds as weapons and utensils for cutting things. Since diamonds are very hard and will not easy chip or break, this stone is indeed the most likely candidate for kitchen knives and hunting equipment. However, when people evolved and become more civilized, the usage of the diamonds also evolved. Instead of using diamonds on as knifes, spears and the like, people begun to see diamonds are precious stones that can be used as jewelries. Royalties begun wearing these precious stones and use these stones as gifts to important visitors.
To make the diamonds look more beautiful, diamond polishers came up with diamond cuts that can bring out the beauty of the diamonds. By the middle of the 14th century, the use of diamonds as jewelries become so popular that a guild of diamond polishers in Nurnberg started to earnestly study different diamond cuts. The result of the study was the octahedral diamond cut which became quite popular at that time. Of course this diamond cut is not really very good compared to the different diamond cuts that we have today but at that time, this type of diamond cut was really the best considering the fact that there was no technology available at that time to help the diamond polishers to shape the diamond accordingly.
