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Diamond mine
A diamond’s journey starts millions of years ago, kilometers deep under the surface of the earth. All over the world, there are diamond mines where mine workers try to find these precious gemstones. The mine in this photo is the Ekati mine, 300 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife, Canada.
Rough diamond
The most common shape for a rough diamond of gem quality is the octahedron. This looks like two pyramids back to back. Rough diamonds can be found in every shape imaginable, but the octahedron is the most common and most preferred one.
Sawing and cleaving of the rough diamond
The first step of transforming a rough diamond into a polished one, is the splitting of the diamond. The cutter must cleave it along the diamond's tetrahedral plane, where it is the weakest. He or she cutter places a steel blade in the groove and forcefully strikes it, cutting the rough diamond in two. Sometimes, diamonds have to be cut where there is no plane of weakness, which cannot be done with cleaving. Instead, the cutter saws the diamond using a phosphor-bronze blade rotating at about 15,000 rpm.
Rough diamond after sawing or cleaving
This is what a rough diamond looks like when it is split. During the cleaving or sawing, the cutter decides which parts of the diamond will become the table (the flat top of the stone with the greatest surface area) and the girdle (the outside rim of the diamond at the point of largest diameter). Then, he proceeds to polish.
Determine how to polish
When a diamond worker is polishing a diamond, he has to evaluate the diamond he is polishing frequently so he can take the 4 C’s into account. The diamond loupe is one of his best friends during this process.
From two roughs to two brilliants
The single rough diamond was transformed by the diamond polisher into two beautiful brilliant cuts. During its transformation from rough to polished, a brilliant loses about 50% of its size. This may seem like a lot but the sparkle you get in return makes definitely up for it.
Popular diamond cuts
A skilled diamond polisher can create every shape imaginable. The diamond cuts on the top row are – from left to right – Marquise, Pear, Emerald and Brilliant. The cuts on the bottom row are Cushion, Oval, Princess, and Heart shape. The round brilliant cut diamond is the most popular diamond shape.
Our own patented Royal 201
The Royal 201 is a patented cut by Royal Coster Diamonds. It was created by our own Donny Griffioen and Bobby Low who were on a mission to create the most sparkling diamond the world would ever see. They found that the secret for the ultimate sparkle lies in the re-arrangement of crown facets and their angle. Including the amazing micro facetting of the girdle, the total facet count is 201. This is the ideal number of facets: the Royal 201. Many diamond experts consider this the most beautiful diamond cut in the world.
