Making the cut: A to Z diamond cuts

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Of the well-known 4 ‘C’s of diamond evaluation, none is extra essential than reduce. As the one component of a diamond’s look that may be managed by human fingers, the reduce has the facility to make – or break – a stone’s worth.

“Lower is the center of the diamond,” says Maulin Shah, director of World Shiner.

“It’s a very powerful attribute. If the reduce is not good – the stone might be D color and internally flawless, however it will not sparkle.”

Whereas the overwhelming majority of the world’s diamonds are reduce as spherical brilliants, grasp cutters and designers worldwide have explored new methods to distinguish stones, improve a diamond’s pure magnificence to its best potential, and help the creativity of jewellers.

The historical past of branded or ‘proprietary’ cuts – people who had been trademarked and even patented – will be traced again to probably the most venerable diamond reducing homes, with Joseph Asscher, co-founder of Royal Asscher, who created the Asscher reduce in 1902.

Whereas stories fluctuate over whether or not Asscher patented the reduce – the Gemological Institute of America’s journal, Gems & Gemology, asserts that he did – it has since develop into a generic reduce; an up to date model, the Royal Asscher reduce, was patented in 2002.

Equally, the 66-facet Radiant reduce – invented by New York cutter Henry Grossbard in 1977 – was as soon as a patented design and has since develop into normal trade terminology, as has the Princess reduce, which was developed by Bez Ambar and Israel Itzkowitz in 1979, strongly influenced by Basil Watermeyer’s patented Barion reduce and Arpad Nagy’s Profile reduce.

Garry Holloway – director of Holloway Diamonds and inventor of the IdealScope, Holloway Lower Advisor (HCA) and Angular Spectrum Analysis Device (ASET) – calls the Asscher, Radiant, and Princess cuts “the one three profitable branded cuts”, although he laments, “The GIA have by no means used these names and this gives confusion for retail salespeople and shoppers.”

Branded breakthrough

Within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, an inflow of proprietary cuts and shapes entered the market, largely pushed by “radical adjustments within the diamond pipeline, widespread reliance on standardised tariffs, advances in diamond reducing know-how, and falling revenue margins all through the trade”, in accordance with Gems & Gemology.

Many didn’t face up to the take a look at of time.

“The branded cuts had been largely developed as methods to enhance yields or cost extra for just a few further aspects,” Holloway says. “The yield-increasing diamonds had been the worst, basically turning an 80-point Ultimate reduce spherical diamond hiding inside a tough right into a 1-carat catastrophe.

“Human imaginative and prescient – when confronted with miniscule flashes from a 100-facet half-carat diamond – sees ‘mush’,” he explains.

“Aspect by facet [with classic cut diamonds], they simply didn’t stack up.”

And in terms of promoting a diamond, sparkle is, after all, key. “Most scintillation and fireplace is what prospects need to see,” says Cindy Eidukevicius-Jones, diamond coach and advertising and merchandise supervisor on the Nationwide Jewellers shopping for group.

“A diamond wants to point out how vigorous and vivid it will probably develop into.”

Nevertheless, a choose few proprietary cuts managed to offer sufficient of a bonus to jewellers and attraction to shoppers to keep up an ongoing presence out there.

Russian producer Kristall Smolensk’s 89-facet, octagonal-shaped Phoenix reduce, developed within the ’90s, remains to be out there in the present day, as is the Dream reduce – a modified sq. reduce patented in 2002 – from US producer Hearts On Hearth, which is now a part of Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Group.

Lili Diamonds’ Crisscut and Lily reduce, launched to the market in 1996, are additionally nonetheless out there and the corporate has since developed 4 extra internationally patented designs: Crisscut Cushion, Orchidea, Marvel and the Meteor, a decagonal-shaped diamond with 71 aspects, in 2010.

Above: Unfastened Alphabet Lower diamonds by Kunming Diamonds; Alphabet Lower diamonds set in necklace by Okay Kane Jewelry	Above: Rose reduce diamonds, courtesy; Kunming Diamonds

Chatting with Jeweller in 2018, Dotan Siman-Tov, managing director Lili Diamonds, mentioned, “There are a number of different profitable patent diamonds apart from Lili Diamonds all over the world, however many suppliers discovered that it’s one factor to invent it [a new cut] and one other factor to promote it and that’s not straightforward. There’s a story to construct for every stone.”

Siman-Tov believed the issue was an absence of differentiation: “The brand new cuts weren’t dramatically totally different to the typical shopper, whereas our cuts are totally different as a result of, for instance, we’ve got the Lily Lower and Orchidea which are flower shapes and the Crisscut and the Crisscut Cushion are totally different aspects than, let’s say, the common emerald or common cushion.”

Patented cuts comprised roughly 60 per cent of Lili Diamonds’ gross sales in 2018, commanding worth premiums and manufactured on bigger stones of 5 to 10 carats.

Certainly, Holloway notes that cuts incorporating further aspects work finest on stones “two to 10 instances bigger than what’s often produced”.

The yr 2018 additionally marked the patent of eight diamonds marketed because the ‘world’s brightest’: the Sirius Star 80 Spherical, Sirius Star 100 Spherical, Sirius Star Cushion, Sirius Star Cushion 100, Sirius Star Sq., Sirius Star Octagon, Sirius Star 88 Spherical and Sirius Star Oval.

Developed by grasp cutter Mike Botha and licensed by Dharmanandan Diamonds, the cuts had been marketed to supply “extra mild efficiency in comparison with a spherical good reduce and handle the retailer’s challenge of shrinking revenue margins.”

Specifically, the Sirius Star 80 was mentioned to function higher scintillation and elevated mild return, improved brilliance and better visible attraction than numerous different spherical cuts.

Its 80 inclined aspects embody an eight-pointed star sample within the pavilion with 100 per cent mild return whereas the Sirius Star 100 contains a 10-pointed model.

Botha mentioned on the time, “This can be a great milestone for the Sirius Star model as Dharmanandan has the depth of experience and international attain to hold the model in enough stock in all of the sizes and readability vital for profitable distribution.”

That very same yr, the GIA established a Proprietary Lower Program which incorporates branded reduce names and descriptions on its diamond stories.

From left to proper: Bez Ambar Blaze Solo reduce; Asprey reduce; Buddha Lower diamond set in pendant; Unfastened Buddha Lower diamond;
Above: Lili Diamonds	Above: Nicole Mera ring that includes Rose reduce and Spherical Sensible white diamonds and cushion-cut yellow diamond	Above: Calleija Glacier reduce diamond ring, courtesy Calleija.

Again to fundamentals

After all, the overwhelming majority of jewellers are properly conscious of the facility of reduce – Shah notes that the Australian market is especially well-educated amongst World Shiner’s worldwide buyer base.

But there are nonetheless persistent misconceptions in terms of avoiding poorly-cut stones, significantly when trying to find area of interest merchandise corresponding to fancy shapes, or buying fancy-colour diamonds.

At the start, it’s important to grasp {that a} diamond’s reduce is just not a single attribute, however reasonably refers to a number of totally different parts – not together with the form.

“Lower and form will be confused,” Eidukevicius-Jones explains. Form is whether or not the diamond is spherical, pear form, cushion, etcetera; reduce is how the stone has been manufactured/polished, and whether or not it’s graded Glorious, Very Good, and so forth.”

Many patented designs embody each reduce and form, corresponding to Lili Diamonds’ Lily Lower.

John Chapman, director Gemetrix and Delta Diamond Laboratory, provides, “‘Lower’ has combined connotations – even to diamond sellers. It encompasses a number of totally different attributes that embody proportions, angles, symmetry, and aspect junctions.”

Grading laboratories“distil these properties into grades that may be in comparison with a standardised reference”.

Whereas the GIA, Worldwide Gemological Institute (IGI) and HRD Antwerp use a five-point scale to grade reduce, starting from Poor to Glorious, the American Gem Society (AGS) features a sixth grade above Glorious, Ultimate.

Says Chapman, “For spherical brilliants, the parameters are properly understood – desk width 53 per cent, pavilion depth 43 per cent, and crown peak 16 per cent.

A diamond near these specs could be graded ‘Glorious’ for proportions and out of doors these ranges, proportion grades of Very Good, Good, Truthful, and Poor have been outlined.”

He provides, “The appearance of scanners that may precisely profile a diamond and measure its proportions, aspect angles and symmetry has allowed goal measures of the reduce.

“Departures from this preferrred reduce are detrimental to the looks of a stone via lack of brilliance, fireplace, and obvious dimension.”

And although not an official time period, a diamond might also be known as ‘Triple Glorious’ – additionally famous as XXX or triple-ex – if its proportion, symmetry, and polish have all been graded as Glorious.

Whereas the reduce grades are well-established throughout the trade, Holloway says the largest false impression about diamond cuts is “that Triple Glorious spherical reduce diamonds are glorious diamonds”.

“Seventy-two per cent of spherical diamonds submitted to the GIA obtain the highest reduce grade of Glorious – the usual is so lenient you may drive a truck sideways via it!” he says.

In the meantime, the Hearts and Arrows descriptor – launched by the Japanese diamond trade within the Eighties and dropped at the US market within the early Nineteen Nineties – can add one other layer of confusion.

“The idea of Hearts and Arrows was launched as a manner of figuring out if a spherical good has been reduce with the correct proportions,” Chapman says.

Commanding a premium worth, these diamonds are precision-cut for bodily and optical symmetry, ensuing within the namesake sample showing when seen via a particular mild scope.

“Each Hearts and Arrows diamond might be graded Triple Glorious for reduce, symmetry
and polish, however not each Triple Glorious will essentially be graded as a Hearts and Arrows diamond,” explains Eidukevicius-Jones.

IGI and HRD Antwerp provide Hearts and Arrows certification, although the GIA doesn’t.

Notably, a Hearts and Arrows diamond could not all the time show optimum brilliance.

A query of high quality

Because the GIA started grading reduce high quality in 2006, producers have tailored their merchandise in step with Glorious-grade proportions – resulting in each constructive and unfavorable outcomes.

Because the GIA itself notes on its web site, “A diamond’s proportions may help predict how properly a diamond will ship brightness, fireplace and scintillation.

“Nevertheless, an essential final result of GIA’s reduce analysis was the discovering that there isn’t a single set of proportions that defines a well-cut spherical good diamond.”

On the constructive facet, Shah has noticed an total improve in diamond reduce high quality, partially on account of elevated training, consciousness, and demand from the jewelry marketplace for stones that match the standardised reduce grades – alongside enhancements in diamond-cutting know-how.

“Worldwide, Glorious reduce stones are gaining popularity, so producers are producing extra items to suit that normal.

“Because of the newest equipment improvements, producers now even have higher outcomes from the tough, so there are, total, higher stones coming to market,” he explains.

“Normally, if a jeweller asks for an Glorious reduce spherical diamond licensed by main laboratories such because the GIA, IGI, HRD Antwerp, or the Australian labs, they are going to get a pleasant reduce stone,” Shah provides.

Nevertheless, whereas this standardisation and huge adoption of the GIA requirements permits for simpler comparability between stones, the system is just not excellent.

Abraham Tok, director Tok Bros, says, “The present GIA reduce grade normal is appropriate because it has supplied a standardised format for objectively evaluating one diamond’s reduce grade to a different, nevertheless, it may be improved by tightening the parameters that represent an Glorious reduce grade,” he says.

Holloway factors out that the requirements are additionally not essentially enforced by grading laboratories.

“Greater than 10 per cent of GIA-graded Glorious reduce diamonds are deeper than 63 per cent, and the GIA teaches that 62.9 per cent is the utmost allowable depth share,” he says.

“When queried on this, the GIA explains that [its proprietary cut-assessment software program] Facetware provides the crown peak, girdle thickness and pavilion depth percentages to reach at depth share. So, intelligent cutters have developed workarounds – and GIA permits it!”

Certainly, Tok has noticed that “Glorious-grade spherical good reduce diamonds have modified over the previous few years in that there was a discount within the diameter of explicit sizes”.

“A 1-carat spherical with an Glorious reduce grade often would have a diameter of 6.4mm–6.5mm, whereas a 1.50-carat would have a diameter of seven.4mm–7.5mm; now, you’ll find loads of examples of 1-carat and 1.50-carat spherical diamonds, licensed XXX by GIA, with diameters beneath 6.3mm and seven.3mm, respectively.

“The top result’s a ‘lumpier’ or ‘fatter’ stone that has larger crown angles, elevated depth percentages and thicker girdles. The additional weight to push the diamond into the [more valuable] 1-carat and 1.50-carat dimension ranges is hidden in these proportions with a view to extract extra worth/ yield from the tough diamond.”

He provides, “This usually has a unfavorable impression on the looks of the diamond for jewellers as it’s visually smaller compared side-by-side with a diamond that was reduce to the unique Glorious parameters; 0.1mm–0.2mm could not sound like a lot as an total measurement, nevertheless, when evaluating diamonds this can be a vital distinction that’s simply noticeable to the educated eye.”

Holloway factors out an extra downside of transparency being included within the readability grade reasonably than the reduce grade, which means “a diamond can have an Glorious reduce grade – and even prime efficiency with my Holloway Lower Advisor – however it will probably nonetheless be as uninteresting as dishwater.”

“In concept, a black diamond may obtain a XXX reduce grade,” he provides, explaining that the GIA’s and different laboratory’s jargon can lead to confusion for each jewelry retailers and shoppers alike.

“The worst is ‘Readability grade relies on clouds not present’ which suggests the clouds usually are not plotted on the readability picture on a full certificates,” Holloway provides.

Alongside brilliance and fireplace, reduce additionally impacts the opposite ‘Cs’ – it will probably each saturate and soften a stone’s color, take away inclusions to enhance readability, and make a stone seem bigger than its carat weight would in any other case suggest.

Exceptions and misconceptions

With the rise of customized jewelry design – significantly for engagement rings – fancy shapes corresponding to marquise, kite, and coronary heart have gotten more and more fashionable.

But none obtain a standardised reduce grade on a certificates, whether or not graded by the GIA or one other laboratory, in the identical manner as a spherical good. Even traditional shapes like cushion, pear, and oval don’t obtain a full reduce grade.

Says Holloway, “Merely put, most jewellers don’t know that the GIA doesn’t grade reduce proportions for any fancy- formed diamonds.”

This additionally presents a problem for diamond suppliers, with Shah noting, “It’s positively tougher for fancy shapes as a result of not one of the labs write the reduce grade on the certificates – they solely grade rounds for the reduce.

“For these different shapes, the report will point out issues like polish and symmetry, however there received’t be a reduce grade.”

Certainly, the best promoting level of fancy-shaped diamonds – their distinctive look – makes them troublesome, if not not possible, to standardise.

“Non-round shapes usually are not guided by practically as a lot specification as spherical brilliants,” says Chapman.

“There aren’t any ‘normal’ proportions – even for cushion cuts or ovals – in opposition to which they are often graded. Although symmetry and faceting will be graded, every lab providing such a grade can have its personal standards for what constitutes good or poor symmetry.”

Provides Tok, “The attraction of fancy shapes is subjective. Completely different prospects choose totally different proportions of their fancy shapes; for instance, some prospects choose pear shapes to be longer and a few choose oval shapes to be rounder.”

In the case of sourcing fancy shapes, Shah advises jewellers to put their belief in a revered diamond provider.

“With fancy shapes, it comes all the way down to the vendor. A diamond vendor with a strong repute, intensive expertise, and a loyal present buyer base will be capable of give good recommendation on fancy shapes.

“They’ll have the information of stone ratios and be capable of make options and provide a variety, and a substitute stone if the client is just not comfortable.”

Holloway suggests jewellers study to make use of the ASET, which he developed for the AGS, to evaluate fancy formed diamonds for mild ‘leakage’ themselves.

Additional complicating the query of reduce are fancy color diamonds.

“Cuts for fancy colors are in a distinct class than colourless diamonds,” says Chapman.
“The target of the sunshine throughout the stone is kind of totally different between the 2 sorts. For colourless diamonds, the ‘pathlength’ of sunshine inside a stone is minimised, whereas for colored diamonds, the artwork – or reasonably science – is to maximise the pathlength to deepen the color.”

Merely put, the deeper the pavilion, the farther mild can journey throughout the diamond, which may create a richer and extra intense color.

The important thing determinants of worth for fancy color diamonds are the saturation and vibrancy of that color, and the scale of the stone; subsequently, reducing and sprucing these diamonds is a fragile balancing act.

Sometimes, combined cuts such because the Radiant are most popular as they intensify color; that is significantly evident in diamonds towards the top of the traditional D to Z color grading scale, which, when reduce appropriately, will be remodeled into extra beneficial fancy yellows.

Says Chapman, “Completely different polishers have their very own ‘recipes’ for extracting essentially the most color and a few make a livelihood out of recutting diamonds to realize a extra beneficial color grade.”

Avoiding the traps

As in most areas of the jewelry commerce, training is essential for jewellers in sourcing high quality materials; it’s also a helpful gross sales device when discussing diamonds with prospects. “Jewellers ought to educate themselves on the best parameters and use that information to assist their prospects discover nice diamonds,” says Tok.

Chapman echoes this remark; “Most shoppers are, fairly moderately, not versed in what is an effective reduce and what to search for to evaluate brilliance and fireplace, so some retailers have come to their rescue with instruments to assist them,” he says.

“An IdealScope permits a view of the behaviour of sunshine in a diamond from its refractions and reflections, and there are different fancier instruments that present mild leakage and brilliance with transferring mild levels, laptop processing and graphic outputs of a stone’s mild efficiency.

“A number of gem labs present these diagrams on their stories with areas of crimson, inexperienced and blue denoting how the sunshine is behaving.”

Eidukevicius-Jones advocates a hands-on method: “Have a look at the diamond and transfer it round even earlier than you decide up a loupe. First impressions final!” she says.

Whether or not a proprietary reduce, fancy form, fancy color, or traditional spherical good, there isn’t a overstating the significance of understanding a diamond’s reduce and the impression it has on the general magnificence and attraction of a stone.

With a view to ship the very best service, jewellers should each educate themselves and domesticate relationships with educated, dependable diamond suppliers with a view to procure stones with excellent sparkle – the stones with which shoppers can’t assist however fall in love.

INNOVATIVE DIAMOND CUTS & SHAPES WHEN TRADITIONAL JUST WON’T DO
Sirius Star Cushion 116 Aspects by Mike Botha	Astralis Spherical Sensible 89 Aspects by Sir Gabriel Tolkowsky	Cherry Blossom/Sakura 87 Aspects by Tokyo Kiho Co	Crisscut 77 Aspects by Christopher Slowinski & Lili Diamonds	Sensible 10 71 Aspects by Yair Shimansky
Sirius Star 100 100 Aspects by Mike Botha	Sirius Star 88 88 Aspects by Mike Botha	Crisscut Cushion 85 Aspects by Christopher Slowinski & Lili Diamonds	Lily Lower 77 Aspects by Lili Diamonds	Ashoka 62 Aspects by William Goldberg
Blue Flame 89 Aspects by Bernard Van Pul & Koen Van Ishoven	Sirius Star Octagon 88 Aspects by Mike Botha	Padma Spherical 86 Aspects by Dharmanandan Diamonds	Cupio Lower 73 Aspects by KP Sanghvi & Sons	Orchidea 61 Aspects by Lili Diamonds
Padma Cushion 88 Aspects by Dharmanandan Diamonds	Sirius Star Sq. 88 Aspects by Mike Botha	Sirius Star 80 80 Aspects by Mike Botha	Meteor 71 Aspects by Lili Diamonds	Quadrillion 49 Aspects by Bez Ambar & Ygal Perlman

DIAMOND CUTS
A BRIEF HISTORY

A Second with the Father of recent brilliance
INTERVIEW WITH SIR GABRIEL TOLKOWSKY

Above: A collection of diamond cuts developed by Sir Gabriel Tolkowsky from the Flower Cuts and Sea Shell Cuts collections. Born in Tel Aviv in 1939 to a household of diamond cutters – together with his uncle Marcel, credited because the inventor of the spherical good reduce – Sir Gabi was educated by his father Jean and on the age of 16, was tasked with sprucing a 100-carat emerald-cut diamond. In 1975, he started working with De Beers for whom he developed the Flower Cuts assortment. Within the Eighties, Sir Gabi and his son Jean Paul – additionally a grasp cutter – had been secretly commissioned to chop the Unnamed Brown, a 755.5-carat brown stone unearthed on the Premier Mine in South Africa. An underground workshop, freed from vibration, was constructed to make sure no injury got here to the stone because it was meticulously whittled right into a 545.65-carat Golden Jubilee Diamond, which stays the most important reduce and faceted diamond on this planet – outweighing even the Cullinan I, which had held the title since 1908. The stone was accomplished in 1990 and later grew to become a part of the Thai Crown Jewels. When De Beers unearthed a 599-carat tough in South Africa in 1986, Sir Gabi was additionally chosen to steer an professional crew to rework it into what would develop into the world’s largest D Flawless stone, The Centenary Diamond. The tough was so fragile and so beneficial, that no warmth or laser might be used within the preliminary reducing course of. Years later, Sir Gabi recalled, “I’ll always remember how I labored on the Centenary for 154 working days – a whole working yr – carving and carving away with my naked fingers. I eliminated greater than 50 carats earlier than we began sprucing.” The completed diamond – weighing 273.85 carats with a modified coronary heart form – was accomplished in February 1991 and unveiled in Might that yr, insured for greater than $US100 million. Drawing from methods developed in the course of the sprucing of the Centenary and the Golden Jubilee Diamonds and from the De Beers Flower Cuts, Sir Gabi created the Gabrielle reduce, generally known as the primary ‘triple good’ and which was later offered all through Europe, Asia, and the US. Founding his namesake firm Gabi S Tolkowksy & Sons in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1995, he later created the Sea Shells Cuts assortment. In 2003, he was introduced with the title Chevalier de L’Ordre du Roi Leopold II (Knight of the Order of King Leopold II) for his companies to the diamond trade. Right here, Sir Gabi discusses his experiences and legacy because the world’s foremost grasp diamond cutter. What was it wish to develop up in a household with such a robust connection to diamonds and diamond reducing? GT: I used to be the sixth era, studying reducing and sprucing from my father Jean Tolkowsky, who reduce and polished as a younger boy of 10 years previous collectively along with his cousin Marcel Tolkowsky, studying from their fathers and uncles. So it was pure to draw my very own want to develop into a diamond cleaver, cutter and polisher.  What are your fondest reminiscences of you profession within the diamond trade? GT: Having participated within the planning and creations of the Flower Cuts, the Sea Shells Cuts, and others, and the Centenary Diamond and Golden Jubilee. You had been accountable for reducing the most important facted diamond in historical past, the Golden Jubilee. How did this come about and what did this course of contain? GT: With out having a crew of 15 professional scientists, technicians, safety guards and grasp diamond cutters that communicated day by day with me throughout three lengthy years, I might have by no means been capable of obtain the individuality of such a creation. Collectively we realized that each single diamond is successfully a person that may appeal to each human’s senses; every one among them is a novel magnificence. As it’s mentioned, “Magnificence is altogether within the eye of the beholder.” This, with none doubt, was and nonetheless is the essential cause for people to proceed to fabricate and cope with diamonds. How has diamond reducing developed over time, each as an artwork and commercially? GT: It doesn’t matter what the place is of people which are concerned in remodeling a tough diamond into a cultured one, they’re marking artwork that permits them additionally to be commercially busy if they need. They’re all a part of a novel inventive motion. Above, left to proper: Golden Jubilee Diamond, 545.65 carats; Centenary Diamond, 273.85 carats   The place is the centre of innovation, in the present day, when it comes to diamond reducing? GT: With none doubt, because of the evolutionary interval that we’re witnessing, centres of innovation do exist and can proceed to develop in numerous elements of the world. It is because approaching magnificence is a standard human evolution; it permits folks – women and men – to specific themselves in accordance with their cultural surroundings. As a matter of reality, magnificence is just not solely an inventive response, but in addition a solution to want, hope and dream – magnificence is a haven of peace! With none doubt, it’s my want to proceed the legacy of the significance of magnificence by my youngsters and grandchildren.

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