I am half frustrated and half super excited!!!  I would have loved to have been there. 

We were there for the most part!  I guess I would have been on close supervision...hehehee

Ooooh, I'm going to guess that he's seeing some red in this stone?

This is fun!
Good to know we were virtually there, too. I'd love to see the rest of the stuff in that tin!

Jen

She's a smart cookie!   

oooh, can't wait to see this one....

Unless it means I win the diamond, so do I!

Good call, Mrs. M! I was thinking the surprise might be pink or pinkish-brown, or brownish-pink – you get the idea – but, RED has it! 

This one has got my number, so to speak – Brown Lover and Cushion Addict here! Also, I especially adore the older styles, so, I can't wait to see how this turns out...

Well I have to say I love the storage are of this guys rough!  Can't wait to see it finished

The next step in the cutting is called "Marking"
The cutter ( or actually someone trained to do this specific task) marks the rough, showing where to saw.
"M" took a magic marker, and looked at the stone for about 15 seconds. Then he drew this line.




As you can see, this is not rocket science. Working with a piece of rough that will finish as a 1.20+- old mine diamond with a price of about $2000 makes it a lot less stressful.

For sure, if we were dealing with a larger, far more costly piece of rough, it wold be different.
Greater care would be taken to maximize the yield, while finishing with a symmetrical, well cut diamond.
In this clip, we see the computer plotting out a large piece of rough to be cut into a radiant.


At that level- the rough diamond may have cost well over $100,000. The cutter must pay for the diamond upon taking possession.
This is completely different than the way we buy- where the cutters routinely allow us to hold diamonds for consideration. We purchase a lot of them, giving the cutters incentive to send us diamonds on approval.
Even after we buy, if we subsequently decide we don't like a stone- cutters have been known to allow us to exchange a stone. This is very rare, but we do know the cutters are standing behind the stones we buy from them.
The cutters themselves have no such luxury when they buy.
The rough is sold COD.
It's far more speculative as well.To simplify it, say the cutter gets lucky and GIA gives the diamond "Fancy Intense Yellow", they might be able to turn that $100k into half a million.
If GIA gives it U-V, they might get $75k back from the $100.
Or the stone shatters on the wheel, and it's a total loss.
Or the stone gets burned during cutting- now it's worth $10k- if that.


Still, I have to admit, it's fun- on this scale especially.
We might start to offer the rough diamonds, along with a cutting service.
This way people could take their own chances!

OMG!  This is so exciting.  I cannot wait to see how it turns out.  YAY!!!!!

HI all!

Yes, and thanks for asking Shiba!
The diamond has been sawed


We've been working on our next contest- it has something to do with this diamond.
It will involve guessing the weight of the top part ( on the right) now, before it's cut, and after we cut it into a square diamond.

The larger piece, on the left, is going to be a "square Old Mine" Cut- let's see what 007 comes up with.
But we won;t be publishing the rough weight till after the contest has run.
The contest will start after the larger piece is finished and the finished weight published. That will likely happen within the week.

Hmmmm...I don't know how to say this...but I believe the stone is almost finished. 007 was going to do this one straight away....

We do have a few more pieces of interesting rough coming in later this week.......

What happened to the contest?