Cutting and Polishing Diamonds

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Diamonds can only be cut by other diamonds so it takes a lot of attention to detail and precise movements in order to cut a diamond in the proper shape you want it. Most diamonds will be cut in 1 of 10 different shapes. Round is the most popular with the others being Princess, Oval, Marquise, Pear, Cushion, Emerald, Asscher, Radiant, and Heart. A perfectly cut diamond will have 58 individual facets. Polishing is equally as important as cutting the diamond. There is one way that has been used to polish diamond’s since the middle of the 15th century. This method consists of grinding the rough diamond on a polishing wheel that is coated with a mixture of diamond dust and olive oil. The cutting and polishing of a diamond or any gemstone is what gives them the beautiful sparkling luster and the fire that allows them to show incredible internal light and colors.

 Cutting and polishing of diamonds has a large impact on the companies that cut and polish the rough diamonds from DeBeers. They obviously get a ton of profits from providing DeBeers this service with the amount of diamonds DeBeers mines. This has a social impact of stimulating the economy and providing more jobs to people in this industry. A potential negative impact of the cutting and polishing industry is that since its profits are so heavily tied to De Beers, it could support De Beers using harmful practices on the environment in order to continue supplying them with diamonds. If this happened, the industry could be at fault for pressuring De Beers to have a negative impact on the environment or local miners.

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