Polishing a Diamond: Cost
Delivered February 22, 2020. Contributor: Methody G.
Goals
To determine the price and the process for cutting and polishing a diamond.
Early Findings
There are five stages to diamond cutting and polishing. Planning the cut of the rough diamond
- This step usually involves figuring out "the best possible shapes of the diamond in order to minimize waste and maximize the yield of the rough stone."
- Usually, the process involves the use of specialized programs like a Sarine machine.
Cleaving/sawing a rough diamond
Mechanical Bruting
- The next step involves making the separate rough diamonds round. The process is called girdling.
- In order to that, two rough diamond pieces are put across of each other and turned in opposite directions.
Polishing
- The polishing process mainly involves creating the diamond's facets, which includes the use of a tang and a scaife.
- The process is further divided into blocking and brillianteering.
- In the blocking steps, "8 pavilion mains, 8 crowns, 1 culet, and 1 table facet are added to make a single cut stone" which serve as a template for the brillianteering step.
- The brillianteering step adds "the remaining facets, bringing it to a total of 57 facets." This is probably the most important step in the whole process as it determines the diamond' fire and brilliance.
Inspecting the Polished Diamond
Pricing
- Mercury Diamond is a "diamond pricing consultancy founded by Ehud Laniado" that features more than 18,000 prices for polishing and cutting a diamond.
- The cost of polishing a diamond varies based on its color (from D to M), clarity (from SI2 to IF), and the shape (round, semi-round, or square).
- For instance, diamonds between 10 and 15 carats that are SI2 cost between $8,300 and $30,400 per carat to polish while those that IF, or internally flawless, cost between $13,900 and $113,800 per carat to polish.
- The polishing prices for 15 to 20 carat diamonds are similar to the 10-15 carat ones, with SI2 diamonds costing between $10,300 and $37,900 per carat while the IF diamonds cost between $16,700 and $122,500 per carat.
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