Next up the diamond cutter is getting ready to polish the first facet on the diamond… the table facet. Polishing is done on a charged diamond wheel, the diamond is held in a dop, placed in a tang and carefully polished.
With the diamond secured polishing on the wheel can begin.
Finally, after weeks of analyzing the diamond, polishing windows and laser cutting… the cutter can finally get the start the first facet. The table facet starts to come to life, still tough to tell what the final shape will be though isn’t it??? 😉
A diamond is made out of pure carbon (the same material as in your pencil – the only difference is the bonding). Unlike a led pencil which is very soft, only a diamond can cut a diamond. The cutting/polishing wheel is charged with diamond dust, after polishing you can see a lot of black ‘stuff’ next to the polished section. That ‘stuff’ is the carbon that was removed during the polishing process.