Thomas's 36 Sheep Street, Skipton,
UK Telephone 01756 795353 e-mail: shop@thomas-skipton.co.uk
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The World's most Perfectly CUT DiamondsRough Diamonds - Uncut Carbon CrystalsWhenever a craftsman looks for perfection the first consideration is the raw material. Most gem quality diamonds are not suitable to be cut to the AGS 000 standard, and so cannot be used for Hearts on Fire™ Diamonds. Diamonds develop deep inside the earth's crust in an environment of immerse heat and pressure and scarce source growth material. The heat and pressure can alter during the growth, and the availability of cubic carbon molecules can vary.
The formation of an Octahedral Crystal without strain, or twining, or patches of cross arranged molecules known as knaart is uncommon. It is these perfect crystals that the Hearts on Fire cutters must have to produce a perfect cut.
Cutting environmentThe most important factor of the cutting envirolment is the attitude of the management and cutters. Everyone is dedicated to producing with pride, the world's most perfectly cut diamonds. They are aided by high tech throughout production. Here a special laser and computer programe allows the designer to see the rough crystal and to manipulate an image of a cut to identify the way in which the CUT can give the greatest yeild.
They set their sights on just a tight spread of acceptable AGS Standards. The cutters are aided at every step by high magnification cameras that focus on just individual facets, and are used at each cutting stage to check that the polish is perfect, that the size of each facet matches its parters. The magnification is 100 times. They still use the standard times 10 loupes at the start of each facet to see that the holding device is aligned and secure.
The scaife or cutting wheel for a Hearts On Fire proportioned diamond requires regrinding regularly to ensure that the polish is perfect. To achieve the perfection in polish it was deemed necessary to build a totally new factory where there was no background vibration such as that of heavy goods vehicles passing by. The thick concrete floors were built over piles sunk into the ground for maximum stability - well the building was overseen by a Dutchman so I suppose that was to be expected. The motors that drive the shafts of the cutting wheels or scaifes had to be made to new superlative specifications. The cutters were trained from beginning by some of the few existing master cutters. If they had former experience there was the risk that they would bringing with them former habits that could mar the goals of perfect cuts. They were trained by just a few of the very finest Diamond cutters to produce work consistently to the highest standards. The Hearts On Fire Standard. Many of the original training intake of cutters aged between 18-21 are now highly skilled themselves and are able to pass on their skills in turn. TolkowskiIn 1919 Marcel Tolkowski, a young Belgian mathematician, related to the American Diamond cutters Kaplan, was approached to give consideration to calculating the proportions and angles required of "an ideal cut" diamond. At that stage carat weight was the supreme C, and cutters minimised the weight loss and aimed at an acceptable light return. Before Tolkowski's calculations Diamonds were generally cushion shaped rather than round, had deep pavillions and because the cutters and buyers feared that the point of the pavillion was at risk of being knocked away, they cut a basal facet which is called the culet. This facet allowed light to weep from the back, and be seen as a back octagonal window when viewed from the table facet. Most diamond cutters were still weight maximisation driven, indeed the bruter or stone rounder would leave evidence that he had maximised the weight retention by leaving small original skin patches that look like facets on the frost like waist (girdle) of the diamond. These patches used to be a useful means of recognising diamonds as they invariably featured small features of that skin which are termed trigons, these are the growth lines of the carbon crystal and the points are aligned they point to the base of each triangular face.
The profit motive used to lead to cutters to opening out the angles just slightly in the pavillion which leads to a deeper and so heavier stone, it still internally reflected a lot of light, just did not maximise the reflection. The Crown angles were allowed to be steeper, which again gained weight; this causes some of the light to be reflected again, and also widens the table. A third trick is to increase the thickness of the girdle, this adds a thin cylinder at the thickest part of the diamond again maximising weight. So the Tolkowski angles and proportions became the ideal cut diamond. The 1 carat Tolkowski Ideal-Cut Diamond will have a diameter of 6.5mm, a cleverly cut brilliant may be fashioned from a stone that measures nearer 6.25 Extract from Diamond Design A Study of the Reflection and Refraction of Light in a Diamond
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