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Research Outline
Prepared for Davis | Delivered February 22, 2020
Polishing a Diamond: Cost
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Goals
To determine the price and the process for cutting and polishing a diamond.
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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
This step involves
splitting the rough diamond
into separate pieces in order to more efficiently polish it.
Usually this is done with
mechanical sawing machines
and lasers (if the cuts produce rougher or odd shapes).
Mechanical
B
r
u
t
i
n
g
The next step involves making the separate rough diamonds round. The process is called
girdling.
In order to that, t
wo 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
c
u
l
e
t
, 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
The last step involves
inspecting the diamond
in order to verify whether it adheres to the manufacturer's requirements.
If the
quality control fails
, the stone is sent back to be retouched.
Pricing
Mercury Diamond is a "
diamond pricing consultancy
founded by Ehud
L
a
n
i
a
d
o
" 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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