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Making of Gemstones : |
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For centuries, humans have used a great variety of materials for decoration and
some of them are called as gemstone some are not. Gemstone is the cut and polished
form of minerals. Of course, not all minerals are suitable for gemstones. With its
intense beauty this is also necessary that the minerals have hardness and stability.
And these type of materials are very rare. There are over 4000 known minerals in
this Earth among which only 20 are commonly used in Jewelry.
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How are Gems cut and polished? |
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The process of cutting and polishing gemstone roughs is called Gemcutting or Lapidary
and the person who does this job is called Gemcutter or Lapidarist. Roughs are the
unformed or uncut piece of mineral crystal that contains gemstone. In gem cutting
or lapidary, there are several common techniques.
The process of cutting through a gemstone using a rotating thin circular blade at
several thousand surface feet per minute.
This is the process of shaping gemstones to a desired rough form using a silicon
carbide or diamond-impregnated wheels.
Sanding is the process of removing deep scratches left by coarser abrasives during
grinding.
This process is performed to create a flat surface on a gemstone.
Once we get the desired shape through all or some of the above processes,
polishing take place to create a mirror-like finish to aid light reflection or refraction
in the stone.
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A small rotating rod or tube with a diamond tip used in this process
to create a hole in the gemstone.
In this process, gemstones are gradually smoothened and polished by
keeping them in a rotating barrel with abrasives and water for extended periods.
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