Gemstones have the natural glamour and aura in them. However, their grace and sparkle comes up when they are given fancy cuts and design by the jeweler through the use of his various tools.
Generally speaking, a gemstone can just be a rock, or a petrified substance, or a mineral or an organic substance. Being precious by their very nature of existence, gemstones create a perfect unity with the attire and the occasion. Statistics show that from the odd 2000 naturally occurring minerals, less than 100 are put under the category of gemstones, and amazingly, none of these classified gemstones are used in their original or the natural form, as almost all of them undergo numerous procedures and cuts to reach your hands in its current form which looks nothing but elegant.
The hidden beauty of gemstones comes into light only once they are cut and polished. It is only then, that these stones are used with the precious metals. The name given to the entire process of cutting and polishing gemstones is termed as gem cutting or lapidary. The most common of the techniques used in the process includes, sawing, grinding, sanding, lapping, polishing, drilling and tumbling. By employing these cutting techniques, the gemstones are designed into different forms such as cabochons, faceted stones, beads and spheres, inlays, intarsias and mosaics, cameos and intaglios, and the sculptures.
There are two most prevalent form of shaping the gemstones. These include cabochons and the faceted. While the cabochons are dome-like, smooth stones, vis-?is, opals, turquoise or onyx; the faceted are five precious transparent gemstones. The transparent gemstones such as diamonds, rubies emeralds and sapphires are expensive, and for this purpose lot of care needs to be taken in order to keep the facets in their original form, and also that polishing is done tenderly. If during the cutting of the gemstone, the angles are too steeply cut, the light will not be reflected back properly from the stone, resulting in fall in the stone’s quality.
It is important to note here that gemstones are given a fancy cut and then polished through the progressive abrasion method that employs finer grits of solid substances altogether. Substances such as Mohs and Silicon Carbide are also employed in cutting the gemstone into the fine shape. Furthermore, compounds such as cerium oxide, tin oxide, chromium oxide, and aluminum oxide are widely used in polishing the cut surface of the gemstone so that they get all their shine and sparkle.
It is indeed worth every penny you spend on gemstones because of the hard work and beatification it undergoes. Next time, when you see a gemstone, you would really know what lies behind its sparkle and glow. Your basic understanding of cutting techniques will improve your judgment of gemstones.
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