All you wanted to know about gemstones
Welcome to our blog, here you can find many articles about gemstones, diamonds, expensive stones etc.
The center for working these stones was Idar-Oberstein, really two large villages which lie adjacent in the valley of the small river Nahe, on the railroad running from Bingen on the Rhine to Saarbruken. Some stones were also cut in Hanau and Pforzheim, but Idar-Oberstein, with the surrounding villages which lie in the valleys, made [...]
Despite vicissitudes, the lapidary industry has grown steadily, and almost everyone in this district is connected with the stone trade, be he merchant, lapidary, driller, or dealer. The craft passes through succeeding generations, experience is handed on, and it would be difficult to compete with this class of work in any other country. Craftsmanship and [...]
As for the stone being worked, this is attached to a holder by means of cement and is only once re-set. The holder is held in the hand, and the required position is maintained by the other pointed end being placed in a vertical spindle which has been pierced at suitable intervals. Mechanical power is [...]
The fashioning of colored stones is quite a separate industry, no workshop cutting both diamonds and other precious stones. The abrasives and machinery used are different, as are also the methods. Slitting is done with metal plates or wheels of soft Swedish steel edged with diamond paste, set vertically, and rotated about horizontal spindles. For [...]
The stone to be ground is fixed in a holder or a revolving chuck, and this is rapidly turned while another diamond, fixed in a long “stick,” is pressed against it. The cutting, or grinding process, must be carried out with tools or machines in which diamond is the principal agent. The actual facets are [...]
Up to 1940, a few districts in France cut synthetic stones and marcasites, St. Claude being the main center. Some diamonds were, however, also cut, this industry being introduced by Charles Roulina some 70 years ago. Diamond mining areas have been found and worked in the U.S.S.R. during recent years, and no doubt cutting has [...]
In Israel, the industry started with four factories in 1939, but it has since grown to considerable importance. Most of the factories have been concerned with the processing of industrial stones, although gem stones are also cut. The center is the modern city of Tel Aviv, where a diamond market and club have been established [...]
Progress was chequered, despite Government intervention. In 1927, 600 cutters were employed; in 1929, some 676 men were working in 28 factories, but by 1934, this number had fallen to about 250, and in 1938 only one cutting establishment remained. Had not world conditions changed in the following year, the diamond industry, as far as [...]
The U.S.A. is the largest consumer of diamonds, so it is not surprising that the cutting of gem stones has expanded enormously in that country since 1940. As an industry, it dates back to only about seventy years, New York being the center. Before 1939, there were about 300 cutters in the U.S.A., but since [...]
The industry now seems to have become established on a larger scale in England than ever before, although London is the center once again. Some war-time restrictions have been removed, and the factories are equipped to produce all sizes of diamonds, although as yet smaller stones than about one-fifth of a carat are not cut. [...]