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Cutting of diamonds

Posted September 24th, 2008 by admin

The cutting of diamonds is quite a separate industry from that of the cutting of the so-called “colored stones,” that is, the other precious varieties, and also from semi-precious stone work. Despite various developments and enterprises elsewhere, Antwerp and Amsterdam were by far the most important diamond cutting centers up to the year 1939, and the Idar-Oberstein district in Germany was preeminent in the cutting and marketing of semiprecious stones. The artificial staining of agates, of which we shall read later, and a considerable production of synthetic stones (but not pastes) was also carried out in the Idar-Oberstein and neighboring country. Waldkirch, Pforzheim (largely destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944), Briicke, and Hanau were other important centers in Germany for this work, and a very large proporton of the, world’s supply of semi-precious stones was fashioned here. The years following 1939 saw the world in a state of conflict and chaos, and for some time no systematic working of gem stones was done in any country, except perhaps in the U.S.A., where cutting establishments were increased on account of the influx of many European refugees. As industrial diamonds were considered of great importance to the war machine, these were produced wherever possible under government control.