The Opelousas courier., 1889-08-31
THE DIAMOND CUTTERS.
ONE HUNDRED MEN WHO EARN
HIGH WAGES IN NEW YORK.

An Occupation Which Requires Pa
thence and Delicacy Of Touch
The Various Processes Described.
A French lad of sixteen, busy amid
the noise and heat Of a John street dla-
mond cutters loft, was shaping, with
his bare fingers, a little mass of half mol
ten solder just out of a gas-heated cruel
BILE. The solder lay in a small cup-iike
| piece of copper, to which a stem ten
inches long was attached. After the
mass had been patted into q swelling
hemisphere the lad took a diamond from
the bench beside him and embedded it in
the still plastic mass. Then he wiped off
little crumbs of the solder and pressed
the stone this way and that until it was
almost hidden from sight. This done, he
placed the stem of the copper cup in a
sort of handle and turned it over to
the diamond polisher. A moment later
the gem was laid upon a wheel that made
| $500 revolutions a minute, and the work
of grinding a new facet had begun.
The fifteen diamond cutting concerns
| of New York polish 10,0G0 carats of
| rough diamonds each year, rather more
than the annual output of the Braz-an
mines. One hundred skilled workmen
| are employed in the trade, and the bosses
say that the diamond cutters of New
| York are the best in the world. The bust
ness has grown up within ten or fifteen
/ years, but already most of the appren-
A.z .a x,t.-o A =, paap A nloyar 1oI
beginning the trade at fifteen may be-
comes skilled workman in five or SIX
wears. The best diamond cutters under
favorable conditions earn from $40 to
$50 a week. These are better wages than
those earned by any save the most famous
foreign diamond cutters. Workmen here
| are more intelligent and trustworthy than
those of Holland, France, or England,
| thu chief diamond cutting countries Of
| EuroDe Theft is common abroad, but
/ unusual here. L.
In looking ABOUT a diamond cutting
establishment one would hardly suspect
the precious character of the material in
use. The floors are bare, the windows
are open, and any M may enter by the
| door un~challenged. Much is trusted to
the honesty of the workman, but some
simple precautions are taken. When a
diamond cutter receives an invoice of
| stones he carefully studies each one, and
takes note of its color, size, weight and
shape. THE winter ones look like bits of
clear alum, the darker like clouded quartz,
The rarest and c~ostliest stones are of sky
blue pink, and black. Ordinarily, how
ever, the pure water colored diamond
without tint or flaw is most sought after.
When the boss cutter has made ac-
curate record Of his rough diamonds he
divides them into groups of four or five
and gives a group to each workman.
From this time forth the man to whom
they are intrusted is responsible for the
stones. He returns them each night to
the boss, and the progress of the work is
carefully noted. In fn@rsg it is made
extremely difficult for fraud to be Qrac-
ticed. 4 cutter is seldom permittd to
polish a stone belonging to any n but
the boss. Doubtless tAAworkmap would
be careful to avoid coSusionS, but mis-
takes might arise. Now and then 8
| clever substitution is managed, and once
IN Il long while outright theft is com
| mitted.
The first work done upon the rough
diamond is cleaving. The stone is placed
in a peculiar cement that ~softens easily
and hardens quickly. A little notch on
the line of cleavage is made with another
diamond, the edge of an old razor is
placed in this notch, and with a sharp
blow of the hammer, the diamond is
split. Of course, when a diamond can
be worked whole it is not split. After
cleaving comes cutting. The diamond
is placed in a little mass of cement on the
end of a stick and scrsped with another
diamond similarly embedded. The cut
ter has six points presented to him, and
he begins with the one that seems most
promising. His choice decides which
| shall be the upper surface of the dia-
mond, for in the 'tbrilliant' cutting,
which is the most difficult and the one
almost generally practised here, the ex-
posed surface is slightly fiattened, while
the under side runs to the apex of a
| pyramid. In this way eight OF ten facets
| arc made.
From the cutter the stone goes to the
grinder, or polisher, who patiently turns
it and turns it until the swiftly whirling
wheel has cut upon the surface fifty
eight tiny facets. These ffty-eight facets
appear upon every diamond cat as a
brilliant, whether it be a ten-earat stone
as broad as your thumb nail, or a tiny
spark not bigger than two pin heads,
Now and then a stone is spoiled in the
polishing; sometimes one is found that
cannot be made to shape itself into the
fifty-eight facets. The wheel on which
the stones are polished is a soft iron disk
lined with ianumerable curved rays run
ming from center to circumference. This
is sprinkled with diamond dust and sweet
oil. The moment a scratch appears On
The wheel the diamond must be removed
10 some othere part of the surface.
The finished stone comes from the
wheel covered with gummy oil, but aten-
minute bath in sulphurie acid leaves the
surface clean nd brilliant. Diamonds
pendent from pearly ears or shining on
snowy threats never look so beautiful as
they look unset and heaped together
upon oiled paper at the diamond cutters.
Few large diamonds are cut in New
York. Diamond cutters smile when the
"Cleveland gem" is mentioned. Great
things were expected of this stone, and
it weighed ffty-four carats when polished,