, 1889-08-20
THE DIAMOND CUTTERS.
HOW THEY WORK AND WHAT THEY
EARN IN NEW YORK CITY.

One Hundred Men Who Make High Wages
mt the Nice work-something About the
Method Of Grinding and Polishing the
Beautiful Stones.
The fifteen diamond cutting concerns
of New York polish 10000 carats of
rough diamonds each year, rather more
than the annual output of the Brazilian
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 business has grown up within ten
or fifteen years, but already most of the
apprentices are native Americans. A
clever lad beginning the trade at 20 may
become a skilled workman in five or six
years. The best diamond cutters under
favorable conditions earn from $40 to
$50 a week. These are better a
than those earned by any save the most
famous foreign diamond cutters. Work
men here are more intelligent and trust
worthy than those of Holland, France
or England, the chief diamond cutting
countries of Europe. Theft is common
abroad, but unusual here.
KEEPING THE RECORDS.
In looking about a diamond cutting es-
Enlistment one would hardly suspect
the precious character of the material in
use. The floors are bare, the windows are
open, and any one may enter by the door
unchallenged. 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 ook like bits of clear alum,
the darker like clouded quartz. The
rarest and c~ostliest stones are of sky blue,
pink and black. Ordinarily, however,
the pure water colored diamond without
tint or flaw is most sought after.
When the boss cutter has made accu-
rate record of his rough diamonds he
divides them into groups of four or five
and gives a group to each workman.
From nat time forth the man to whom
they are intrusted is responsible for the
stones. He returns them Zach night to
h boss, and the progress of the work is
carefully noted. In this way it is made
extremely difficult for fraudto be prac-
ticed. A cutter is seldom permitted to
polish a stone belonging to any one but
the boss. Doubtless the workman would
be careful to avoid confusion, but mis-
takes might arise. Now and then a clever
substitution is managed, and once in a
long while outright theft is committed.
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 smart
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 n
stick, and scraped with another diamond
similarly imbedded. The cutter has six
points presented to him, and he begins
with the one that seems most promising.
His choice decides which shall be the up
per surface of the diamond, for in the
brilliant" cutting, which is the most
difficult and the one almost generally
practiced here, the exposed surface is
slightly lattened, while the under side
runs to the apex of a pyramid. In this
way eight or ten facets are made.
From the cutter the stone goes to the
grinder or polisher, wis patiently turns
it and turns it until the swiftly whirling
wheel has cut upon the surface fifty-eight
tiny facets. These fifty-eight facets ap-
pear upon every diamond cut as a brill
liant, whether it be a ten carat stone rs
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
innumerable curved rays running 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 to some
other part of the surface.
The finished stone comes from the
wheel covered with gummy oil, but a ten
minute bath in sulphuric acid leaves the
surface clean and brilliant. Diamonds
pendant 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.
Nothing is wasted at the diamond cut
ter's. Boort, which is the name given to
diamond clippings that cannot be pol
ished, is placed in a steel mortar exactly
like an old fashioned churn and prayed
into powder for the polisher. Not a single
carat is lost, for the mortar is dust proof
and the pestle fits So close that the parti-
'cles cannot rise from the bottom.
Sometimes stones are injured In the
setting. Perhaps an accidental blow
breaks a brittle corner, perhaps too much
heat clouds the surface Diamonds thus
injured, however, may be repaired. AS
a matter of fact, the diamond is almost
indestructible. 1t loses nothing by long
wearing and acids cannot injure it. The
prevalent idea that soap and water dim
the luster of the diamond is n mistake.
A.. MI. c..