Types of diamond cuts

Diamonds are center of attraction for all those jewelry maniacs. This is all due to the fire and glow in the diamond. The cut of the diamond makes it more worthy. The cut adds style and gives new dimension to the look of diamond. Diamond cut is the guide used to shape a diamond. A cut does not necessarily mean the shape of diamond but also the symmetry, polish and proportioning of the diamond. A diamond having good cut will be more luminous and the cut directly impacts the brilliance of diamond. There are various types of cuts associated with diamonds. Though the earliest cuts are still famous, new type of cuts have emerged and some of them are patented by the designers and costs thousands of dollars. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) classifies diamond cuts into three types based on the arrangement of facets and their style. They are:-

• Brilliant cuts

• Mixed cuts

• Step cuts

Brilliant cut diamonds:

This is one of the earliest and still popular diamond cut. This type of cut developed in 17th century in Venice. These types of diamonds have triangles and kite shaped facets. The facets are placed such that the light coming through them enhance the sparkle or the diamond’s brilliance. Round shaped brilliant cut is most popular version till today and they are called round brilliant diamonds.

The earlier versions of brilliant cut diamonds had 17 facets and were called double-cut. It was soon modified with more quality stones with 33 facets and called triple-cut brilliants. Nowadays round brilliant has 58 facets. But this numbers vary with other brilliant cuts like vintage brilliant cut.

Step cut diamonds:

The step cut diamond has four sided facets that run parallel to diamond’s girdle. The number of facets in the step cut diamond is lesser than brilliant cut diamonds. There is a sub category in step cut called Emerald cut. This diamond’s have their corners clipped off. They usually vary in shape from narrow rectangle to squares. The disadvantage of step cut is that open appearance make large inclusions and internal flaws are more obvious with the set stone.

Mixed cut diamonds:

These types of cuts are usually used for gemstones with colors. The cuts have faceting elements of both step cut and brilliant cut techniques. They have cuts side by side or different areas of gemstone.

Apart from these types of cuts, there are various types of new cutting techniques with diamonds such as princess cut, ovals, heart-shaped, trillions etc. The creators have also demonstrated their innovative skills with butterfly or star shaped cuts.