DIAMOND CUTTING AND CHARGES
Diamond cutting is a highly specialized form of lapidary work using accurate equipment but depending upon the skill of the cutters for satisfactory final results. The cutting trade tends to cluster its shops in only a few places in the world where the necessary talented workmen, equipment suppliers, and suitable rough are readily available. Principal cutting centers are established in Antwerp, New York, and in Israel, with smaller centers in Amsterdam, London, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the United States the largest center is located in midtown Manhattan, New York City, but several cutters operate shops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and a few other large cities. The United States cutters confine their work mainly to gems over i/8 carat, the smaller gems being cut in Antwerp and Israel.

Cutting charges for gems of about one carat weight range from about $25 to $35 per carat in the United States, to about $75 to $100 per carat for larger gems of five carats or more, depending upon the volume of busi¬ness brought to the cutter and the time spent in such preliminary work as cleaving, sawing, or other preparations prior to actual faceting of the crystals. If the cutting is contracted for through a jeweler, the charges will be somewhat more.

WORLD CUTTING CENTERS AND CHARGES
Cutting centers devoted to all other gemstones are numerous. Prac¬tically every major country has at least one. The largest center is the Idar-Oberstein complex in Germany, which has been in continuous opera-don for centuries. Here all classes of work are accomplished, including diamond cutting, ordinary facet and cabochon work, gem engraving, sculpture, drilling of beads, making of ash trays, and other types of work too numerous to mention. A number of shops are family concerns, cmetimes tracing their participation in the lapidary arts through several crenerations. Many of the shops specialize. For example, one may handle dead-drilling especially well, while another is equipped and skilled in carving. Cutting charges range from several dollars per carat for faceted gems on small orders, to pennies per carat on very large orders. Charges are adjusted according to the complexity of the cutting, the nature of the material, and the size of the finished objects. Anyone interested in sending rough to Idar-Oberstein for cutting should inquire beforehand for a schedule of charges, stating as accurately as possible what the finished objects should be, their size, style of cut, and other details. Under no circumstances should flawed or defective rough be sent, because it costs just as much to cut poor material as it does the best. Unless the rough is carefully cobbed beforehand to eliminate areas which are defective, the customer may find himself paying for cutting charges on gems or other objects of indifferent quality, perhaps not worth the cost of the charges incurred. This advice applies equally to all other cutting centers.

Since World War II, an important center has developed in Hong Kong as a result of the influx of skilled lapidaries from the ancient lapidary centers in Canton and Peking in the mainland of China. Many classes of work are accomplished, including facet and cabochon cutting, beads, small to large carvings, and utilitarian objects. The specialty, of course, is carving, an art in which the Chinese have always excelled. However, if Western motifs are wanted, problems arise because of the ingrained tradi¬tion of turning out carvings in the highly stylized Chinese manner. The carvers are quite incapable of producing a true-to-life nude figure, for example, or a realistic animal unless an accurate model is supplied which they can copy. Needless to say, prior arrangements must be carefully con¬cluded before material is supplied and permission given to go ahead.

A much older center than Hong Kong exists in Kofu, Japan, where family shops, much like those of Idar-Oberstein, ply their art with cen¬turies-old traditions behind them. This center has been famous for its specialized work in spheres and carvings, formerly produced from Japa¬nese rock crystal but now replaced by imported stones. Long familiarity with rock crystal is reflected in the faceted beads and the “pagoda” stones which are turned out very cheaply in the thousands. Larger carvings are also undertaken, but the results seldom achieve the spontaneity and imagination of the Chinese carvings unless the lapidaries are furnished with accurate models. Like the Chinese, they also cannot turn out life¬like nudes, animals, and other objects because of being steeped in an art tradition which rarely allowed such faithful representations to be made.
Smaller cutting centers are located in various oriental countries, mostly to handle the gems mined from local deposits. Excellent faceted work is accomplished in Burma, but their cabochons are sometimes of poor quality when made from the cheaper materials. In Ceylon, particularly in Colombo, native lapidaries pay far too much attention to recovering as much weight as possible from the rough, following a tradition of centu¬ries’ standing. Many of their faceted gems are grotesque distortions, usu¬ally brilliant to be sure, but so deep or so deformed that many resemble carrots in shape. They are fond of certain cutting styles which repeatedly crop up on their faceted gems and are almost infallible hallmarks of Ceylon work. The preoccupation with weight also results in star gems which look like balls because the parts underneath are not cut away but left to add weight, or lopsided stars in which the crossing points of the light streaks are far off to one side. Similar asymmetry occurs in moon¬stones. Indian work is inclined to be equally sloppy from the Western point of view, many faceted gems having facets applied in what seems to be only an approximation of symmetry. This irregularity certainly possesses a distinctive charm when the gems are set in the colorful gold-enamel mountings of native jewelry, but larger gems, imported into Western countries and meant for setting in Western-style jewelry, usually need to be recut.

Important cutting centers are established in London, Paris, and else¬where in Europe. The cutting of the locally-mined pyropes in Bohemia, once an impressive business, is now at a low point but is recovering. Excel¬lent facet and cabochon work is accomplished in London and Paris, and also in the United States, in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a few other major cities. Brazil is rapidly developing an impressive native cut¬ting industry of considerable versatility and skill in the faceting of native gemstones. They have learned how to facet oval brilliants and other more demanding styles both in standard gemstones and in the difficult kunzite. Much agate is also being processed into ash trays and other large orna¬mental objects. In Australia, cutting centers exist for both facet and cabo¬chon work, the latter specializing in the treatment of opals and the former in the sapphires found in several places on the continent. New Zealand has a small cutting center specializing in the cutting and carving of nephrite and bowenite. The famous zircons of Thailand are beautifully cut by native lapidaries who also now turn out enormous quantities of quartz gems at astonishingly low prices.

All centers mentioned above accept custom work, but due to varying costs of living, customs duties, and other factors, most work today is sent to Germany or Hong Kong, if the services of local centers are not desired. Customs regulations in the United States cause charges to be levied against cut gems regardless of the cost of the rough, for which no discount is allowed. It is advisable to check regulations at a local customs office before contracting for lapidary services abroad. The table on page 27 gives typical charges for custom faceting and cabochon work in Germany on customer-supplied gem material. The rough is sent to an agent in the United States and dispatched by him to Idar-Oberstein where the actual work is per¬formed.

In addition to commercial centers, many amateur cutters in the United States do facet and cabochon work, preparation of flat slabs, book ends, spheres, and sometimes gem engraving and carving. In the case of faceted gems, exceptionally precise cutting can be expected, while rarer gems, many of them of a degree of softness or fragility baffling to the commercial cutter, can also be handled. Depending on the volume of work, styles of cuts, and the nature of the gemstones, charges usually range from $3 to $5 minimum per faceted gem of about one carat or less, with additional charges for increasing size on the basis of $.50 to $1.50 per carat. Charges are higher for exceedingly soft and fragile gemstones which require slow, careful work.