SHAPES OF DIAMONDS - MOST COMMON FANCIES

All other shapes besides round are called "fancy cuts", or just
"fancies". Though about 90% of GIA graded stones are round (JCK, Apr
93), in the past 15 years, fancies have gone from about 15% market
share to about half currently for stones above 20 pts. The reasons
for this increase are many (JCK, Oct 91): more challenging jewelry
designs, smaller availability of rough suitable to cut rounds, new
technology (such as laser cutting), and especially more
experimentation to get new shapes to cut down on the waste of the
rough.

For the marquis, oval, and pear, the location and number of facets is
the same as in the round cut; it's just that these facets are
stretched over a different geometry, hence they have different
dimensions. (The emerald cut has totally different cut then any of
these.) This presents a problem when looking at any of these three
shapes: whereas in the round cut every kite facet should be the same,
for the marquise and the oval you have 3 different kinds of kite
facets (both oval and marquise have the C2v symmetry, hence 2
identical kite facets on the points, or on the ends of the major
axis, two identical kite facets on the minor axis, and 2 more pairs
of entiomeric kite facets at the 45 degrees between the major and
minor axes), and for a pear there are 5 different kinds of kite
facets (one each at the ends of the major axis, and 3 more entiomeric
* pairs in-between them). Hence, since it is difficult to see the
* problems with misshapen facets in fancies, this exact shaping of
* facets is not as crucial for fancies as it is for the rounds.
* But proportioning is still important.

The most common shapes of fancies are:

Marquis: which looks like a football from the top. After the
round, this is the most common shape of a diamond for engagement
rings.

Oval which has an elliptical shape when viewed from the top. For
both the marq, and oval, the ratio of the major axis to the minor
axis should be about 2:1. If it is much greater then that, when
looking from the top, you will see a dark areas in form of a wedge
hugging the minor axis from each side. This is called a bow-tie,
and is undesirable. If the ratio is less then 1.5 : 1, then it
will look like a misshapen round brilliant,...maybe something
between a round brilliant and oval/marq. It just is not pleasing to
the eye.

Pear shape is also a popular cut. It looks like a tear drop.

It is not too easy to judge a well cut pear. Let me arbitrarily
say that the pointed end of the pear cut points to the south (not
"bottom" or "top", which I consider the culet or the table). Hence
the ends of the minor axis (the longest line perpendicular to the
north-south major axis) are the west and eastern points. What you
want is a pear that looks just like round from the east to north to
west; if you cover everything from the minor axis south you really
shouldn't be able to see if it is a round cut or a pear. Don't buy
a stone which is too narrow or too broad, which are the worst
shaping mistakes of a pear cut. One way of judging how well the
pear is cut, is by location of the culet: the culet should appear
to be directly under the point where the major and minor axes
intersect; a stone where the culet is too much to the north or
where the culet is too much to the south, then the diamond has a
culet that is too high or two low respectively.

Emerald cut, which looks like a box from the top, with truncated
corners. It could either be a rectangle, in various ratios, or it
can be a square. This truncated rectangle then has two longer
sides, two shorter sides, and four sides due to the corner
truncation, for a total of eight sides. The table is the same
shape, but about 50-70% (linearly) the size of the diamond.
Between each edge of the table and straight side, there are three
ever more slopping, and smaller trapezoidal facets. For the square
emerald the culet is a point, but for the usually encountered
rectangular emerald cut, the culet is not a point, but a line,
parallel to the longer side of the diamond. The pavilion has a
similar arrangement of facets as the crown. Hence this diamond cut
has 1 + 3x8 + 3x8 = 49 facets.

9(r) SHAPE OF DIAMONDS - OLD CUTS

[Note: This section you can skip; here only for completion purposes]

Sometimes you will run across diamonds that have been cut in a
different style then is commonly seen today. Adopted from an JCK May
89 article:

Table Cut: It is a rather simple cut: an octahedron with one vertex
truncated to expose a square face, or a table. Introduced in the
early 15th C until mid 17th C, though it was found in Indian and
other native jewelry. This is probably the simplest cut, which is
not too surprising in the view that diamonds are pretty much
impossible to cut and polish with tools available at that time
period.

Rose Cut: AKA the Crowned Rose cut, Full Holland cut, or the Dutch
cut. Looks like a hemisphere, with a flat base. It has polished
flat facets in a regular pattern symmetric about the axis. It
could be as few as 3 facets, as many as 24.

Senaille Cut: Irregularly faceted and shaped Rose cut.

Pichere: Irregularly shaped chips of diamond.

Peruzzi Cut: The first cut that has recognizable facets. Named
after Vincenzio Peruzzi, who was credit for inventing this cut
around 1700. The 56 facets are arranged in a very similar manner
as the modern round cut, but stretched over a differently shaped
stone. It is square, or almost square (instead of round), the
table is small, the culet is large, and has higher crown and deeper
pavilion. Looks like halfway between a table cut and round cut.

Old Mine Cut: You may actually run across this in old jewelry. It
is similar like Peruzzi, but the corners are rounded. Again it has
high crown, deep pavilion, small table compared to the round cut.
Looks like an intermediate between Peruzzi and brilliant.

Cushion Cut: same as the Old Mine Cut, except that is used for
colored stones as opposed to diamonds.

Single Cut: AKA the Eight Cut. Used for stones that too small
(< 5 pts) to be cut into a stone with more facets. It is
approximately the same shape as the brilliant, ignoring the facets:
it is round, has similar crown height, pavilion depth, table size,
small (or no) culet. But the crown is composed of eight
trapezoidal facets, one side of which forms an edge with the table,
the opposite edge is on the girdle, and the two remaining opposite
sides of the equal length form edges with adjacent identical crown
facets. The pavilion facets are just acute isosceles triangles,
with bases on the girdle, and the opposite vertices on the culet.
This makes the total of 16 facets plus a table.

Swiss Cut: Used for smaller stones as well. It is halfway between
the brilliant cut and the single cut. Again, similar dimensions to
the modern cut. The crown has 8 isosceles triangular facets which
have bases on the girdle and apices that form the octagon of the
table, and has another 8 isosceles triangles which have bases on
the table to form edges of the table's octagon and apices on the
girdle. On the other side of the girdle are eight isosceles
triangular facets, which pretty much share the base with the former
crown triangular facets. The rest of the pavilion is taken up by
eight rhomboidal facets, whose two adjacent sides form an edge with
the neighboring identical facets and with the corners between these
two edges forming the culet; the other adjacent sides form an edge
with neighboring aforementioned triangular facets, with the corner
between the two sides on the girdle. That makes it 32 facets, a
culet, and a table.

Native Cut: a nice way of saying an irregularly cut brilliant cut.

9(s) SHAPES OF DIAMONDS - SOME RARE / PATENTED ONES

[Note: This section you can skip; here only for completion purposes]

There are many, many cuts that are available for you. Most of them
are patented. Some are new cuts to form into square or triangular
shapes, while others are just variations of the ones listed above.
The reasons for the new triangular and square shapes is that jewelers
want to use diamonds to tile jewelry pieces by small stones.
Traditionally this has been done with baguettes or by emerald cut
diamonds, but this was not found to be of sufficient brilliance,
hence new cuts had to be developed. (JCK, Apr 90)

Here are some examples (from JKC Jan 90, Oct 91) :

Trillian: an unregistered triangular cut used by Gemfactor Fancies
Inc.

Trilliant (R): another triangular cut, by H Meyer Diamond Co.

Trielle, or contemporary Trilliant: a new name for Trilliant who's
trademark has lapsed. Description of the cut: picture a
C6v-symmetry round instead of the C8v, which is the regular
Schoeflies point group symmetry of the round brilliant; and now
just force it into a triangle. Trielle has a seemingly large
triangular table on a triangular stone; a small kite facet between
each corner of the girdle and the table; a large kite touching each
side of the table in the midpoint, girdle midpoint and two smaller
kite facets; two differently sized sets of triplets of entiomeric
pairs of UGFs, as well as a triplet of a pair of entiomeric pairs
of star facets predictably complete the crown. The pavilion has
two differently sized sets of triplets of pairs of entiomeric
triangular facets. That's 1 + 3 + 3 + 12 + 12 = 31 facets.

Trillion (TM): yet another triangular cut; one of the oldest terms,
by L. F. Industries.

Asscher's Trilliant: used since the 70's by the Asscher Diamond Co
of Amstredam, which produced a triangle diamonds with curved sides
instead of straight ones. The table is somewhat smaller the then
of Trielle, but otherwise the crown is the same. The pavilion is
the same as that of a squashed-into-a-triangle C6v round brilliant:
two sets triplets of quadrillangular pavilion facets (each
pavilion facet from one set has a vertex on the corner of the
girdle, and each pavilion facet of the other set has a vertex on
the midpoint of the girdle edge), and two sets of triplets of
entiomeric pairs of LGFs.

Troidia: another unpatented triangular cut. It has a C3v-symmetry
nontagonal (I guess that's what I would call a nine-sided polygon)
table, of which every third vertex points to the corners of the
triangle. It has a triplet of entiomeric pairs of kite facets, a
triplet of entiomeric pairs of smaller star facets near the
corners, and another triplet of larger star facets in the midpoint.
Two sets of different triplets of entiomeric pairs of UGFs complete
the crown.

Trillium (R): one more triangular cut. By B.A.Bahtriarian Inc.

Quadbrilliant (TM): a square cut, used to describe colored stones.
By J Breski & Co.

Barion square: a successful attempt at making a square emerald cut
more sparkling. This cut was invented by Basil Watermeyer of South
Africa in 1971. The Barion name is not trademarked and the patent
has already expired. The crown looks just like the square emerald,
but it has a more complex pavilion. The pavilion has two kinds of
quartets of lower girdle facets (triangular facets from the
truncated corners, and pentagonal facets from the edges), a quartet
of adjacent quadrilateral facets that come to a single vertex --
the culet, and 2 sets of quartet of entiomeric pairs of triangular
facets. Thus there are 1 + 2x3x4 + 2x4 + 4 + 2x4x2 = 53 facets.

Radiant Cut: emerald shape, but more complex. Invented by Henry
Grossbard in 1976, patented and trademarked. The table is a
slightly bowed out rectangle with untruncated corners. Instead of
three steps of facets from the girdle to the table, there are only
two. The upper facet between the corner of the table and the
facet that lies on the truncated corner of the outline of the
diamond, is not trapezoidal like in the emerald cut, but is
triangular. Furthermore, the upper step facet adjacent to the edge
of the table, are really three triangular facets, one very obtuse
triangle, and a pair of entiomeric very acute triangles; the vertex
where all three triangular facets come together lies midway of the
edge of the table. The pavilion is similar to the Barion cut; the
facets have a little bit different geometry, and the lower girdle
triangular facet adjacent to the truncated corner is actually split
into 3 triangular facet, which come together in the center of the
parent triangle. An interesting note on the cut is that on the
pavilion there are 4 points, at each where 8 facets (or 8 edges)
come to form one vertex; I believe that is the highest ordered
vertex aside from a culet of any common cut. Thus there are
1 + 4x2 + 4 + 4x3 = 25 crown facets and 4 + 4x3 + 4 + 2x4x2 = 36
pavilion facets for the total of 61 facets.

Starburst: again another, even more complicated emerald shaped cut.
Sold through I. Stark Co. of Chicago; it is trademarked, but not
patented. The crown is similar to that of the radiant cut, except
that both quartets of the upper girdle facets are split into 4
triangular facets, two of which are entiomeric; these four
triangles come together to form a vertex at the geometric center of
the parent trapezoid. The pavilion is completely different,
though. There are two pairs of trapezoidal lower girdle facet
lying on each edge of the stone, a quartet of triangular lower
girdle facets adjacent to the truncated corners. Four entiomeric
pairs of triangular facets adjacent to both the trapezoidal and
triangular facets complete the first pavilion step. By extending
the two entiomeric pavilion edges of each of the trapezoidal lower
girdle facets until they come together to a vertex (which is about
three quarters of a way to the culet from the edge of the diamond),
will generate a large triangle; subtracting the surface of the
trapezoidal lower girdle facet from this large triangle will
generate a smaller triangle, which is subdivided into three
triangular facets (an obtuse triangle and a pair of entiomeric
triangular facets having a common edge with the original extension
of the trapezoidal lower girdle facet), which have a common vertex
at the geometric center of the smaller triangle. The areas
remaining to describe the pavilion can be subdivided along the
minor and major axes to generate a quartet of irregularly-shaped
(Cs symmetry) adjacent hexagons. Each hexagon is subdivided into a
three quadrilateral facets having a common vertex at the center of
the hexagon; two of these facets are an entiomeric pair that share
a vertex with the identical other 3 pairs to generate a culet, and
the other quadrilateral facet shares an edge with the two
triangular facets that complete the first pavilion step. Thus
there are 1 + 2x4x4 + 4x1 + 4x3 = 49 crown facets and 2x4 +4x2 +4x3
+ 4x3 = 40 pavilion facets, for the total of 89 facets.

Princess cut: This is a square cut. It is a generic name, neither
patented nor trademarked, with no standard set of distribution of
facets. The shape is square, with a square table. There are four
large isosceles obtuse triangles on the crown, each of which has an
edge common with the side of the diamond, and the apex at the
midpoint of the side of the table; this triangle is split into a
triangular facet and a trapezoidal upper girdle facet by an edge
parallel to the diamond edge about halfway between the diamond edge
and table. The rest of the crown is composed of four concave
quadrilaterals, defined by the corner of the diamond, the vertex of
the table, and the aforementioned apex of the large triangle; this
area is split into a pair of entiomeric triangular facets, having
common edges with the table, and a quadrilateral facet, which has
one corner at the corner of the diamond, and the opposite corner at
the vertex of the table. The pavilion has four very large
triangular isosceles lower girdle facets. The rest of the pavilion
is shaped like a four pointed star, of which each point is
subdivided into a central quadrilateral facet, flanked on either
side by two very skinny triangular facets. Hence this princess cut
has 1 + 4x2 + 4x3 = 21 crown facets and 4 + 4x5 = 24 pavilion
facets for the total of 45 facets.

Quadrillion (R): another square cut. Patented and trademarked by
Ambar Diamonds of Los Angeles in 1981. The crown is just like that
of the princess cut described above, except that the table is much
bigger. The pavilion is also the same as the princess, but the
large triangular lower girdle facets are not as large -- the apex
is somewhat less then halfway from the edge of the diamond to the
culet, thus giving more pavilion surface area to the other pavilion
facets. Although literature calls it a 49-faceted stone, I counted
only 45 facets, so I dunno. Yes, it may be a more brilliant cut
then the run of the mill Princess cut, but I don't know how they've
gotten a defensible patent on it.

Marigold Cut: Developed by DeBeers, as a part of their "flower cut"
series. None of the developed cuts in these flower series is
neither patented nor trademarked, so that this firm can promote the
use of diamonds. You can think of this as a square emerald cut,
whose corners as truncated so much that the truncation is the same
length as the edge. The perimeter of the diamond is a octagonal,
with octagonal table. Unlike the 3 steps of facets between the
girdle and the table, this cut has four, not evenly spaced, sets of
facets. The pavilion is the same as the distorted emerald cut:
each eighth of the pavilion is subdivided parallel-wise to four,
not evenly spaced facets. This makes 1 + 8x4 + 8x4 = 65 facets.

Dahlia Cut: Another of the Flower series. Oval in shape, or
actually a dodecagonal shape closely resembling an oval. It has
the same shape but smaller sized table. Each of the 12 edges of
the table has a triangular star facet, with the apex about 2/3 of
the way for the table to the girdle. All the upper girdle facets
are trapezoidal and share common edge with the neighboring upper
girdle facet. Twelve triangular facets complete the crown. The
pavilion looks like very poorly made eight cut. The two lower
girdle facets along the major axis are pentagonal, reaching about
2/3 to the culet. The adjacent lower girdle facets to these are
triangular, reaching about halfway to the culet. The triangular
area from the edge of the diamond along the minor axis that reaches
all the way to the culet is subdivided parallel to the edge very
close to the culet to form a large trapezoidal lower girdle facet
and a tiny triangular facet. The four remaining totally asymmetric
hexagonal facets reach from the edge of the diamond adjacent to the
edge on the minor axis, and forms an edge every single kind of
pavilion facet described up to now, plus two adjacent hexagonal
facets. Thus there are 1 + 12 + 12 +12 = 37 crown facets and
2 + 4 + 2x2 + 4 = 14 pavilion facets for the total of 51 facets.

Zinnia Cut: Another of the Flower series. It is round, and the
arrangement of the crown pavilion is similar to that of Dahlia,
except that it has a C8v symmetry instead of the C12v symmetry
expected of rounded Dahlia. The table is octagonal with star
facets, very much similar to that of the round brilliant cut. The
rest of the crown is composed of 8 trapezoidal adjacent upper
girdle facets and 8 triangular facets. However, the pavilion is
more complicated. Each of the 45 degree slices of pavilion (from
the girdle to the culet) has a large adjacent lower girdle facet
with 4 straight edges and a small concave quadrilateral area with a
vertex on the culet. This area is subdivided into a central
quadrilateral facet, flanked on each side by two skinny triangular
facets. Hence there are 1 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 25 facets on the crown,
and 8 x (1 + 1 + 2x2) = 48 pavilion facet, for the total of
73 facets.

Sunflower Cut: Another Flower Series cut. It has a square emerald
cut shape. The crown is the same as that of a square Radiant, for
the total of 25 facet. Each of the four pairs of the lower girdle
facets is triangular to the first degree of approximation; both
sets have the apexes about two thirds to the culet. The remaining
area are composed of four entiomeric pairs of quadrangular pavilion
facets, similar to the pavilion facets of the round brilliant.
However, there are four tiny triangular facets, straddling the edge
of two of these pavilion facets, with the apex on the culet, and
the base actually being the apex of the large "triangular" (now
technically quadrilateral) lower girdle facets. Hence there are
1 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4x3 = 25 crown facets and 4x2 + 4x2 + 4 = 20
pavilion facets, for the total of 45 facets.

Fire Rose: Still another of the Flower Series cuts. This is one of
the very few hexagonal cuts. Its layout of the facets reminds one
of that of Zinnia; if you take Zinnia, make it to have C6v symmetry
instead of C8v symmetry, and force it into a hexagonal shape you'll
have Fire Rose. Fire Rose has a hexagonal table, offset from the
hexagon of the diamond by 30 degrees. The table and the star
facets do not form two staggered squares like the Zinnia or the
round brilliant, but two staggered equilateral triangles, to form
the Star of David. Fire has 1 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 19 crown facets and
6 x (1 + 1 + 2x2) = 36 pavilion facets for the total of 55 facets.

Marquise Dream Cuts: This is part of the "Dream" Cut series made by
Michael Schachter, marketed by Maico Industries. Both the Dream
Cuts Series, as well as the Royal Cut Series, are just take offs on
the traditional fancies: instead of having a curved girdle, these
cuts actually have straight lines. The reason given by both the
Dream Cut marketers and Royal Cut marketers is that these stones
look 10 to 50% larger the their actual weight.

The Marquise Dream Cut looks like a marquise that has six straight
edges. Actually it is a little bit more complicated. Consider a
round brilliant; now, make it into a C6v stone instead of a C8v
stone; then distort it into a marquise shape; and finally make the
curved girdle edges of the stone into six straight sides to give
you a Marquise Dream cut. Thus you have a table, 6 star facets
(two kinds: two larger ones pointing to the traditional point of a
marquise, and a doublet of entiomeric pairs), 6 kite facets (two
identical facets and a doublet of pairs of entiomeric facets), 12
upper girdle facets (a doublet of entiomeric pairs along the
traditional point of a marquise, plus two sets of doublets of
entiomeric pairs) to give the total of 25 crown facets. The
pavilion presumably has 6x3 facets, for the grand total of
43 facets.

Pear Dream Cut: Another of the Dream Cut Series. As the name
suggest, it looks like a pear, and instead of having a curved
girdle, it is a Cs-symmetry heptagon. Again, it is a little bit
more complicated. Consider a round brilliant; now make it in to a
C7v stone instead of C8v stone; then distort it into a pear; and
finally make the curved girdle sides of the stone into an irregular
heptagon to obtain a Pear Dream Cut. Hence you have a heptagonal
table, 7 star facets (one large one pointing to the traditional
pear point, and three different entiomeric pairs), 7 kite facets
(one pointing to the north end (see my definition of "north" in the
description of the pear cut), and seven different entiomeric pairs
of upper girdle facets for the total of 29 crown facets.
Presumably the pavilion has 7x3 facets, for the total of
50 facets.

Oval Dream Cut: Yet another Dream Cut. It is an oval, but instead
of curved girdle it is an octagon. But the crown is not quite as
easily obtained from the round as the two previous Dream Cuts. It
has a hexagonal table that almost looks like a rectangle, with
longer sides parallel to the major axis. From each of the six
vertices of the table is a kite facet that reaches the girdle.
Four of the hexagonal sides of the table, those that form the
longer side of the rectangle, are edges of star facets. However,
the two sides of the hexagonal table that parallel the minor axis
are not edges of a triangular facet, but a trapezoidal facet. The
lower edge of the trapezoid is formed by a triangular facet that
straddles the major axis, and whose apex is on the girdle. Also
there are four sets of doublets of entiomeric pairs of triangular
upper girdle facets. Thus there are 1 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 4x2x2 = 31
crown facets and, to me anyway, an unknown number of pavilion
facets.

Baroness Royal Cut: This is a part of the Royal Cut Series developed
by Raphaeli-Stschik of Israel, distributed by Suberi Brother of NY.
The Royal Cuts and Dream Cuts are pretty similar, but there are
some variations. This is actually identical to the round
brilliant, except that it is octagonal, instead of round.
Presumably also 57 facets.

Duchess Royal Cut: Another Royal Cut. It looks like a marquise cut
with six straight edges instead of two curves. The easiest way of
picturing a Duchess is to start from the Marquise Dream cut. In
the Marquise Dream, there are two large star facets pointing to the
traditional points of the marquise. Take this triangle, and split
it into 3 triangles sharing a common vertex at the geometric center
of the parent triangle; two of the triangular facets are an
entiomeric pair, sharing edges with each other and with two
different kite facets and the remaining unique obtuse triangle
formed; now, this unique triangle is tilted up so that the edge
disappears and just becomes a part of the table. Hence the table
is not irregular hexagonal, but irregular (C2v-symmetry) octagonal.
Rest of the Duchess is the same as the Marquise Dream Cut. Thus
there is one table, 6 kite facets, 3 doublets of entiomeric pairs
of upper girdle facets, a doublet of a pair of star facets, and a
doublet of an entiomeric pair of these new triangular facets, for
the total of 27 crown facets. I assume that the pavilion has
6x3 facets for the total of 45 facets.

Empress Royal Cut: Another Royal Cut. It looks like the traditional
pear cut, but instead of a curve girdle it has 7 straight sides.
Again, it is very similar to that of the Pear Dream cut. To form
the Empress Royal Cut, take the Pear Dream cut and subdivide the
large triangular star facet pointing to the sole point of the
traditional pear cut in a same manner as for the pair of triangular
facets in the Duchess cut. This will make the table an irregular
(Cs symmetry) octagon. Hence there is 1 table, 7 kite facets (1
unique, and 3 different entiomeric pairs), 14 upper girdle facets
(7 different entiomeric pairs), three entiomeric pairs of star
facets and a pair of triangular facets just generated, to yield the
total of 30 crown facets. Again, I assume that the pavilion has
7x3 facets, for the grand total of 51 facets.

Star Cut: Some Israeli cutters have found a way to perfect the star
cut to give it more fire and brilliance. The look just like
5 pointed stars you'd see in a US flag. Used for high-end jewelry
designs. Great deal of rough is wasted, and are thus very
expensive. Pancis Gems 1-800-426-4435 (JCK Jan 93, May 94)

Queen Cut: a variation of a round cut, developed in Thailand to
honor the Queen Sirikit's 60th birthday. This cut combines the
crown of the round, and pavilion of a radiant cut. 32 crown facets
and 28 pavilion facets. (JCK Feb 93)

Flanders Brilliant: a computer developed cut by the National Diamond
Syndicate. Looks similar to round, but is a octagonal, with
alternate sides of it longer then the others (or a square with
truncated corners). NDS: 1-800-621-5057. (JCK Jun 93)

Jewelry FAQ
Jewelry Direcrory
PAUL'S HEATING & AIR GA
JEWELRY BY GEORGE GA
MAXWELL APPLIANCE REPAIR GA
Mobile PC Repair GA
Magical Travel & Events Inc GA
Real Estate Agents Georgia
Masonry service
Florist GA