Common Jewelry Cuts

01 Brilliant cut
This type of jewelry cut is suitable for gemstones that have a high refractive index, good chromatic dispersion and transparent, such as diamonds. A standard round brilliant cut has 58 facets: 32 on the crown and 24 on the pavilion, plus the table and girdle. This type of cut is usually round-shaped, but variations such as pear, olive, heart and oval shapes are also available. A special type of square (ore rectangle) shaped cut was developed in the 1980s. Called the Princess cut, the table facet is cut like the brilliant, and the pavilion remains step-shaped. The popular Hearts & Arrows cut refer to the patterns displayed by the precise alignment and symmetry of each facet in the diamond: arrow shapes appear when viewed from the table facet, and heart-shaped patterns when viewed from the bottom. It is one of the most valuable and sought-after diamond cuts.

Round brilliant cut Pear brilliant cut
Olive brilliant cut Heart brilliant cut
Oval brilliant cut Diamond cut

 

02 Rose cut
This type of cut has its origins dating back as early as the 16th century, and is named because of its rose-shaped cut style. This type of cut can preserve most of the crystal mass, but is not as elegant or beautiful as the other more modern cuts. This cut is usually used in antique or classic style jewelries and is suitable for rough gemstones of slightly lesser quality.

Rose cut

 

03 Emerald cut
Also known as the step cut, this style results in a large table facet and numerous smaller step-shaped facets parallel to the table, and is often used in crafting emeralds. Due to its fewer numbers of facets, this type of cut is usually less fiery or brilliant, but can bring out the colors and clarity of the gemstones. The emerald cut is suitable for gemstones with good color and clarity, but otherwise have mediocre refractive index or fire. The step cut can result in rectangular, square, triangle, pentagonal and rhombus shapes. A finely rectangular step-cut is also called the Baguette, which does not waste much of the original crystals and can bring out the color and clarity of the gemstone.

Various shapes of emerald cut Various shapes of emerald cut
Finely rectangular emerald cut is also called Baguette cut

 

04 Scissor cut
This is a modified step cut, rectangular in shape, and each step-shaped facet is replaced by 4 triangles. Cheaper and easier to work with, this cut is usually used only on lesser value gemstones such as smoky quartz or glass, but can also be used to reduce the deep hues of some colors, increasing their values.

Scissor cut

 

05 Cabochon cut
This type of cut results in smooth, polished convex surface that are egg or oval shaped. As opposed to the facet cuts previously mentioned, the cabochon cut is usually used in gemstones that are less transparent (opaque) or have many impurities in them. Such gemstones usually employ cabochon cut to accentuate their colors, such as jades, rubies and sapphires. Gemstones with optical phenomena such as asterisms, chatoyancy (cat-eye) and color change are usually cut in the style of Cabochon to accentuate their phenomena, such as cat’s eye chrysoberyls, asteriated rubies and blue sapphires, opals and nephrites.

Sillimanite Cabochon cut

 

06 Fantasy cut
The fantasy cut is a free-form gemstone cut style first pioneered by Bernd Munsteiner, a German jewelry designer. Unlike conventional jewelry cuts, this style does not result in particular shapes, and usually contains many smaller saw-tooth shaped facets. Fantasy cuts are usually used on good quality colored gemstones, their larger crystals can be artistically designed to bring out the flair of the gemstones.

Citrine(fantasy cut)

 

 

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