We cut the diamond for your ring.

A four-bench atelier in Antwerp's diamond quarter. You see the rough first, then we cut it into your stone.

It starts as a rough.

An octahedron of carbon, frosted and grey. Your stone is inside it, and most of the crystal will not survive the cut.

Weight a round brilliant keeps from its rough: about 40%

Sawn flat, then turned round.

Only a diamond can shape a diamond. The top is sawn off for the table, then the girdle is rounded against a second stone.

Hardness on the Mohs scale: 10

Seventeen facets set the light.

A table and eight mains on each side. Their angles decide how much light turns inside the stone and comes back out of the top.

Crown angle: 34.5°
Pavilion angle: 40.75°
Critical angle: 24.4°

Fifty-seven facets, polished on iron.

Forty more facets finish the brilliant. Each meets the scaife, a cast-iron wheel charged with diamond powder and olive oil, at its own angle.

Scaife speed: about 3,000 rpm
Dispersion: 0.044

On the bench this month

Three stones we have cut and graded ourselves. Hold one while you decide, or have it set in a ring you design with us.

Round brilliant

Weight
1.02 ct

Colour
E

Clarity
VS1

Facets
57

€9,400 loose, with its grading report
Hold this stone
Oval

Weight
1.21 ct

Colour
F

Clarity
VVS2

Facets
57

€11,900 loose, with its grading report
Hold this stone
Emerald cut

Weight
1.51 ct

Colour
G

Clarity
VS1

Facets
57

€10,600 loose, with its grading report
Hold this stone

Four benches, one wheel each.

Three cutters and a setter on the second floor of a building in the diamond quarter, two minutes from Antwerp Centraal. Every stone we sell has been on one of our wheels.

Cutters at the wheel: 3
Stones cut a year: about 300
Rough shown before cutting: Always

Book a sitting

An hour at the bench. We show you rough stones, talk through shapes and budgets and sketch the ring. Nothing is paid until you choose a stone.

Round brilliant, seen from above: 33 facets on the crown.

Questions

Where does your rough come from?

From licensed rough dealers in Antwerp, each parcel with its Kimberley Process certificate and a written source. Ask to see the papers at your sitting.

Do you cut lab-grown diamonds?

Yes, if you prefer one. We cut lab-grown rough the same way and say plainly which is which, on the grading report and on the invoice.

How long does a ring take?

Four to six weeks from the sitting: about a week to cut and grade the stone, the rest for the setting. Tell us if a date matters.

Can I bring a stone of my own?

Yes. We can recut an old stone, which often brings back a lot of its light, or set it just as it is.