Have you ever wondered what goes into cutting a rough diamond? There are several steps are called marking, cleaving, sawing, girdling, and faceting. The most popular style of cut is the brilliant cut, a round stone with 58 facets. A single cut is a simple form of cutting a round diamond with only 18 facets. Any style of diamond cutting other than the round brilliant or single cuts is called a fancy cut, or fancy shape; important fancy cuts include the marquise, emerald, oval, baguette, heart shape, pear shape, kite, triangle, and trilliant. The term melee is used to describe smaller brilliant-cut diamonds as well as all small diamonds that are used in embellishing mountings for larger gems.
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