Perfection in diamond cutting exists and can be obtained, absolutely. In fact, it is the responsibility of cutters to make each stone the highest expression of diamond beauty. So why aren't all diamonds perfectly cut? Read on...

Perfect cutting is a fine art and, like any other art, is both a symbol and an instance of realizing one's highest human potential. This art is expressed not by forcing the diamond into a perfect cut, but by simply allowing the diamond to be what nature designed it to be: the greatest medium of light reflection and refraction known. Then, and only then, with knowledge, patience and great skill does the artist help that diamond to achieve its own perfection.

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Article From the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cut, color, clarity and carats
EightStar in Sonoma County producing diamonds that dazzle

Alison von Sternberg thinks of herself as cutting diamonds from the inside out. It takes a Zen state of mind.

In her Sonoma County workshop, the bright-eyed 43-year-old sat serenely behind her scaife, a diamond-cutting wheel that looks like a record turntable, albeit one that spins at 3,800 rpm. Coated with diamond dust and olive oil, it abrades the side of a diamond to create a facet.

"You have to be with the diamond all the time," von Sternberg said. "I think of it as sculpting because I'm making a work of art. Every diamond is different, so it doesn't get boring."

Of the tens of thousands of diamond cutters in the world, only a handful are women, and von Sternberg is considered among the best.

Alison and her husband, Richard von Sternberg, 58, say they have perfected a method of cutting that makes a diamond leap incandescently to life, shot through with brilliance (white light) and fire (colored light). Under a special viewing mechanism called a Firescope, it shows a distinctive eight- spoke pattern.

The couple named their cut and their company EightStar. They say their techniques could revolutionize diamonds -- but it's not clear whether the diamond industry will receive them with open arms or a cold shoulder.

Last year, EightStar came up with a nifty publicity stunt. A Swiss diamond enthusiast who has a 25 percent stake in the company bought a spectacular, $2.3 million diamond to be recut to EightStar proportions. An EightStar cutter reduced it from 14.89 carats to 13.42, lopping off a quarter- million dollars' worth of weight.

"Every little bit of weight that comes off makes people sick to their stomach," Richard said. "People who heard we were going to do this thought we were nuts." But the new cut made the light dance and the colors vibrate inside, he said.

Greg Cotton, 44, saw the diamond, called the American Star, on tour and was so inspired that he quit his job as a firefighter in the Sierra to apprentice as an EightStar diamond cutter. In his first month he was bubbling with enthusiasm even though it will be more than a year before he qualifies as a master cutter.

"I've always had a thing for gems," he said. "This job gives me science and art in one job."

With nine cutters, some of whom work out of their homes, plus six other employees, EightStar is diminutive. It turns out about 2,000 diamonds a year, a 10th of the volume of bigger companies.

Richard von Sternberg said annual sales are in the millions of dollars. He declined to specify the profit margin, although he said it's low because the cutting process is so labor intensive.

The von Sternbergs were dealers of colored gemstones until a theft wiped out their inventory. They stumbled into EightStar when an acquaintance opened a diamond-cutting factory in Sonoma County using techniques that a Japanese expert had spent years perfecting. They bought the company in 1991 for less than $1 million when their acquaintance decided it was too overwhelming an enterprise for him.

EightStar cutters spend an average of 32 hours to cut a single diamond. Once, a single facet (there are 58 facets in an "ideal" cut) of a particularly adamantine stone took Alison 90 days. Cutting factories in Israel and India crank diamonds out like widgets at the rate of one every 45 minutes.

EightStar diamonds cost about 40 percent more than those mass-produced gems, but some jewelers say they're worth it.

David Berryhill, co-owner of Morrison's Jewelers in Orinda, said he was initially skeptical of EightStar's claims, but after studying its methods and viewing some diamonds, became a convert and an authorized dealer.

"You can see an EightStar stone jumping out of the ring even if the customer is 30 feet away across the room," he said. As for the price, "it's like buying a limited edition lithograph."

At E.R. Sawyers Jewelers in Santa Rosa, owner Doug Van Dyke laid out three diamonds against black velvet. One seemed clearly larger and more dazzling.

"That's the EightStar," he said with an element of "gotcha" in his tone. "It's three-quarters of a carat. The other two are each one carat. The cut makes the EightStar look bigger."

Van Dyke and Berryhill are among 63 jewelers who carry EightStar diamonds. Each has an exclusive territory, similar to the model followed by Rolex.

The American Gem Society and the Gemological Institute of America, the two major labs that grade diamonds, have begun to recognize cut as a critical factor.

Peter Yantzer, director of the grading laboratory for the American Gem Society, agreed that cut affects perception of size.

"A well-cut diamond can out-sparkle and appear larger than a poorly cut diamond of more carat weight," he wrote in an e-mail. "Additionally, because of their brilliance, well-cut diamonds also can mask a diamond's imperfections in color and clarity."

As for EightStar, Yantzer wrote: "They cut to a very high degree of precision, and their diamonds fit the parameters of AGS' top grade. Like many other firms worldwide, this is an ideal situation for cut."

Alex Angelle, a spokesman for the Gemological Institute of America, declined to comment directly on EightStar or any other company.

Although the institute grades diamonds' cut, it is not a qualitative judgment, he said, "just a description of the proportions and the measurements of the diamond. There are a number of branded cuts. We don't comment on that currently."

Until recently, cut was the least noticed of the four Cs of grading diamonds -- cut, color, clarity and carats -- even though it is the only factor that humans can influence.

Now, diamond companies have begun to market cut as a way to differentiate their products. Signature cuts such as Tiffany & Co.'s Lucida command premium prices. At the same time the upper end gets more rarified, diamonds are going further down market; Wal-Mart is now the country's biggest seller of the gems.

To the layperson, "cutting" a diamond seems like a misnomer. Strictly speaking, what appears to be going on is grinding, one facet at a time, interspersed with meticulous checking through a jewelers loupe and with an optical viewer to ensure that the angles are perfectly aligned.

Before she became a cutter, Alison von Sternberg thought the term was meant literally.

"I pictured little guys with little chisels and glasses way down their nose," she said. "I had no idea it was so technical and mathematical."

Her quiet repose behind the wheel contrasted with the edgier energy of her husband, who paced around and struck tai-chi like poses as he spilled forth a constant stream of arcane and learned minutiae about diamond cutting.

Despite being the hardest known substance in the universe, diamonds can shatter in the hands of an inexperienced cutter. "A diamond doesn't do anything you want it to," he said.

Some diamond experts question whether branded cuts are worth the extra money or are just a marketing gimmick.

"I think EightStar puts out a wonderful product that is overpriced and overpromoted," said Robert James, a gemologist in San Antonio, Texas.

"If you have to carry an ideal (viewing) scope around with you to explain to friends why you paid so much more for your diamond than theirs ... you have paid too much for your diamond," he wrote in an online discussion. He wrote that the party test -- how a gem looks out in the real world -- is the best gauge.

James has a similar opinion of Hearts on Fire, a Boston company that pioneered diamond branding with a signature cut and an aggressive marketing campaign. Started in 1996, the company now cuts 20,000 diamonds a year that are sold through 450 dealers worldwide.

Maarten de Witte, whose title is diamond wizard for Hearts on Fire, said that the best way to judge a diamond is by looking at it. De Witte, who once worked for EightStar, declined to comment directly on its claim of having the best-cut diamond. Hearts on Fire, in defiance of generations of English teachers, has trademarked the phrase, "The world's most perfectly cut diamond."

The von Sternbergs say that the diamond establishment has shied away from endorsing their techniques because it could have huge ramifications for big companies in the multibillion-dollar industry. If the EightStar cut really is the best, other diamond merchants are holding bags of rocks that suddenly may be worth a lot less.

"We're the pariah of the industry," Alison said. "We're trying to promote something new that threatens everybody. It's been an uphill climb to get any recognition."

Gregory Sherman, an independent jewelry consultant who teaches gemology at the California Institute of Jewelry Training in Carmichael (Sacramento County), says EightStar's ultimate role is as a boutique cutting firm that produces superior stones.

"Each diamond is as different as a snowflake or a fingerprint," he said. "If you take a standard approach to cutting a diamond (as do most diamond cutters) and expect each to perform the same based on external measurements, they won't all come out the same."

EightStar, by contrast, "adjusts the proportions to fit each individual diamond and make each as beautiful as it can be," he said.

"They look at the relationship between each facet, the symmetry, the way they're angled. They're the only company I know of that does that, and their diamonds are cut to perfection."

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

Full Article with images located here SFGate.com