Are diamonds and gemstones cut by hand or by machines?

Diamonds may be the hardest substance on earth, but even hard substances can be easily broken when the appropriate methods are used. Even a hammer can be scratched by a diamond, meaning that these precious gemstones are even tougher than steel. Nonetheless, once a diamond suffers a blow in precisely the right spot, it will shatter. Of course the hardness of diamonds makes them very difficult to cut, which is why the edges of blades set with diamonds are used to cut diamond stones. There are various methods available for cutting diamonds. One method is to use a hammer and a chisel made of steel in order to break the diamond along the lines of its crystalline structure where it is naturally weaker. Another method is much like cutting glass. This involves the use of another diamond or a laser in order to scratch the diamond, then a hammer and a steel chisel are used in order to break the diamond. Yet another way to cut a diamond is by using saw blades with diamond dust on the edge of them.

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Some scones, of a softer mineral may be cut by hand using specialized tools. Hard gemstones are most often faceted with a faceting machine or polished using a tumbler.

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Several techniques are executed in order to cut gems, like lapping, sawing, grinding, sanding, drilling etc. You can read more at: http://www.tradeshop.com/gems/howcut.html

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Well it's sort of a combination usually. The actual cutting of gemstones is done by machines, but the machines are aimed and directed by gemstone cutting specialists called lapidarists or gem cutters, so the multi-step process isn't entirely carried out by machines. There are six steps in the process of cutting gemstones. Marking: The rough diamonds or gemstones are first marked to determine the grain direction, and to note which parts of the gemstone should be gotten rid of in order for the final cut gem to have the fewest amount of imperfections and inclusions.  Cleaving: The marked diamonds or gemstones are split by striking across the grains. Sawing: The rough gemstone is sawn into its approximately intended shape using a special diamond saw with a phosphor-bronze blade that rotates at about 15,000 rpm, or a laser, although laser-cutting diamonds takes hours. Bruiting / girdling: This requires cutting the diamonds by hand, using diamonds to cut diamonds. When the process is mechanical, a diamond-tipped lathe is used. Faceting: Cutting and polishing the facets. And finally, Polishing: The diamond or gemstone if polished against a rotating wheel coated with abrasive diamond powder. So all in all its a cooperative process between man and machine, with gem cutting experts guiding the process at every step of the way.

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