JCK Las Vegas: Cut Panel Discusses Technology

Rob Bates, Senior Editor -- JCK Online, 5/28/2009 9:14:00 PM

Complete JCK Las Vegas Show Coverage!

The way people perceive cut was the subject of a panel discussion on the “latest technologies on diamond grading” at the JCK Show Thursday.

Moderator Jay Lell, a consultant to Overseas Diamonds, said the new language of cut is possible because of four things: new software; new hardware; as well as new research on how the human eye and brain process cut.

A few of the panelists felt that consumers were confused by the different cut standards.

Jay Lell, consultant to Overseas Diamonds, moderated a panel at JCK Las Vegas.
Jay Lell, a consultant to Overseas Diamonds, moderated a panel discussion on technologies in diamond grading.

“We need one system that consumers can have confidence in,” said Garry Holloway of Pricescope. “Consumer confidence is hurt when there are too many systems out there. All the systems should be able to all arrive at the same correct answer, or we should have none at all.”

Avika Caspi of Sarin agreed.

“Imagine if we had ten or so systems that measure carat weight,” he said. “The future is: Can we have the same system for color, clarity and cut.”

Lalit Aggarwal of Imagem said, “Cut grade needs to be fully integrated into the industry. Right now, the entire supply chain has broken down with the different systems. That has brought enormous inefficiencies.”

He predicted that, in the future, cut “will become the most important of the fours C’s.”

And Peter Yantzer of AGS Laboratories was optimistic about the advances in diamond cut grading, saying they will only improve as computer technology gets faster and better. “Precise diamond cutting will take this industry to a new level,” he said.

The panelist also touted their latest technological advances:

- Yantzer talked about his lab’s new research regarding “virtual facets.” His lab is examining how human beings look at facets, as well as how diamonds gather light.

“Our research is starting to unlock the secrets of diamond beauty,” he says. “This research helps to explain why personal taste is so important.”

- Aggarwal notes that Imagem’s research is based on “appearance” and “light behavior.”

He noted: “A diamond has two parts: The crown and the pavilion. The crown does three things. It brings the light into the diamond, displaces when it is going out, and it is also where the fire and the scintillation takes place.”

But the pavilion “acts like a kaleidoscope. It restructures the light into light and dark areas. And that’s what creates the beauty that we see in a diamond.”

“Many of you have been told that, when you see an area that is dark, light is leaking

through it,” he said. “That is not correct. What’s taking place instead is that the facets of the pavilion are reconfiguring the light to light areas and dark areas.”

He noted that his company uses direct light measuring technology, rather than mathematical models.

- Holloway talked up his Next diamond system, which lets consumers judge their cut preference based on a side by side set of master stones.

“We want to have consumers look at diamonds and make their own comparisons,” he said.

- Caspi talked about his company’s “Best Value” software, which looks at the full map of a stone’s outer face and its inclusions and then “runs millions of options to find out what can be polished out of it.”

He also demonstrated the company’s new system that lets you see the inclusion inside a piece of rough without polishing a window first.