HISTORY OF "Industrial Diamonds" in Canada.

  It was in 1947 when my Father brought a new industry into North America. This industry came from Europe specifically Antwerp, Belgium. This new industry was none other than "Industrial Diamonds". 

 It was so original that the "National Film Board of Canada" made a movie with my Dad, why was this? This industry was never known in North America until 1947 when we came to Canada from London, England. 

 In fact, he alone supplied, 'under contract' Industrial Diamonds to the 'English Government with the War Effort' by using diamonds to clean grinding abrasive wheels.   Without diamonds, no aircraft or construction companies can proceed if their wheels are clogged with steel shards. This company was in existence from 1929 to 1945. 

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 "INDUSTRIAL DIAMONDS REACH THE SCREEN"

  The industrial diamond has reached the film screen in a "National Film Board" presentation, namely "Diamonds For Industry", in one of the "Eye-Witness" series.

  Shown here is a picture taken from the film, which was produced at the office of "Canadian Diamond Tool Company" here in Toronto

 Commentary from the film dresses up the subject in the following words: "In the jewel world, diamonds are the peak of aristocracy. But Maurice Lewy puts, his aristocrats to work - earning a living for him among the whirling wheels of industry.

"At Toronto, diamonds fit for royal tiaras are groomed for more pedestrian jobs as diamond dresser tools. Literally 'gem-toothed' cutters that will shape and polish thousands of Emery and Carborundum wheels too hard for anything but diamonds to cut."

"Diamonds vary in hardness and each stone must be hand-picked for its special job. The selecting, weighing and mounting of diamonds is a rare and exacting craft, in which only a handful of men are qualified. But their influence extends across the country. 

 Behind the engineer in countless factories stands the diamond expert, whose gems grind smooth the grindstones of industry."

Reprint from - "Canadian Machinery and Manufacturing News. June, 1952.

(The film announcer was the actor "Lorne Green").

How is a DIAMOND shaped? What are "Industrial Diamonds" (2 topics in 1) => 35 photos

 This diamond, which you see here, was the first stone my Father polished and ultimately learned his profession with. Although the stone was of mediocre quality, it was used solely to teach my Dad what techniques were available 100+ years ago, (circa 1929).

 The holding device is named a "Dobb", these two 'arms' grab the stone very tightly against the "Girdle Facets" and the "Culet" (bottom point) is resting within a hole in the pedestal.

 These photos are from my 1,200-power Digital Microscope, which makes this tutorial essay easy to view and saves it for our 'family archives'. What a great legacy for the next many generations!

 How many of my 'teaching associates' can display this diamond-polishing process to their own students? 

 The words that I will use are common within the diamond polishing profession. One word is "Brutting," which is used to create the "Girdle Facets" of the diamond to the desired shape from the crystal's natural four corners.

 "Girdling" is a process that prepares the diamond for the multitude of Facets to be cut on the rotating steel wheel impregnated with diamond dust. "Only a diamond can be shaped with the aid of diamond dust."

 This is a 'natural' diamond that has just been removed from the Earth in a layer that is found in volcanic pipes named "Kimberlite Pipes". These 'pipes' are 150-200 km (90 <> 120 miles) below the surface of the Earth. An intense pressure of 725,000 pounds per square inch turns a piece of (Carbon) coal into a diamond.

 BTW, this process could take billions of years to create just one stone. The hardness of any diamond is on the "Moh's (Hardness) Scale" of 10, out of 10.

 This crystal could be of 'VG' or very good colour and quality; eventually, it will be a gem-quality stone. But it has to pass the "GIA" series of internal testing to have the "VG" sign given to it.

 Here is the 'DOBB' that is holding the diamond crystal while being put against the rotating wheel.

 This photo is of my (beloved Dad) taken at his office in London, England, circa 1935. He shows two other fellows how to shape a diamond while using his equipment. (He is on the right.)

   I just 'found' this page that is written in Flemish (which is the official language of Holland). It is the first book that my Dad studied in Antwerp in 1923 to be a Diamond Polisher. It shows all of the initial 'Faceting' that is taking place

  While the diamond is being tightly secured against a rotating steel wheel. This steel wheel has 'diamond dust' attached to the surface of the wheel using high viscosity of oil.

 IT IS THIS 'DIAMOND DUST' THAT LITERALLY CUTS & SHAPES THE MULTITUDE OF FACETS. There is no other material on this planet that can cut another diamond.

  These are the actual vials of diamond powder that contains the very important 'Diamond Dust'. This Diamond Dust is literally finely crushed diamonds from previous shavings.

  It is this "DOBB" that officially holds the diamond TIGHT against the rotating wheel.

 The Diamond Polisher craftsperson will measure the angles of the Pavillion against this gauge. The brass bar is where the "Table Facet" will sit while being examined. 

 These 2 numbers are the only degrees that the polisher must be concerned with.

 Trust me, these two 'arms' are holding this diamond so very TIGHT. Under this 600-power magnification, you can see the internal blemishes, aka inclusions.

  At an increased 1,200x power level of magnification, you can see the new facets being created. Here are the beginnings of the "Girdle and Table" facets taking shape. (I changed the colouring from brown to 'white' just for this photo).
  You can easily see the 'Natural' blemishes, all of these surface defects MUST BE  IMMEDIATELY REMOVED.  

  Can you imagine how many times the diamond crystal must be manoeuvred to get all 57 facets above the Girdle, then again more under the Girdle? For a very large diamond, this process could last for many days.

  All of these Diamond Facets must adhere to prescribed angles, this alone is a definite profession and skill. 

 The only method in faceting is to expose one side of the stone, create a facet, rotate the stone, facet it and do it again around the crystal. Keep repeating this process until the whole stone has been 'shaped'.

 TOPIC #2  WHAT ARE "INDUSTRIAL DIAMONDS"?

 

 These next photos of diamonds are not meant for jewellery. But these dark-multi-coloured diamonds are very successful with 'industrial applications'.

 

 

 These photos are not of 'mountains with ridges and caverns', but of one 'industrial-quality' diamond. But these are still great-quality diamonds.

 These stones that are used for industrial purposes were embedded in brass soldering powder put under great heat. This heat melted and it was solidified into a solid substance thus holding each diamond against any sudden movement.

 Many times a client wants a series of stones placed into a steel holding rod. These stones would be fantastic in cleaning many areas of an 'abrasive cutting wheel'.

These numbers refer to a catalogue that had other 'diamond tools' that were in my Dad's collection.

 The letters CDT refer to his company name "Canadian Diamond Tool", every tool that he sold had this identification stamped on to it. It was his trademark! 

 Every exposed diamond had its sharp corners made to be used and once they got worn down the tool had that diamond rotated to expose another sharp corner.

  A diamond tool that had 3 stones embedded into it could last for weeks under constant use. Then it went back to the technician who would rotate the 'rounded diamonds' to expose sharper corners laying underneath. 

 This photo shows in great detail how a 1/4, or a 1/2-carat diamond appears with the brass material that holds it in the diamond tool. The 'halo' is actually the brass compound.

  This one photo shows how many 'corners'  or 'sharp edges' could be used in creating an "Industrial Diamond Cutting tool". The colour of the stone bears no problem in where it is finally used.

 This particular diamond has 'rounded' edges to it, but under certain conditions, it's the strength of the diamond that makes it durable.

 The final application of this abrasive cutting tool is paramount in creating an "Industrial Diamond Tool". The client needs to know how many diamonds will be needed in their varied projects.

 In this example, he asked my Dad (before each of the tools was created) were the grinding wheels be used in a wide cutting wheel. Thus the need for a catalogue with 'identification' marks beforehand.

 Each of these diamonds was individually mounted into one steel rod. The 'corners' were set in such a position that each stone had a 'wider surface' to cut, instead of a pointed stone, as seen above.

 

 (ANOTHER MINI-TOPIC) 

 In this particular series of photos, you can see varied positions of the 'natural' facets. In this 'what you see, is what you get', I wanted to capture this scene, 'that not every diamond has smooth edges', the 'diamond polisher' must do a lot of difficult cutting to bring out the lustre in every stone. 

 Even the slightest imperfection on the 'rough' shaped girdle displays a 'natural' facet created by Nature. This deep facet must be removed by "Girdling" or resurfacing the stone, to remove these slight imperfections before any further 'Faceting' has started.

 Not all watches had jewels to help the 'gears' to rotate. This watch had only one jewel, many watches today have 18 jewels which is better and to little friction as the pins of the gears are rotating. Even with batteries in a watch, there are still little gears rotating.

 These four photos that are seen here, were taken with my 1.200x power digital microscope. This culminated in almost 2 hours of 'editing, texting and rotating the positions' of each photo. 

How is a Diamond faceted? => 18 photos

 This essay is not about 'stone setting', it's about the beautiful stone.

 This diamond was not shaped on a 'polishing wheel' but Nature did all of the hard work. 

 

This newer word for your vocabulary is "Cleaving", this refers to the fact that the stone-cutter will split the diamond into 2 equal-sized stones.

 This naturally shaped stone will be fashioned into either one large "Oval Shape" or what the cutter feels it could be. The diamond cutter wants to get "more diamond for the dollar" as wasting any diamond is not the cutter's to-do list.

 Diamonds of this enormous size must be 'internally examined' it must be free of inclusions, or weak spots. If during any intense heating during the 'polishing' the stone could crack from these internal defects. An excellent gem-quality stone must be free of any defects.

 To examine any large diamond could take weeks to locate the structure or veins in that stone. The diamond polisher will ink the route to start his stone cutting.

 Imagine if this diamond crystal was beside a ring, how many carats would the stone weigh? When I retrieved the photo from the Internet, this carat weight was an estimated 4.0 carats.

  All diamond polishers have to follow this rule of making each stone look like this diagram. If the stone doesn't have the correct angles then that diamond will never look good.

 I'm sure you've heard of the names "Colour, Cut, Clarity and Carat weight". The 'CUT' is what makes this diamond look beautiful, if the angles are not laid out in the polishing process, the craftsperson will have to redo the cutting. By doing this, much of the diamond is wasted and the stone will lose more of its total weight.

 Every gem-quality diamond needs to be put through a spectacular process of shaping aka 'polishing'.

 In this photo, you can see how the 'gem facets' are created 'one facet at a time'. In today's technology, even diamond polishing is done automatically. This is needed especially for smaller diamonds. 

 These triangular-shaped transparent stones were not yet shaped. These were found in the ground just like these. It is the craftsperson, aka 'diamond polisher' to bring out the lustre of each stone to adorn a piece of fine quality jewellery.

 

 Many decades ago it was 'normal' to remove the Culet of every diamond. Because of doing this, the diamond looked literally transparent. But thankfully times have changed and the Pavillion now looks complete.

 

 The name of this cut is now a  "Modern Cut" before it was named "Old Mine (Mein) Cut, or Cushion Cut". 

 Have you ever heard of a "Rose Cut Diamond"? The diamond has its shape to represent a flower with only half of the diamond being used. These particular stones were 'hand polished' and not with modern machines as of today.

 You can observe the high "Table and Crown Facets".

What is a 'Single Cut' diamond? It is a diamond with only 8 facets above the Girdle and 8 more facets below.

A 'Full Cut' diamond has 57 facets above and 57 facets below the Girdle.  

 Here are 6 stones with facets being carefully cut in stages of development, until the last stone on the lower right. 

 

 

 These are naturally coloured diamonds and not 'colour enhanced'. As you can see diamonds like these have been acquiring their colours after being subjected to high pressure and heat for only 'billions of years'.

  

 This is what a diamond looks like just after it's been removed from the ground.

 This paper sleeve of diamonds is estimated at .25 points each. With these colours, these stones cannot be crafted for jewellery, but will be further used as "Industrial Diamonds".

 Instead of weighing every stone for carat weight, they can be placed in a dish that has holes in it. A 'sifting process' will determine which stones will remain in the dish, or fall through. Those that remain are the correct carat weight.

 

 These are diamonds, but not the gem quality that we are familiar with. Every diamond has its own purpose in our world. As these are mottled and full of inclusions, they can be used mainly for 'industrial purposes'.

 'Industrial purposes' means grinding wheels, construction and fabrication uses. If an abrasive steel cutting wheel is used, the steel becomes hot and quickly loses its sharp cutting power....but not a diamond!!!

 These two diamonds 'could' be used in jewellery' only if the manufacturer decides to use them as a 'pair of yellow Triangular shaped stones' on a ring.

 From the 2 diamond crystals from the above photo, TWO Triangle diamonds were created. (please excuse the off-colour)