Before I continue with Stage 2, I need to say something about my plan to create a flower petal pattern. DW had decided she preferred her GIA report to read "Old European Cut" rather than "Circular Brilliant". In order to qualify as a GIA OEC a diamond has to have a Table equal to, or less than 53%. With our original Sarine reading 48% we were in great shape and had room to open up the Table to 52%. We could already see some of our Lower Half facets were peeking out from under the Table. I knew opening up the Table by another 4% would expose more of the Lowers and create a good flower petal pattern. So as part of Stage 2, whilst our cutter was working to clean up all the bruised crown and table facets, he was also going to open up the table to 52%.
What a great plan!

However if I was a little smarter I would have figured out this plan was doomed before it even began!


The first major issue was that in stabilizing the girdle we changed the width of our diamond from 11.03 to 10.81. Of course every other diamond dimension is expressed as a % of the width, so our table increased from 48% of the old width to 50% of the new width. We were so excited how well Stage 1 went that I only glanced at the new Sarine, I didn't know my potential for a 4% gain had already been cut in half. Here's a copy of of the Stage 1 Sarine.
The second issue is how the table is actually measured. You may recall our table had been polished down sometime in the past, and some of its corners no longer met. Here's a copy of the Sarine Facet Diagram showing how that 50% Table was measured.
You can see the rounded off corners are impacting the measurement. If the eight sides of the octagon were extended so they met, the table would be bigger. The Lowers extend thru the middle of the eight sides so I calculated the "effective table" wasn't 50.0% it was really 51.6% !!!
So adding both issues together we already had a 52% table, and no room left to get the flower petal pattern. I just didn't know it, ignorance was bliss!
One other thing that happened when we stabilized the girdle is we cut off the points where the Upper Half facets meet the Bezel facets at the girdle. You can see this on the Facet Diagram. Our cutter successfully fixed these whilst working on the crown.
When we got the call that Stage 2 was complete, we found an absolutely beautiful diamond. All the crown facets were clean and sharp, including the table corners, and the stars were aligned with the table to form two perfect squares! We only lost 8 points during this stage and we now had a beautiful 5.12ct OEC. DW remarked she couldn't see the flower petal pattern, and neither could I. We already knew it's much easier to see OEC facet patterns in the shade so we put it down to the room being very bright. Here's a copy of the Stage 2 Facet Diagram
On to Stage 3!
