Nature's finest crystal and hardest material known to man is actually pure carbon intensely compressed and heated in magma reservoirs deep in the earth.

FANCIES : Impurities produve colored diamonds; nitrogen, for example , results in yellow stones FOUR C's determine Worth: carat weight, cut, clarity, and color. Carat is an ancient term referring to the uniform weight of a carob seed. Now it has been set at 1/142 ounce, or 1/5 gram.

Cut refers to the quality of polishing and shape of the finished diamond. The four most commom shapes are pear, emerald, marquise, and - most popular - brilliant, a round cut with 58 mathematically determined facets precisely formed to enhance diamonds' high refraction, thereby producing gems filled with fire and sparkle. CLARITY ranges from flawles (no visible imperfections under a ten-power loupe). The colorless diamond is generally the most valuable.

Assembly-line diamond cutting at the Barmatz factory in Tel Aviv sets a hundered automatic polishing machines to work on four stones at a time, turning out about 1200 eight-point (8/100 of a carat) diamonds a day. Israel's largest export, diamonds generate more than two bilion dollars a year. This page hosted by   Get your own Free Home Page