Antique jewelry glossary

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Profile cut

A style of cutting a diamond (and some other transparent gemstones) that provides a large surface area with good total internal reflection while permitting economical use of the material. After a crystal has been sawn into thin parallel plates (about 1,5 mm thick), each plate is cut into any desired shape, then the top is polished and the bottom cut with a series of narrow, parallel V-shaped grooves (if all are parallel, the appearance is a series of baguette cut stones, but it criss-crossed they appear as small step cut stones; a border is then added of variously-shaped facets.

The process was invented in 1961 by Arpad Nagy, a London cutter, and was originally called the 'princess cut'.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson