Exciting news on this front. We recently acquired the largest piece of rough we've ever purchased to date. 18.27ct that we estimate will finish as a 9ct+/- August Vintage Cushion. I am assured it will finish "eye clean" (SI1) and it is a warm color. Here are some pix I was forwarded by our buyer in Antwerp.

WOW, so exciting to see this baby cut!!! Rhino what happens to all the wasted rough? Can some of be reused to cut melee, or are 9cts just thrown out?

Wow! That's going to be a beautiful whopper! How long will it take to analyse and then execute the cutting? More to the point, how long will it be before we see pictures of the finished, glorious product?!

Oh wow, awesome! I'm curious to know the answer to jcents question too actually:)

How cool.

Me too. I was wondering the same thing in the thread about the big pink diamond found in Australia. Will they make tiny little pink diamonds out of the 'scrap'?

i thought gemstones were cut by grinding down the facets? wouldn't the "scrap" then simply end up being dust, and not usable fragments?

either way i can't flippin WAIT to see this thing cut *__*

I know that's how the actual facets are cut, but I think that rough stones are often "split" into smaller stones of a general size or shape first along inclusions and them ground down. That means they would probably be able to get some melee or even some larger stones out of it along with the 9ct honker if they wanted to.

Here's a link where they split a large piece of rough into two stones:
http://www.diamondschool.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34

However, since they're planning on getting a 9ct stone out of this rough and you usually lose about 50% during cutting, it's possible that this rough isn't going to be split at all, so no other stones would be made of it.

labelo, you're right on. It's a sad reality but to salvage 50% is pretty good. There are instances when it'll even be less.

With this particular rough however I was in email with our cutter and they are going to saw off a topper which will likely result in a 1ct+ size then the rest they will polish to be the main diamond. I told my cutter *I WANT PICTURES* of the process so I will post them here as I get em.

Oh, 9cts of diamond dust sounds so wrong. But I'm sure the remaining stone will be stunning!!