Mark Solomon Jewellers

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Exclusive Diamond Jewellery

For over 28 years, Mark Solomon has been renowned as one of the leading Cape Town Manufacturing Jewellers. Having a passion for diamonds and diamond jewellery enables this innovative South African jewellery designer to continue creating exquisite pieces with the award winning combination that he has become known for. Breathtakingly beautiful South African diamonds are set in designs ranging from stunning individually crafted diamond engagement rings through to highly prized Tanzanite jewellery.

Diamond Terminology Cuts

Here follows a brief explanation of cuts used in the diamond industry.

Asscher cut - A fully made emerald cut with larger corners. Please see our special feature on Trendy Cuts" including the Asscher Cut.

Baguette cut - A French word meaning rod. A style of step cutting for small, rectangularly-shaped gemstones.

Barion cut - A mixed cut comprised of 62 facets designed and developed by Jooste's Diamond Cutting Works (Pty) Ltd., Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a combination of two cuts, the crown being a full emerald cut and the pavilion a modified brilliant cut.

Bullet cut - A modification of the pentagon cut, the shape of which is produced by varying the length and angles of the sides. Resembles a bullet in outline.

Briolette cut - A pear or drop shaped stone with a circular cross section, entirely covered with triangular facets. This form of cutting is very rarely encountered.

Emerald cut - A form of step cutting. It usually is rectangular but sometimes is square, in which case it is known as a square emerald cut. It has rows (steps) of elongated facets on the crown and pavilion, parallel to the girdle, and with corner facets. The number of rows, or steps, may vary, although the usual number is three on the pavilion. The emerald cut is excellent for colourless stones and when it is desirable to emphasize the colour of fancy diamonds.

Cushion cut - Stones with a rectangular or squarish outline and rounded corners with facets that are usually similar to the facet arrangement of the brilliant cut. Please see our special feature on "Trendy Cuts" including the Cushion Cut.

Kite cut - A four-sided form of cutting, usually step cut, that resembles a child's kite outline.

Half-moon cut - A style of brilliant cutting that produces a stone shaped like a half circle.

Old-European cut - A term applied to the earliest form of a circular-girdled full brilliant. It is characterised by a very small table, a heavy crown, and great overall depth. Improperly referred to as old-mine cut.

Heart-shaped brilliant cut - A heart shaped variation of the brilliant cut that is related to the pear shape. The round end is flattened and indented and the girdle diameter across the shoulders is widened until the diameter is approximately equal to the length.

Oval cut - (1) A brilliant style of cutting in which the girdle outline is elliptical; i.e. a rounded oblong. Also called the oval brilliant cut. (2) Also an obsolete barrel-shaped style of cutting with a circular cross section and covered with triangular facets.

Marquise cut - A style of diamond cutting in which the girdle outline is boat shaped. The shape and placement of the facets is of the brilliant type. See picture of a marquise cut diamond with an authentic EGL certificate.

Pentagon cut - A five-sided form of cutting usually step cut, with the sides of equal length.

Old-mine cut - (1) A trade term that is applied properly to an early form of brilliant cut with a nearly square or cushion-shaped girdle outline. (2) A term applied occasionally and incorrectly to a somewhat more modern style of brilliant cut that also has a much higher crown and smaller table than the modern brilliant cut, but whose girdle outline is circular or approximately circular - a style of cutting that is more properly called a lumpy stone or an Old-European cut.

Princess cut - An earlier name for the profile cut invented by Arpad Nagy in 1961. It has right-angle corners and is traditionally cut to a square outline but can be cut to a rectangular outline. The cut combines the triangular facets of the brilliant cut with the step cutting of the emerald cut.

Pear-shaped cut - A variation of the brilliant cut, usually with 58 facets, having a pear-shaped girdle outline often with only 56 facets when the pavilion facets at the head and tail are eliminated.

Single cut - A simple form of cutting that has a circular girdle, a table, eight bezel facets, eight pavilion facets, and rarely, if ever, a culet. It is used mainly for small mêllée.

Shield cut - A many sided form of cutting, usually step cut, the length and angles of the sides of which may vary. Resembles a shield in outline.

Triangle cut - A three-sided form of cutting usually step cut.

Square cut - An equal-sided, sharp-cornered form of step cutting.

Different Diamond Color-Grading Systems
Comparison Chart

Trapeze cut - A four-sided form of cutting, usually step cut, with two longer, parallel sides of unequal length and two inclined sides of equal length.

Trilliant cut - A modern shaped variation of the brilliant cut consisting of 44 facets; 25 facets on the crown and 19 facets on the pavilion. The girdle outline is triangular shaped, or a rounded triangular shape.

Step cut - One of the two basic classifications of cutting styles namely step cut and brilliant cut. In step cut stones, all facets are four-sided and in steps, or rows, both above and below the girdle. All facets are parallel to the girdle and therefore, except those on the corners, long and usually narrow.

The number of rows, or steps, may vary, although the usual number is three on the crown and three on the pavilion. Different shapes of step cuts are usually described by their outlines; for example, rectangular step cut, square step cut, octagon step cut. A rectangular step cut with cut corners is called a cushion cut, or, more popularly, an emerald cut.

Tolkowsky theoretical brilliant cut - Those proportions and facet angles that were calculated mathematically by Marcal Tolkowsky to produce maximum brilliancy consistent with a high degree of fire in a round diamond brilliant are considered by many diamond men to constitute the "ideal cut".
These figures, computed as a percentage of the girdle diameter, are as follows:

table: 53%
total depth: 59.3% includes the girdle thickness of 0.7% to 1.7%
crown height: 16.2%
pavilion depth: 43.1%
bezel angle: 34°30'
pavilion angle: 40°45'

Since these figures result in the smallest weight yield in fashioned stones from octahedral diamond rough of any standard form of cutting, the ideal cut is useful for value comparisons on the basis of weight yield from the rough.

Diamond brilliants with these proportions are cut but rarely today. Present tastes call for a slightly larger table than the 53% of the girdle diameter that was originally calculated by Tolkowsky.

A number of diamond cutters who emphasize proportions consider 57% as optimum and up to 60% as acceptable.

Brilliant cut - The most common style of cutting for both diamonds and coloured stones. The standard round brilliant consists of a total of 58 facets: 1 table, 8 bezel facets, 8 star facets and 16 lower-girdle facets, and usually a culet on the pavilion or base.

Although the Tolkowsky round brilliant ideal cut was devised to give maximum brilliancy and fire, many stones cut in this fashion do not have the Tolkowsky proportions.

Modifications of the round brilliant include such fancy shapes as the marquise, oval, pear shape and many others.