How was the first diamond cut?

Answer 1

No one knows exactly when, where or who made the first attempt to cut diamonds. It is assumed that the first diamond cutting styles originated from India. However, it was only limited to chipping or grinding. In ancient times diamonds were valued more for their magical and mythological properties. It was thought that by modifying the natural state of a diamond in any way would alter its magical properties and render it useless. At the most the cleaving techniques of diamond were attempted to get flat faces on diamonds. It is believed that the early diamond cutting styles originated in Europe. The European travelers visiting India for its diamond treasures used to transport diamonds from the Golconda Mine to Europe for cutting.

Experimentation with diamond cutting did not yield any significant results till the seventeenth century. The early diamond cutters were unable to polish the rough octahedral diamonds. However, they found out that they could polish or grind diamonds into a point by polishing almost parallel to the diamonds rough faces, at an angle lesser than the diamond rough faces. They also realized that only diamonds cut diamonds. Hence they used a wooden table covered with diamond dust to achieve any kind of polishing. This resulted in the "Rose Cut". It was called the rose cut due to its resemblance to the "Rose Bud". The rose cut came into existence in the early sixteenth century and was widely used till the early nineteenth century.

However, whilst you cannot scratch a diamond with a piece of steel, if you hit a diamond with a large bit of it (called a hammer) the diamond can easily be chipped, split or even shattered!