We hear often that someone's been told they 'must' get a diamond that's at least 1 carat (or whatever...) but how about going to the opposite end of the scale?
Well that's what a diamond cutter in India set out to do recently by cutting & polishing the world's smallest diamond.
Surat-based Bhavani Gems have unveiled a diamond that weighs just 0.0003 carats, or 0.00006 grams. They've called it the Bhavani Mikro diamond.
One can imagine an unveiling ceremony: a stage with a plinth illuminated by brilliant lighting... dramatic music... and then the curtain is lifted to reveal... well, nothing really. Or nothing very visible, anyway.
For this diamond is about the size of a grain of sand, and yet it has been cut with the same number of facets - 57 - that you'd see on a conventional 'round brilliant' diamond of 1 carat or 100 carats.
The diamond has even been certified by the IGI (International Gemological Institute) - a neat self-promotional trick by them. Diamond grading laboratories usually certify diamonds starting at around 0.20-0.30 carats.
In my previous life at De Beers I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting a number of Bhavani Gems' diamond cutting factories - I actually did a tour of northern Gujarat with their charming founder and CEO Manjibhai Dholakia some years ago - and can vouch for their amazing skills in cutting really small diamonds.
Normally diamonds don't come much smaller than around '1 point' (one hundredth of a carat), but the Swiss watch industry and some other jewellers use diamonds of around 0.002 to 0.005 carats (when they get this small they are referred to as 500 per carat or 200 per carat).
Using the same terminology, this diamond is an incredible 3333 per carat - meaning that you'd need 3333 of them to make up a 1 carat diamond ring!
Rather than producing thousands of such small diamonds to set into diamond rings, I expect that this is a bit of a one-off exercise, designed to showcase the expertise of Bhavani Gems in cutting very small diamonds for the diamond watch industry.
Original post here.
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