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Glossary
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- Baguette
- A French word meaning “rod.” A style of “step cutting” for small, rectangularly or trapeze-shaped gemstones, principally diamonds.
- Bezel
- (a) That proportion of a brilliant-cut gemstone above the girdle; same as crown. (b) More specifically, the sloping surface between the girdle and the table. (c) Still more specifically, only a small part of that sloping surface just above the girdle; the so-called “setting edge.”
- Bezel Facets
- The eight large, four-sided facets on the crown of a round, brilliant-cut gem, the upper points of which join the table and the lower points, the girdle. Some diamond cutters further distinguish four of these as “quoin” or “top-corner” facets.
- Black Diamond
- When a diamond is dark gray, a very dark green or truly black, it is referred to in the trade as a “black diamond.” Such a stone may be opaque to nearly semitransparent.
- Blemish
- Any surface imperfection on a fashioned diamond; e.g., a nick, knot, scratch, abrasion, minor crack or cavity, or poor polish. Also, a natural or an extra facet, visible on or through the crown, usually is considered a blemish.
- Blue Diamond
- A diamond with a distinctly blue body color, even thought very light in tone, is a fancy diamond. Diamond that are blue in both daylight and incandescent light are rare, although fluorescence stones that show a blue color in daylight are comparatively common. A blue color may also be induced artificially.
- Blueground
- A miner’s nickname for “kimberlite,” the rock that contains diamonds in the South African pipe mines.
- Break Facets or Girdle Facets
- The 32 triangular facets that adjoin the girdle of a round brilliant-cut stone, 16 above and 16 below. Also called upper- and lower-girdle facets, upper- and lower-break facets, top- and bottom-half facets, skew facets or cross facets. Facets are sometimes placed directly on the girdle, in which case the stone is usually said to have a “faceted girdle,” to have a polished girdle or to be “girdle faceted.”
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