Understanding what actually happens to a rough diamond between arrival at a Surat manufacturing unit and its final sale as a polished stone gives buyers a much better foundation for evaluating what they're purchasing — and for asking the right questions during a visit.
Sorting and planning
Rough diamonds are first sorted by size, shape, and quality characteristics, then individually assessed by a planner who maps the optimal cutting approach for each stone — a decision informed by the rough's natural crystal structure, internal inclusions, and the size/shape yield tradeoffs discussed in our guide on rough-to-polished yield.
Cleaving or sawing
Larger rough crystals are typically divided using laser sawing (largely replacing older mechanical cleaving methods) to separate a piece of rough into the pieces that will become individual polished stones, following the plan set during the planning stage.
Bruting and faceting
Bruting shapes the stone's basic outline (rounding a stone destined to become a round brilliant, for example), after which faceting — cutting the actual flat facet surfaces — is done using diamond-tipped cutting wheels, a highly skilled process that determines the stone's final proportions, symmetry, and polish quality.
Final polishing and quality control
The final polishing stage refines facet surfaces to their finished state, after which stones go through internal quality control before being sorted into parcels or sent for independent certification, depending on size and value tier.
Why seeing this matters for buyers
Buyers who understand this process ask sharper questions during parcel evaluation — about yield decisions, why a stone was cut a particular way, or what's realistically achievable for a custom cutting request. This is exactly the kind of access a hosted VisitSDB visit provides, connecting you directly with the manufacturing floor rather than a showroom several steps removed from it.
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Published by the VisitSDB team. Updated .
Planning a purchase? Read our wholesale diamond sourcing guide before comparing manufacturers.