A historical cut that is applied to Emeralds or other gemstones of high value.
As the name suggests, this shape and cut was first used on Emeralds, which, due to their brittleness, led to a high occurrence of damaged gems while being cut by Lapidarists.
Any gem that has an outline shape that is either rectangular or square and whose facets are parallel to the girdle are known as a step cut. When the corners are then cut off, trimmed or truncated to create an octagonal outline shape, the cut is then referred to as an emerald cut.
The cut is often applied to gems that are brittle, or to those where the gem’s true beauty lies in its clarity and colour, rather than the amount of brilliance it is likely to display. Although the round brilliant cut is currently the most popular cut for Diamonds as its shape and arrangement of facets returns the most brilliance and dispersion, some Diamonds that have incredible clarity are emerald cut, so as to best display this feature.
When trying to identify an emerald cut, look for an octagon shape with the facets on the crown running parallel to the girdle and then, when you turn the gemstone over, instead of looking for a culet that is a single point, you are looking for a culet that is more like the keel of a boat. Often you will also find that the emerald cut gem has more than one step up to the table and more than one step down to the culet. Again, this makes the gem more robust and also retains a higher yield (more carat weight).
The number of facets on the gem depends entirely on how many steps are applied above and below the girdle. In our opinion, the most common emerald cuts that we see have 50 facets: a table, 24 crown facets and 25 on the pavilion. However, it is also common to see emerald cuts that have small facets applied to the girdle; in these cases the gem is likely to have 58 facets.
100 years ago the emerald cut was very popular as back then lapidarists did not have as great an understanding of how to create as efficient laps (the wheel on which the gem is cut) and cutting pastes as they do today, and so at this time the cut was as sophisticated as most could accomplish.
Today, it is also used for gemstones such as Tanzanite where displaying the gem’s colour is sometimes more important than unlocking the gem’s inner life, and with price per carat being so high in the market place, this cut also provides a better yield than most others.
Due to their elongated crystal structure, the emerald cut is also often applied to Tourmalines.
