Next set of thoughts.....

Now take a look at these......

Here's a close up of one of these types of stones......

Don't quite look the same, do they??

Yup - they're diamonds.  Uncut or roughs.  

PBS has this to say about them:

"In the 1700s, gold miners in Brazil tossed aside a fortune in unrecognized raw diamonds. " 

Hey - I certainly would have!!!  They don't look a thing like what we see. 

So how do they get from that to this?

They are cut.  A diamantaire is a cutter and polisher of diamonds.  According to Wikipedia, the diamond goes through 5 stages.  "The diamond cutting process includes these steps; planning, cleaving or sawing, bruting, polishing, and final inspection."

Planning, cleaving or sawing (ouch), bruting (this one was new to me and put yet another spin on the diamond analogy in my mind.....), polishing, and final inspection.......  

I think I might take each one in turn - another installment tomorrow.