I hate the words “diamond chips.” Customers often call small diamonds “chips.” This is a bit demeaning to the poor guy who spent hours faceting those small diamonds. Facets are created by grinding a diamond on a wheel that looks like a phonographic turntable covered in diamond paste. The diamond is held in a dop, which looks a little like a record player arm.

“Diamond chips” is a misnomer. Very few pieces of jewelry historically have ever used chips. At one time they used crude rose cuts, but they have at least four facets, one on the bottom and three on top. Some designers started using them again, but with more facets on top.


Another type of small diamond cut is a single cut round diamond. Single cut rounds have 17 facets, one table (top), eight on the crown and eight on the pavilion (bottom).


Most jewelry today uses full cut or round brilliant cut diamonds. Even the tiny 0.005ct (1mm) diamonds have 57 facets.

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