Belgian cuts the world's largest diamond
It took the diamond cutter from Antwerp seven years of work to obtain the world's largest diamond ever cut.
This uncut diamond was discovered in Guinea in 2008, weighing 887.22 carats (177.44 grams). Its owner thought it was not cuttable because it belonged to the black diamond family, whose crystals are much harder than ordinary diamonds. With conventional polishing tools, this stone – with no cutting or cleavage direction – presented an impossible challenge for most experts.
But Peter Herbosch, a diamond cutter from Antwerp who gained international recognition in the 1980s as a pioneer in the use of lasers for sawing and cleaving diamonds, was bold enough to take up the challenge.
The ambitious craftsman developed a whole new technique to cut this exceptional diamond! Using bort (diamond powder or waste from the cleavage process) and a few oils, and after pre-treating the laser, the Antwerp native was finally able to cut this exceptional rough stone.
This very long and tedious process eventually resulted in a unique result: a 612.34-carat diamond in the shape of a falcon head, the largest cut diamond in the world.
Christened "The Black Falcon", its value is priceless!