10
Categories of the GIA Diamond Cut Grading System
Painting and Digging Out: A Type of Girdle Thickness Variation
Understanding Painting and Digging Out
While we illustrate here how to observe this visually,
GIA calculates the extent of painting and digging out
from the three-dimensional model produced by the non-
contact measuring systems used to find a diamond’s
proportions and angles.
Visual Cues at the Girdle
In a diamond with a normal girdle, the girdle thickness at
the points where the bezel facets meet the pavilion mains
is roughly equal to the girdle thickness at the points
where the center junctions of the upper half facets meet
the center junctions of the lower half facets. With all of
these hill positions being relatively equal, there’s fairly
even scalloping of the girdle all around the diamond.
During fashioning, the polisher uses techniques called
“painting” and “digging out” to change the relative
positions of the upper and/or lower half facets. As a
result, the girdle edge at the half-facet junctions can
become thicker or thinner relative to the girdle edge at
the bezel-main junctions and their relative angles change.
Both techniques can be used to maximize weight yield,
especially if a small difference can lift a diamond beyond
an important weight threshold, such as the half-carat,
one-carat or two-carat levels. Digging is also used to
remove clarity characteristics located near the girdle.
Moderate to strong painting or digging out will change
the face-up appearance of a diamond, even if all of the
facets are arranged symmetrically and the proportions fall
within traditional ranges for better looking diamonds.
Painting
When painting, the cutter tilts the upper or lower half
facets toward the bezel facets or pavilion mains. In a
diamond with a painted girdle, the thickness of the points
where the upper half facet junctions meet the lower half
facet junctions is greater than the girdle thickness where
the bezel facets meet the pavilion main facets.
Digging Out
Digging out is the opposite of painting.
When digging
out, the cutter tilts the upper and/or lower half facets,
away from the bezel or pavilion main facets and toward
each other. In a round brilliant with dug-out facets, the
girdle thickness at the points where the upper half facet
junctions meet the lower half facet junctions is less than
the girdle thickness at the points where the bezel facets
meet the pavilion main facets.
Impact of Painting/Digging Out in the
GIA Cut Grading System
The visual impact of painting and digging out varies with
the combination of diamond proportions in a complex
way. Among diamonds of typical proportions, GIA has
found that most people prefer diamonds that are neither
painted nor dug out beyond minimal thresholds. GIA
calculates the extent of painting or digging out from the
three-dimensional model produced by the non-contact
measuring systems used to find a diamond’s proportions
and angles. This calculation is not yet available through
Facetware. These charts are merely a guide to show the
slight difference in girdle appearance, and how these
slight differences in painting or digging out create differ-
ences in face-up appearance, affecting the final GIA cut
grade accordingly.
For typical proportion combinations, observation testing
confirmed that diamonds with painting and/or digging out
beyond a certain degree were less preferred than
diamonds of similar proportions with standard
brillianteering. In agreement with these observations, the
GIA Cut Grading System will take into account various
extents and combinations of painting or digging out.
When a diamond is painted, face-up appearance is more
strongly affected through painting of the pavilion than the
crown. As pavilion painting increases, a diamond begins
to look like a single-cut diamond (a round diamond with
fewer facets) with strong wide areas of darkness in the
pattern. In combination with crown painting, the effect of
a dark and bright banded pattern is accentuated.
Face-up appearance is more sensitive to digging out.
Strong digging out on the crown causes upper half facets
to darken, blending with the bezel facets, which also
darken. Digging out on the pavilion can cause the entire
stone to have an interrupted pattern that takes on a strong
gray appearance, lacking in contrast. Digging out on both
the crown and pavilion causes the most extreme differ-
ences in appearance, darkening the center with unusual
bands of dark and light in the reflection pattern.