Richard von Sternberg, president of EightStar Diamond Co., Santa Rosa, Calif., took a million-dollar gamble to prove that even the most beautiful diamond cut by conventional means would benefit from EightStar’s scientific approach to diamond cutting. He paid more than $1 million for a 14.89-ct. D-color, Internally Flawless diamond with “Very Good” polish and “Excellent” symmetry (according to GIA’s Diamond Grading Report), then had the nerve to recut it. The result: the `American Star,’ a D-color, Internally Flawless, 13.41-ct. EightStar round brilliant with “Excellent” polish and symmetry and a 57% table, according to another GIA report.  

To accomplish the task, EightStar and von Sternberg used a device called a ‘FireScope,’ which shows EightStar cutters where to place every facet to eliminate light leakage and maximize brilliance and fire.  

The project took ten months of preparation. EightStar, claims to cut every diamond for maximum light performance, designed special equipment and carried out an intense study of the crystal’s growth pattern. The actual recutting took six weeks, including the three-days it took to polish one particularly difficult facet. von Sternberg says the result is “the finest diamond EightStar has ever produced.” 

Why choose such a nice diamond to recut? Why not pick a stone that really needs to be recut? “We wouldn’t have recut the diamond if we didn’t believe the finished stone would be demonstrably better,” von Sternberg explains.  

How much better? ”No one has ever done anything like this before. No doubt about it,” von Sternberg says. “It does everything I want my diamonds to do.”  

Did he prove his point? Although von Sternberg lost 1.48 cts. in the recutting and risked breaking the stone or losing the color, he says the diamond’s value increased by at least 50%, because it’s that much more beautiful than it was at 14.89 cts. 

The “American Star” is being made available to EightStar’s 45 authorized dealers for special showings as well as for special exhibitions and presentations at museums, conferences, and trade shows. For more information on EightStar Diamond Co. or the “American Star,” call (707) 793-7960, visit www.eightstar.com, or send an e-mail to eightstar@aol.com.

JCK