DANGEROUS SPOIL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 August 1927, Page 2

DANGEROUS SPOIL.

STOLEN GEMS. IP AIL THOROUGHLY BLAZED. Stolen gems, if they are of any con sklerablc value, have their trail blazed in all their wanderings as thoroughly as a Bank of England note. The larger stones have each an individuality of their own. Their weight, colour, shape, and any flaws are carefully recorded in the books of every merchant through whose hands they pass. To disguise a diamond is a slow and unprofitable task. liecutting involves a loss of at least 50 per cent., and to split a cut stone is virtually impossible. Moreover, the value of a stone increases in proportion to its weight by a geometrical progression. That is to say, a stone of 10 carats is worth very much more than double the value of one of 5 carats. Even should a thief decide to accept the loss incurred as the price of disguising his loot, he must find a workman able to carry out the highly skilled task of reeutting. A c ( crook’ 7 diamond-cutter must first equip himself with an expensive plant. A power-driven steel wheel, rotating at 2000 revolutions a minute (so fast that to the eye it appears to be motionless), is the first essential. Diamond paste, made up of powdered scraps and worthless stones, is smeared upon it, and the stone is pressed down upon the spinning surface by a leaden weight. Even then the process is a long one. A stone of any considerable size will require at least a month to cut, for diamonds vary in hardness, the “bluewhite” being the hardest as well as one of the most valuable. With pearls, however, the procedure is different. Variations in their natural shape —round, oval, button, or baroque —added fro their colour, texture, and perhaps marks or flaws, leave only one way to disguise them. A pearl is deposited in the oyster-shell in a series of concentric layers, and it may, at verv great risk of spoiling it, be “skinned” —that is, fta.ve the outermost layer removed. There are only two or three men in England who undertake this work, and the process is a secret, which they guard closely.