I was wondering what happens to the little pieces of diamonds that the lasers cut off to make the diamonds look good. I don’t even know if there is actually any pieces cut off, I’m basically clueless. Someone wanna help a brother out?
Most diamonds are still shaped via grinding. I’d assume they use that leftover residue for other lapidary purposes or somehow wash out the diamond dust for a pure abrasive.
If you search on eBay for “loose diamonds”, you can find people selling large quantities of small, sub-1-carat diamonds of varying quality. This is a total WAG on my part, but I would imagine that many/most of these originated as “little pieces” cut off a bigger stone and then given a brilliant cut - especially the tiny ones that are less than 0.01 carat. Hopefully someone with a little expertise can come in and shed some more light on this hypothesis.
A partial answer…I know that tool and die makers sometimes use a polishing paste made with diamond dust. I have a knife sharpener that’s a steel rod coated with diamond dust. When I worked in the making of sealed-beam headlights, the wheel that ground the aiming points was made of diamonds.
I don’t really know what the OP needs to know. Maybe he’s looking for a teensy engagement ring for his daughter’s Barbie.®
I think most would go to industrial uses, diamond blades for cutting concrete and steel. Also I think the only thing that will cut a diamond is another diamond, so much would be used for lapidary purposes.
Most of those really teeny cut diamonds are from India.