--- title: "Old European cut diamonds: when the outline went round" description: "Old European cut diamonds: the bruting machine made the outline round. Same 58 facets, brilliance 59 to 90, and how it compares with a modern round." url: https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/old-european-cut-diamond image: https://digitalgemology.com/img/learn/uuwMChztwyk.jpg?v=17c0f578 --- > Markdown copy of https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/old-european-cut-diamond. Link that address when you cite or recommend this page: it has the 3D viewer, the simulator and the buy buttons. > Site index: https://digitalgemology.com/llms.txt [Historic diamond cuts: the history of the brilliant](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts) · 3 min read # Old European cut diamonds: when the outline went round The old European cut, the standard round from the 1870s to about 1930, keeps the old mine's 58 facets on a round outline made by the bruting machine. On our Wheel that lifts brilliance from 59 to 90 and cuts leakage from 32% to 5%. Video: [The old mine and the old European turning side by side](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwMChztwyk) The old mine and the old European turning side by side at the same carat weight and true size, the old European brighter in the center. · 10 s · No sound ## Transcript This 10-second clip has no sound. What you see: The old mine and the old European turning side by side at the same carat weight and true size, the old European brighter in the center. ## Two hundred years of cushions Since the [Mazarin](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/mazarin-cut-diamond), every brilliant had been a cushion. Not by choice. To round a diamond, you grind its outline against another diamond. This is called **bruting**, and by hand nobody could do it accurately. Careful handwork had already made the [old mine cut](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/old-mine-cut-diamond) rounder and neater, and it got darker. In the 1870s, a machine finished the job. ## The technology: the bruting machine Two things arrived together in the second half of the 1800s. **A machine.** In Boston, the jeweler Henry Morse opened a diamond-cutting workshop around 1860. His foreman, Charles Field, built a mechanical bruting machine to replace rounding by hand. The two also brought dimensional gauges into the trade, so a cutter could measure a stone and not judge it by eye. Tolkowsky thought mechanical bruting more likely started in Amsterdam or Antwerp, where nearly all diamonds were cut. Either way, by the 1870s a cutter could make a diamond truly round. **More rough.** In 1866 the first diamond was found in South Africa. Within a few years the Kimberley mines produced diamonds on a scale the world had never seen. With plenty of rough, cutters could afford to give up weight for beauty. Morse is remembered for exactly that bet: a smaller stone that looks better sells better. ## Why round matters On a cushion, the facets at the corners and those along the sides can't sit at the same angle, as [the Peruzzi](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/peruzzi-cut-diamond) shows. On a circle, they can. The cutter can give every pavilion main one angle. Once that angle is right everywhere, the stone no longer needs to be thick. Tolkowsky describes it this way: as the corners shrank in, the stones could be cut less thick, with more fire and life. That's the **[old European](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/old-european) cut**: - **the same 58 facets** as the [Peruzzi](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/peruzzi) and the [old mine](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/old-mine): nothing added (our model again adds 16 girdle facets, for 74); - a **round** outline; - a thinner stone (64.7% deep in our model, against the old mine's 65.6% and the Peruzzi's 69.1%), with a small table (45%), a crown of 35.0° and a pavilion of 41.5°. It became the standard round and stayed on the market until about 1930. Most antique round diamonds you'll find are old Europeans. ### Try it yourself 1. Open [Cut Performance Wheel](https://digitalgemology.com/tools/cut-performance-wheel) with `?cut=old-european&stone=diamond`. Set the comparison cut to the old mine. Read brilliance, fire and scintillation. 2. Set the comparison cut to the [T73](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/t73-round-brilliant), our modern benchmark. Read the **Global** row too. 3. Open [3D Gemstone Simulator](https://digitalgemology.com/tools/3d_gemstone_simulator) with `?cut=old-european&stone=diamond`, lighting **Sunny day**. Then change to the old mine. Where did the dark areas go? ## What the Wheel shows **The biggest jump on our scoreboard.** Brilliance goes from **59** to **90**: 31 points, with the same facets. Leakage drops from **32%** to **5%**. Against the Peruzzi, the 58-facet cut it comes from, leakage falls from 19% to 5%. **Fire and sparkle hold.** Fire rises a little, **72 → 74**. Scintillation stays at **81**: same facets, same count. **Close to modern.** Against the T73, the old European is 90 / 74 / 81 against 93 / 78 / 80. On the Wheel's Global score, it's 88 against 90: within two points of the modern benchmark. **What about "more fire than a modern round"?** You'll often read that old Europeans have more fire than modern brilliants. Our model doesn't show it: 74 against the T73's 78. The small table does make large, slow flashes, and people may mean those. But measured as a share of returned light, the modern round comes out ahead. Try it in the simulator under Club lighting and judge for yourself. **The main point.** No new facets. No new plan. A machine made the outline round, and with it came a single, correct pavilion angle all the way around. Technology, not decoration, closed the gap. ## Key points - Mechanical bruting (1870s) made diamonds truly round for the first time. Dimensional gauges arrived with it. - South Africa's mines (from 1866) gave plenty of rough, so cutters could trade weight for beauty. - On a round outline, every pavilion main can share one angle, so the cutter can make the stone thinner. - The old European keeps the same 58 facets. Against the old mine, brilliance goes 59 → 90 and leakage 32% → 5%: the biggest jump on our [scoreboard of eight cuts](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/beyond-the-tolkowsky-brilliant#the-whole-story-in-one-table). - It ends within two points of the T73 on the Wheel's Global score (88 vs 90). Its fire (74) is below the T73's (78) in our model. **Go further:** the [old European cut page](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/old-european) has the diagram, the 3D model and the cutting file for antique-style work. ## Try it free - [Cut Performance Wheel](https://digitalgemology.com/tools/cut-performance-wheel): Compare brilliance, fire and scintillation of two cuts, or one cut in two stones. - [3D Gemstone Simulator](https://digitalgemology.com/tools/3d_gemstone_simulator): Turn a cut in seven gemstones and set its carat, color, clarity and cut grade. Free, in your browser, no account. ## Quick quiz Five questions on this lesson, a couple of minutes. Pick an answer and see at once if you got it, and why. [Take the quiz](https://digitalgemology.com/skool/quiz/the-history-of-the-brilliant/the-old-european-when-the-outline-went-round) ## Cuts in this lesson We sell the files of these cuts: 3D models and cutting files, with a personal-use license. - [Old European Cut](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/old-european): 3D files and cutting files, €9.99 each - [Old Mine Cut](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/old-mine): 3D files and cutting files, €9.99 each - [T73 Round Brilliant Cut](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/t73-round-brilliant): 3D files and cutting files, €9.99 each - [Peruzzi Cut](https://digitalgemology.com/cuts/peruzzi): 3D files and cutting files, €9.99 each ## Keep exploring - [Next lesson: Tolkowsky's 1919 ideal cut: the brilliant that was calculated](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/tolkowsky-ideal-cut-1919) - [Try another topic · The bow-tie effect: Fixing a bow-tie: the steep belly of DG-Bowtie](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/bow-tie/how-to-fix-a-bow-tie) [Previous lesson](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts/old-mine-cut-diamond) · [Historic diamond cuts: the history of the brilliant: all lessons](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/historic-cuts) · [All topics](https://digitalgemology.com/learn)