The History of Lapidary (Part 1)

Post date: Nov 11, 2015 1:55:16 PM

--by Forlin Icebeard--

Some men claim that gem cutting, or lapidary, got its start as an offshoot of mundane everyday activities. Claiming that a stone may have fallen into a fire where the heat caused it to break or flake, resulting in a sharp edge resulted. Preposterous of course! Every dwarf knows that lapidary was a dwarf invention. Sure, there are some elves, mainly of Noldorin line, that boast of their lapidary skills, but we dwarves learned it from Mahal himself during our great teachings before the elves even woke. Now that we firmly established the roots of lapidary, let’s take a closer look at the history of dwarven lapidary and how it evolved over time.

River Rolling Produces a Smooth Finish

Though Mahal instructed the dwarves in how gems were to be cut, the old scrolls talk little of these teachings and focus mainly on the cutting of stone or the forging of iron. Thus, in the early days of the seven clans, soon after their awakening, dwarves still had a lot to learn about the fashioning of beautiful gems. At first they took inspiration from the rivers they crossed while on their path to found their first halls. No doubt, comparing the smooth, river and stream rolled stones with those found elsewhere. Hence, the polishing of early stones was done with water and sandstone, a laborious task.

Broadbeam and Firebeard artefacts saved from the ruins of Gabilgathol and Tumunzahar clearly demonstrate that lapidaries (gem-cutters) had long conquered the challenges of sawing, chipping, drilling, polishing and faceting by the time these great Halls were built. In those early days the work was rudimentary by today’s standards but the principals upon which this work was performed are still with us today. At the same time the Broadbeams were perfecting their skills with garnets and adamants the Stonefoots were creating stunning jewels with jade and aventurine.

At that time various kinds of quartz found quick favour among stone workers, for they represented an explosion of varied, rich colours and, although their hardness made them a more difficult material to work with than the softer stones, many different clans sought them, for in those days they could be gathered more easily than most other coloured stones.

The point cut was no doubt the first style of gem cutting the dwarves mastered, the dwarves of Tumunzahar being skilled above all others in the craft. This style of cut favoured the more transparent gems like rubies, sapphires, spinels, emeralds and garnets. Dwarves had long since discovered that if a transparent gem was cut too shallow or too deep the light would leak out of the bottom or the sides, reducing the sparkle. It would take many centuries though before the dwarves defined the ideal angles and ratios of a gem cut.

Faceting Advances From the Blacklock Period

It is not well known, but many of the advances in faceting can be attributed to the Blacklock Period, round 1250 of the Year of Trees. This Red Mountain clan developed great skills in polyhedral faceting, as well as exporting cutting skills which produced such great traditions as the rock formed crystals seen in Khazad-dûm (and still seen in Thorin’s Halls today). Some say that during this period many elf gem-cutters of Beleriand much preferred the stones softer than adamant, including ruby, sapphire, quartz, and emerald, for they often proved to challenging for their more brittle tools.

Dwarves Brought Discipline to Gemcutting

The practice of cutting gemstones to a specific configuration along with the refinements of development of adamant-cutting techniques, were further developed in Tumunzahar, home of the Firebeards. The techniques of adamant splitting, done to obtain natural octahedral forms of the crystal, was known by all seven clans, but perfected by the Firebeards, who surpassed the lapidary skills of the other clans in those days, even the Blacklocks.

One of the problems with these early adamants was that the unmodified bottom, (called the pavilion,) was deep. The result was that rings rose too high on the wearer’s fingers.

At the time of the first rising of the moon, the only regular forms of cut adamants were the so-called point cut and table cut, both shapes being based on the octahedron. For the most part, these were small stones used as accents to complement large, coloured, cabochon-cut stones.

In the earliest stages, the method of grinding was simply to rub one crystal face against the other, a process called bruting. Indeed, many adamant cutters of the time had a small box beneath their manipulations. This was called a bruter’s box and its primary purpose was to catch the rubbings, or adamant dust, given off by the constant rubbing. This dust was then used in the polishing process, its grit being so tiny as to effectively remove the larger scratches.

Culet Facet Intended to Prevent Damage

Often as not, the cutter would also cut a small flat on the bottom, called the culet. Generally, this was intended to avoid accidental chipping or breakage, which might catch a cleavage plane and extend it deeper into the stone.

In the next issue of the Tablets of Khazadgund we’ll continue our journey through the fascinating history of Lapidary, with a closer look at the breakthroughs of the First Age.