A facet is a flat, polished planar surface on a diamond or gemstone. Every stone shown on this site — from a 58-facet round brilliant to a 14-facet baguette — is composed entirely of facets. The arrangement, angle, size, and count of those facets determines how light enters the stone, where it goes inside, and how it exits. Facets are, in a technical sense, the entire craft of cutting.
Before the 15th century, diamonds were sold as polished natural octahedra — their rough form — with almost no cutting. Lodewyk van Berquem's introduction of facet grinding around 1458 transformed the industry. The discovery that a flat, polished facet could redirect light internally — and that multiple precisely angled facets could amplify this effect dramatically — is the conceptual foundation that all modern cutting rests on.
| Facet name | Location | Count | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table | Top of crown | 1 | Primary light entry and exit; the window into the stone |
| Bezel (kite) facets | Crown, main | 8 | Redirect entering light toward the pavilion; primary fire producers |
| Star facets | Crown, adjacent to table | 8 | Break bezel reflections into smaller flash units |
| Upper girdle half-facets | Crown, near girdle | 16 | Create scintillation contrast at the stone's edge |
| Girdle facets | Girdle | Varies (32–64+) | Structural; affect profile and weight distribution |
| Pavilion main facets | Pavilion, main | 8 | Primary light bouncers — responsible for total internal reflection |
| Lower girdle half-facets | Pavilion, near girdle | 16 | Break up reflection paths; add to scintillation complexity |
| Culet | Base point | 0 or 1 | Terminates the pavilion; modern stones typically have no culet or a tiny one |
A common misconception among buyers is that more facets equals more brilliance. This is not accurate. A rose cut's 24 facets can produce striking visual effects under candlelight that a 58-facet round brilliant cannot replicate — the flat bottom and domed top create a completely different optical character. A baguette's 14 facets, arranged in parallel horizontal steps, create long, mirror-like reflections that brilliant-cut stones never produce. Facet count describes the stone's design intent; it does not rank its optical quality.
What facet count does affect is scintillation. Higher facet counts, particularly more lower and upper half-facets, create more individual points of light. Cuts with very large facets (emerald, Asscher, baguette) produce fewer, larger reflections — a "hall of mirrors" effect rather than the rapid-fire sparkling of a modern brilliant. Whether you prefer one over the other is a matter of taste, not quality.
Facets are the geometry of light redirection — not simply surfaces that make a stone sparkle. The angle of a facet determines where light goes; the size determines how much. The arrangement of all facets together determines the stone's optical character. Understanding that facet count is less important than facet angle is foundational to reading any cut specification intelligently.