The emerald or step cut provides a large table and a full bottom for the stone. Although the number of crown and pavilion facets may vary, the general pattern is maintained.
The simplified English brilliant cut takes maximum advantage of the strong dispersion of diamond, with its flashes of fire, but the fewer facets provide less sparkle than the standard brilliant cut.
The diagram shows a brilliant-cut diamond with angles and facets arranged to give the stone maximum internal reflection as well as to make use of its strong dispersive ability. Certain of the light beams passing into a brilliant-cut diamond produce colorless brilliance by being reflected back out of the stone through the table by which they entered. Other light beams, emerging through inclined facets, are split up by dispersion into the rainbow, or fire, effect so prized in diamonds. A stone that has been cut too wide for its depth, with incorrect facet angles, will look large for its weight but its brilliance and fire will have been drastically reduced.
The English brilliant cut has 28 crown and pavilion facets—28 fewer than the standard brilliant cut.
The Dutch rose cut is a very simple one that is used mainly for small diamonds in jewelry that features a larger, colored stone. It is based on a form that originated in India and was introduced through Venice.
For other purposes and for other kinds of precious stones a number of basic cuts have been developed. The brilliant and step cuts are by far the commonest of these basic cuts, but modern jewelry design frequently uses such fancy cuts as the baguette, cut-corner triangle, epaulet, half moon, hexagon, keystone, kite, lozenge, marquise, pentagon, square, trapeze, and triangle. Some of these are shown here.