Little Ones Out of Big

In a little white-walled room overlooking Manhattan's Fifth Avenue a bespectacled, white-haired man last week undertook one of the toughest sawing jobs in the world. He was Adrian Grasselly, 58-year-old veteran diamond cutter, one of the few living men who could be entrusted with the job of cutting the famed Vargas Diamond, largest (726.60 carats) known uncut diamond in the world. The diamond, discovered by a farmer in Brazil three years ago, is named for Brazil's President Getulio Vargas. Because there is no market for diamonds that big, Owner Harry Winston, Manhattan jewel merchant, decided to have it cut into 23 smaller diamonds, ranging from five to 50 carats each.

If there are no mishaps, the delicate operation will turn one $700,000 stone into an estimated $2,000,000 worth of smaller ones. The cutting, which follows more than a year of study and experimentation by experts, will take 15 months of sawing, cleaving (splitting) and polishing, will turn nearly 50% of the diamond's weight to dust. With a whirring, .0035-of-an-inch-thick, Phosphor Bronze cutting disk, swabbed with olive oil and diamond dust, Grasselly last week began cutting. It will take about three weeks to complete the first cut.

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