A polki begins where a brilliant ends. There is no faceting wheel, no attempt to impose symmetry on the stone — the karigar reads the rough, finds the flattest natural plane, and lets the diamond keep its own temper.
The bed is lac, warmed until it yields. Fine gold foil is laid beneath the stone so that light entering the crown is returned rather than lost, and the setter walks a thin ribbon of 24-carat gold around the girdle with a tool no wider than a matchstick.
It takes a full morning to set nine stones. It takes a lifetime to learn how to stop when the gold has taken the stone and not a stroke more.
✦
