Sept. 10
Employees from the Crater of Diamonds dropped by the store, bringing with them the legendary Strawn-Wagner, a diamond found at the mine in 1990 and considered one of the world’s most perfect cut diamonds. State officials and senior personnel also came to see Mike cut Esperanza, which starred in its own professional photo shoot and a mini-documentary filmed by the state of Arkansas. Throughout all this, Mike continued to work, albeit at a slower pace. By the end of the day, he had nearly completed the basic blocking.
Sept. 11
Mike was back at the bench at 7 a.m. This day saw fewer visitors and the work progressed at a much faster rate. Although we were aiming for a five-carat diamond, it soon became clear maintaining that threshold was going to be out of the question. The diamond weighed 5.01 carats by the end of the day and Mike had only just started polishing it. This is painstaking work, as every facet has to be polished to absolute perfection.
Sept. 12
This day was devoted to one of the larger primary facets, which took the better part of three hours to polish, as it was very close to plane 111. Work continued until 6 p.m. and by that time, Esperanza weighed 4.87 carats.
Sept. 13
Although we had anticipated being done by now, that would not be the case. Work progressed at a good pace, however, as there were no interruptions. Mike spent most of this day polishing the smaller facets, which resulted in losing .06 carats, now bringing the diamond to 4.81 carats.
Sept. 14
Work started at 7 a.m. and it was nose to the grinding wheel for the entire day, as Mike polished more facets. “This is by far the most beautiful diamond, yet also the hardest diamond I have cut in my entire career of 47 years,” Mike said. “What I expected to take around 40 hours was soon to be eclipsed by more than double that time.”
The afternoon saw a photographer from the local newspaper return to update readers on Mike’s progress. By this time, he’d already completed 105 of the 147 facets and the diamond was really starting to take on a life of its own. Work continued until 9 p.m. with a short supper break. By the end of the day, the diamond weighed 4.71 carats, with no less than 42 facets yet to be polished at its points.
