A Cut Above

After the rough gems are mined and carefully sorted into quality categories at our main office in Vancouver, Washington, the best qualities are sent for cutting to the company's Fair Trade cutting factory in China. 

This factory is a model workplace, with wages that are three times the minimum wage. Benefits for workers include: room and board, paid vacation, overtime pay, medical, disability and unemployment insurance, and an annual bonus. More importantly, we provide a clean and safe environment for gemstone cutting to ensure our cutters don't suffer the fatal affects of Silicosis.

All of our gemstones are cut with precision and polished with diamond powder for crisp, clean facets that reflect maximum brilliance. We may CUT corners, but we NEVER cut corners.

This cutting factory doesn't just meet international standards: it sets them.

Three years ago we began developing equipment and techniques to cut curved, concave facets to increase brilliance. This technique, first pioneered by master cutter Richard Homer of the United States, uses facets like lenses to focus light back to the viewer's eye. It had never been tried before in a large volume production setting. 

The result of years of work: the branded Radial Cut™, which uses concave faceting to increase the brilliance of cut gemstones. Today, 20 percent of Columbia Gem House cut gemstone production is Radial Cut™ gemstones.