The bench
Lapidary equipment and testing instruments
Everything on a cutter’s bench is made by somebody, and most of them are small firms who have been at it for decades. This records who makes what: the machines that cut and polish, the instruments that test the result, and the software that designed the stone before anyone touched it.
We do not review equipment and we do not rank it. Every record was compiled from the maker’s own website and carries the page it came from and the date it was read. There are no affiliate links here and nobody pays to be listed. Where a well-known name has stopped trading, the record says so, because that is usually the thing you needed to know.
Faceting machines
7 on record
Fac-Ette ManufacturingMakes the Facetron and GemMaster faceting machines and their tooling.United States1974Koganei Precision Co., Ltd. (株式会社コガネイプレシジョン)Japanese-built faceting units, cutting machines, flat grinders and sphere machines used in the Kofu cutting trade.Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan1946Poly-Metric Instruments, Inc.Faceting machines and faceting heads, including the OMF machine for curved and concave facets.Clayton, Washington, United States1990Scott ManufacturingMakes the Raytech Shaw faceter, a design first patented by Louis Eaton Shaw in 1961.Littleton, Colorado, United StatesULTRA TEC Manufacturing, Inc.Precision faceting machines and accessories used by cutters of coloured stones.Santa Ana, California, United States1965VJ Faceting MachinesMakes the VJ faceting machine and its parts, a design used mainly in Australia.Redridge, Queensland, AustraliaGraves CompanyFormerly made faceting machines and lapidary equipment; the United States Faceters Guild lists Graves among faceting machine manufacturers.No longer trading
Cabbing and grinding
8 on record
CabKingCabbing machines with diamond wheels, sold with trim saw attachments and consumables.United StatesCovington CorporationLapidary and glass machinery including slab saws, grinders, sphere machines, flat laps and tumblers.Meridian, Idaho, United StatesDiamond Pacific ToolsCabbing units and the Nova wheel and disc line used for grinding and polishing cabochons.Barstow, California, United StatesHi-Tech DiamondFlat lap style cabbing machines and small trim and slab saws, with versions for stone and for glass.United StatesInland CraftSmall bench grinders, diamond band saws and flat lap machines for stone and glass.United StatesLORTONE, incRotary rock tumblers, barrels and packaged tumbling abrasives.Meridian, Idaho, United States1978Reentel International Inc.Owns and manufactures four lapidary and art glass equipment brands sold as separate storefronts.United States1999Tumble-BeeEntry-level rotary rock tumblers.United States
Saws and laps
1 on record
Wheels, laps and consumables
2 on record
Testing instruments
12 on record
A.KRÜSS Optronic GmbHHamburg maker of laboratory optical instruments whose gemmological range covers refractometers, microscopes, polariscopes and spectroscopes.Hamburg, Germany1796De Beers Group VerificationLaboratory and trade instruments that screen parcels and separate natural from laboratory-grown diamonds and simulants.London, United KingdomEickhorst & Co. KGFamily-run German manufacturer of gemmological bench instruments, microscopes and colour grading lighting.Hamburg, Germany1969Gem-A Instruments (Gemmological Instruments Ltd), the trading arm of The Gemmological Association of Great BritainThe instruments shop of the UK gemmological association, selling both own-branded and third-party bench instruments.London, United Kingdom1908Gemological Institute of AmericaThe institute's own instrument line, of which the iD100 is a spectroscopic screening device for separating natural diamond from laboratory-grown diamond and simulants.Carlsbad, United States1931GEMORO Superior Instruments, a division of Sy Kessler Sales, Inc.Handheld testers that the maker describes as identifying, detecting and separating diamond from cubic zirconia, moissanite and white sapphire.Dallas, United StatesMagilabs OyPortable Raman and photoluminescence spectrometers built for gemmological laboratories, alongside FTIR and UV-Vis-NIR units.Järvenpää, Finland2012OGI Systems Ltd.Diamond scanning, planning, laser cutting and marking systems, plus screening devices the company says detect laboratory-grown material.Ramat Gan, IsraelPresidium Instruments Pte LtdHandheld diamond, moissanite and coloured stone testers; the company states the Multi Tester III separates colourless diamond from moissanite using thermal and electrical properties.Singapore, Singapore1979Sarine Technologies Ltd.Diamond manufacturing and grading systems covering rough scanning, inclusion mapping, laser cutting and automated grading.Hod Hasharon, Israel1988Smartpro Instrument Co., Ltd.Handheld and desktop screening instruments for diamond, moissanite and laboratory-grown diamond, plus coloured stone estimators.Thailand2013Yehuda Diamond CompanyBench-top detectors aimed at separating natural from laboratory-grown diamonds in loose parcels and mounted jewellery.New York, United States
Design and analysis software
9 on record
AdvisorRough diamond planning software that combines inclusion scanning data with 3D geometry to generate polishing plans.Hod Hasharon, IsraelGem Cut StudioFaceting design software that combines pattern design with real-time rendering of the resulting stone.Gem DiagramBrowser-based faceting diagram tool for designing a cut, planning rough orientation and rendering a preview.GemCad for WindowsComputer-aided design software for faceted gemstones that simulates a faceting machine and produces cutting diagrams.GemewizardDigital colour communication and grading software for coloured stones and fancy coloured diamonds, with an associated pricing service.GemRayRay-tracing renderer that models the optical performance of a faceted design before it is cut.OGI RoughRough diamond planning software from OGI Systems that allocates polished shape plans against user pricing to optimise yield.Ramat Gan, IsraelBOG, a Better Optimizer for GemRayFront end to GemRay that searches pavilion and crown angles against user-set targets for brightness, tilt performance, sparkle and dispersion.No longer tradingDiamCalcCut gemstone modelling software from OctoNus that renders a polished stone from its measured proportions to assess light behaviour.Tampere, FinlandNo longer trading
A buyer who understands how a stone was cut and how it was tested reads a dealer’s listing differently. The instruments here are the same ones the laboratories use, at bench scale, and knowing what a handheld tester can and cannot settle is worth as much as knowing which laboratory issued the report.
Records last checked against official sources on Aug 16, 2026.