The New Yorker shared this excellent video of 92 year old Diamond Cutter, Max Fuchs, who works in New York City’s diamond district. He works quietly at a cutting bench cluttered with blocky metal tools, his hands worn from years of shaping rough stones into modern cuts. As the diamond industry moves abroad for lower-cost labor, Fuchs believes he is among the oldest in an ever-shrinking field of New York diamond cutters. He takes pride in his craft: “You can take a diamond that’s, let’s say, a broken diamond, and you bring it back into shape. … It’s a masterpiece—like Picasso.”
Listen to him discuss his craft and the changing industry.