Lapidary

LAPIDARY substantive – Someone who cuts precious stones.
– Encycl. All the equipment necessary to a lapidary consists almost exclusively of wheels and disks to grind, split and polish the surface of minerals. These wheels have just a few centimeters in diameter and are made of lead, tin, bronze or iron and various soft alloys; some of them, used to polish the softer minerals, are made from willow or mahogany wood. These discs are coated with wet diamond powder or with emery and water. The various disks used by cutters are fitted to a vertical pivot, so that they run horizontally above the surface of the table. They are usually driven by hand. In the East Indies, wheels are made of Corundum or emery in lacquer. They are fitted on a horizontal axis, which performs its revolution by means of a bow string.
 
Extract from the Trousset encyclopedia, 1886 – 1891.