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Deflexion Amethyst Gemcutter
Fresh off of the stick, may I present a new cut. This one is called "Deflexion." It turned out pretty nice except for little thing: I missed half the meetpoints when I cut the table. It still looks pretty though and you can't see the mistake with the unaided eye. It weighs in at 0.97 carats, and although I haven't measured, it looks to be ~8mm - 9mm from apex to base.
>> Gemcutter
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>> Anonymous
Looks pretty nice, actually. Cut looks good. Needs less fuz/impurities though.
>> Anonymous
Fascinating, 8-mm to 9mm you say? That's really something.
>> Gemcutter
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>>385752
How's that?
>> Anonymous
Neat, i found a stone on the ground that's either a garnet or some nice quartz. Do you know an easy way to tell what it is?
>> Anonymous
^Whats the color? Most garnet I find around here is a reddish dark brown, whereas quartz is usually white to clear.
>> Anonymous
>>385786

Well it's a deep dark blood red, it's about the size of a pea, i found it while hiking in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
>> Gemcutter
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>>385775

A polariscope would easily eliminate one of the choices; and if you have an accurate enough scale (resolution to 0.001g) then you could determine it's specific gravity. Without the right tools, it's kind of hard to tell just by sight.

This picture is of one of the pink sapphires that our group found on a recent field trip to Franklin, NC. It was so heavily included and had so many surface-breaking inclusions that I had to forget everything I have taught myself about faceting and just cut on through it. The quality of that rough made me appreciate my clean rough. Still...it was a lot of fun mining those sapphires.
>> Anonymous
We love you gemcutter!!!
>> Set Moondance Gemcutter
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A couple of months ago I gave the Moondance cut amethyst to my neighbor across the street. She just brought it to me a few moments ago to show how she had it set.
>> Anonymous
Is it a "made" stone or is it a "natural" stone?

And to be sure: It is a kind of safire. Right?
>> Gemcutter
>>386248
It's a natural amethyst that was originally mined in Brazil. Synthetic amethysts are, however, abundant and difficult to tell apart from naturals if there are no inclusions without very expensive and sophisticated equipment. Amethyst belongs to the quartz family and has a Moh's hardness of 7. Sapphire, on the other hand, comes in at hardness 9 on that scale.
>> Anonymous
wonderful pictures gemcutter
>> Anonymous
>>385745
so how much would such a stone cost?
>> Anonymous
Can you do me one of these?

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32194

My usual jewelcrafter is afk atm.
>> Gemcutter
>>386548
If anyone were to buy it from me, I would charge $65. $60 for the cutting + $5 for the cost of the rough. (Plus S/H, of course, if I had to send it anywhere). Mind you, even though it doesn't yet have a home, I don't post here because I'm trying to sell my stones. I just like to share the pics because I think they're neat. I also like to do my part by adding original content to the /hr/ board since it's been so generous to me.
>> Anonymous
Sonn there will be a /geo/ board for geology and gemcutting...
>> Anonymous
>>386562
Oh I didn't mean to imply you come here for angling sales, not that I'd even mind that, being an artist myself and 4chan having a broad spectrum of visitors that might be interested I would imagine.

I really just asked out of interest, if I ever were to need nice stones to put onto any artworks/crafting I do.
>> Gemcutter
>>386601
I didn't think you were. I just wanted to make that general statement since the subject of price came up. I appreciate the interest and am happy to answer any questions that might get posed.

I will clean up the pair of rose quartz that I cut prior to these and post them after dinner etc.
>> Anonymous
Yay Gemcutter!
>> Anonymous
So I got a question actually. How do you go about to make yourself a name as gemcutter? I mean how do people believe you the stuff you offer is the real deal and all that. Since it's not just about looks but the material as well.
>> Gemcutter
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>>386637
That's an excellent question, and one I haven't really given much thought to. I guess part of it is that I am selling to people that I know and/or have worked with so they know that I am an honest person and that what I represent is true. Also, when I sell a stone, I offer a 30-day, one-conditional money-back guarantee. That one condition is that the stone has to be in the same shape when they want to return it to me as it was when they took posession of it. So far, no one has returned anything.

I promised the rose quartz. They are a pair of Shiver cuts that weigh 1.355 and 1.62 carats. I cut that pattern a lot. That is because not only is it a fairly easy cut, but it is also requested a lot. I tried to get them as dust-free as I could.
>> Anonymous
How hard stuff can you do?

I a chemnist and one day Ill make some funny stuff like rubys and so on.
Can you work that?
>> Gemcutter
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>>386981
I will do stuff up to hardness 9 which includes the corrundum family (rubies and sapphires). Only diamonds are excluded from the list of materials that I can cut.

This is the largest and most well-formed sapphire crystal I found on my recent mining trip to Franklin, NC. It weighs 11.6 carats. As you can see, although it is a crystal, it isn't very suited to faceting since it is pretty much opaque.
>> Anonymous
Oh, this is interesting, although I was never interested in such stones.

How did you learn it?
I mean...how did you practice it without horrendus costs (or is there no difference between cutting an expensive stone and an ordinary?)

How do you cut these exactly? What tools do you use?
>> Anonymous
ITS YOU. AWESOME. I always like your posts. Plz2be having moar kthx.
>> Gemcutter
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>>387032
I pretty much learned by doing. I bought a faceting machine (and associated supplies) and a book and taught myself. While the initial cost of the equipment can be high (the machine ietself was $2200, and grinding laps range from $70 - $125 each), good practice rough can be bought relatively inexpensively. Fortunately, those high initial costs are pretty much a one-time expenditure. And you are correct...there is no difference between cutting an expensive, high-quality stone and cutting cheap or synthetic rough. Here is a picture of my faceting machine. Besides the machine itself, the tool that I use most often (as in constantly) is my 10X jewelers loupe glass.
>> Anonymous
Welcome back, Gemcutter. Glad to see a thread with real content, lol.

Also, I wish to ask a favour of you... I like aquamarines, so... If you have any pictures of aquamarines, what you cutted, please, post it! I'm thanking you in anticipation. (Sorry for my english.)
>> Gemcutter
>>387057
Thank you. It's always nice to be appreciated. I will make sure to post more as new material becomes available. It had been a while since I posted last, so I had enough saved up to start a thread that would contain more than one or two pictures.
>> Gemcutter
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>>387067
I've only cut two aquamarines. I found them in a big pile of beryl that I bought off of eBay and were among the few that were clean enough to cut and blue enough to be called aquamarine. As you can see, there are two inclusions that are visible from the table as well as numerous other ones elsewhere in the stone. And even with all of that, you can't see any of the inclusions when seen with the naked eye from 18 inches. It is still a very pretty stone would be classified SI clarity. It was difficult photographing the blue that you see when the stone is in front of you, and this was the best I could manage. (Maybe one day, when I have sold enough of these gems, I can afford to get a real camera.)
>> Anonymous
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This is quite the coincidence. I am an engineer and I am involved in offline robotic program (pic related - tis my robot, a Motoman ES200N). I am toying with the idea of jigging and cutting gemstones robotically. Is this done anywhere currently? Any thoughts on practicality/quality issues?
>> Anonymous
>>387085
I hope you get enough money for it, hehe. Also thanks for the picture!
>> Gemcutter
>>387096
Apparantly it's already being done. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408102835.htm
It probably makes sense since you can get greater yields from your rough.
>> Anonymous
Might you think faceting a tooth is possible? I'm getting my wisdom teeth yanked soon, and getting one cut and set in a ring or something would be bitchin'
>> Deflexion Tourmaline Gemcutter
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>>387700
I'm not sure what would happen once you got past the enamel and into the pulp. It would, however, make for an interesting piece if it were possible.

This is the tourmaline I just finished this morning. It is a teeny tiny sucker and it was kind of hard to photograph. It is ~3mm from apex to base and weighs in at a miniscule 0.065 carats. The pictures don't do the color justice since in person, it has a nice pool-water blue color. Sorry about the dust.
>> Gemcutter
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>> Anonymous
We fucking love you, Gemcutter.