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#1
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Help with Gemstone Cutting
To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL |
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#2
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Well, polishing is the last thing you do....if you are talking faceting,
after selecting a piece, you preform it...basically, if you are going to cut a round stone, you have to shape it into a basic round shape before attaching it to the holder for the faceting machine. Faceting involves a special kind of lapidary machine which uses flat diamond disks of different courses and a faceting head on a 'mast' which has settings for different angles which you set to make the facets correct. Each facet has to go through first a rough cut, then finer and finer cuts until polishing. Needless to say, it can take hours and hours to cut one stone..so unless you are doing an unusual cut or special or expensive stone....your time will not get paid for by your results except by self satisfaction. If you are doing it for jewelry(profit), it's better to go buy finished stones...if You are doing it for the fun of it...that's another matter. A friend of mine told me the first stone he faceted took him over 40 hours to do...even now, it takes him at least 3-4 hours to complete one stone. When you can pay for finished gems like amethyst at $1/ct, it's just not worth your time! Cabbing is simpler...there you don't have to do exact facets and stones can take from 20 min to 2 hrs to do depending on what it is you are cutting....it does go through the basic course cut to finer cut to polish, but is done freehand, just holding a stick w/ the stone attached to the end w/ a special hard wax. I do cab stones...mostly opals and intarsia/inlay work. Good luck, Jeanne Rhodes Moen http://www.jeanniusdesigns.com On 2/11/05 7:54 AM, in article , "Ronnie Parker" wrote: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL Jeanne Rhodes Moen * Jewelry pages: http://www.jeanniusdesigns.com * Family pages: http://www.rhodes-moen.com |
#3
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I have bought and used 'tumble polished' rough on a few occasions. And
once I tumbled some rough mexican opals ans was able to select a few pieces that I later faceted. Material from river gravels is usually naturally tumbled but still not polished. In those 2 instances, the rough are often very well shaped and any fractured or weak spots have often been removed in the tumbling process. I'm not sure it is worth the time and effort for most rough that you will be purchasing. There are immersion fluids that will help with grading/planning the stones' faceting usefulness, finding internal inclusions or fractures to be cut away or around. Corn syrup/honey will work OK for many stones. Cinnamic Aldehyde is useful too.(many immersion fluids are hazardous and care should be taken to limit exposure and keep well away from kids and the untrained). Carl 1 Lucky Texan (PS - PETER!, please contact me with status on mailing my brooch!) Ronnie Parker wrote: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL -- to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net) |
#4
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"Ronnie Parker" wrote in
: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL You won't have much of a polish when you're done if you polish before you cut, now will you? -- Saint Séimí mac Liam Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve Prophet of The Great Tagger Canonized December '99 |
#5
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Well, polishing is the last thing you do....if you are talking faceting,
after selecting a piece, you preform it...basically, if you are going to cut a round stone, you have to shape it into a basic round shape before attaching it to the holder for the faceting machine. Faceting involves a special kind of lapidary machine which uses flat diamond disks of different courses and a faceting head on a 'mast' which has settings for different angles which you set to make the facets correct. Each facet has to go through first a rough cut, then finer and finer cuts until polishing. Needless to say, it can take hours and hours to cut one stone..so unless you are doing an unusual cut or special or expensive stone....your time will not get paid for by your results except by self satisfaction. If you are doing it for jewelry(profit), it's better to go buy finished stones...if You are doing it for the fun of it...that's another matter. A friend of mine told me the first stone he faceted took him over 40 hours to do...even now, it takes him at least 3-4 hours to complete one stone. When you can pay for finished gems like amethyst at $1/ct, it's just not worth your time! Cabbing is simpler...there you don't have to do exact facets and stones can take from 20 min to 2 hrs to do depending on what it is you are cutting....it does go through the basic course cut to finer cut to polish, but is done freehand, just holding a stick w/ the stone attached to the end w/ a special hard wax. I do cab stones...mostly opals and intarsia/inlay work. Good luck, Jeanne Rhodes Moen http://www.jeanniusdesigns.com On 2/11/05 7:54 AM, in article , "Ronnie Parker" wrote: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL Jeanne Rhodes Moen * Jewelry pages: http://www.jeanniusdesigns.com * Family pages: http://www.rhodes-moen.com |
#6
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I have bought and used 'tumble polished' rough on a few occasions. And
once I tumbled some rough mexican opals ans was able to select a few pieces that I later faceted. Material from river gravels is usually naturally tumbled but still not polished. In those 2 instances, the rough are often very well shaped and any fractured or weak spots have often been removed in the tumbling process. I'm not sure it is worth the time and effort for most rough that you will be purchasing. There are immersion fluids that will help with grading/planning the stones' faceting usefulness, finding internal inclusions or fractures to be cut away or around. Corn syrup/honey will work OK for many stones. Cinnamic Aldehyde is useful too.(many immersion fluids are hazardous and care should be taken to limit exposure and keep well away from kids and the untrained). Carl 1 Lucky Texan (PS - PETER!, please contact me with status on mailing my brooch!) Ronnie Parker wrote: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL -- to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net) |
#7
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"Ronnie Parker" wrote in
: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL You won't have much of a polish when you're done if you polish before you cut, now will you? -- Saint Séimí mac Liam Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve Prophet of The Great Tagger Canonized December '99 |
#8
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Hi
In regards to your enquiry i just found the following site on the net today hope it helps http://www.gemstoneartist.com/Designs.asp SJ On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 06:54:39 GMT, "Ronnie Parker" wrote: To all: I am new at the gem stone hobby, but can someone tell me if it is better to polish a rough gemstone first, then facet cut, or vice versa? Thanks. BBL |
#9
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Shairose Jetha wrote in
: http://www.gemstoneartist.com/Designs.asp Or you could look here http://www.faceters.com/designs/index.shtml (scroll down to the free ones) or here http://www.usfacetersguild.org/index_designs.shtml -- Saint Séimí mac Liam Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve Prophet of The Great Tagger Canonized December '99 |
#10
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or here;
http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/g...ns/index.shtml Carl 1 Lucky Texan Séimí mac Liam wrote: Shairose Jetha wrote in : http://www.gemstoneartist.com/Designs.asp Or you could look here http://www.faceters.com/designs/index.shtml (scroll down to the free ones) or here http://www.usfacetersguild.org/index_designs.shtml -- to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net) |
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