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

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

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)

"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

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

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)

"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

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

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

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


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