Faceting

I've got several very pale, quite long aquamarine crystals, and wanted to do something interesting with one of them. The design is Blue Ice, by Jeff Graham. Long facets are a pig to polish, I don't know why I keep picking them. I'm pretty happy with this, although I mistakenly overcut a facet by quite a bit, making me lose most of the girdle.

My mentor gave me some leftover rough when he taught me, to include a small piece of lab sapphire. I wanted to try something more complex than the Andrew Brown cuts I was doing, so I found a round cut that looked fun and relatively easy, and it was conveniently already designed for sapphire. (Also it sparkled very pretty in Gem Cad Studio)

I'm extremely happy with my meet points on this, and it's my first where there's no mistakes! And my girdle is 0.43mm! I'm quite proud of this stone.

Seeing the final stone for the first time was an incredible experience, I forgot how to breathe when I first saw it off the dop. I hope seeing a final gem is always so exhilarating (don't tell me if it gets old 🤣)

Synthetic sapphire, 1.3 cts, design is Gamma Brilliant by Jeff Ford (I got it from the USFG website)

I’ve been looking at this large morganite rough and trying to decide how to cut this. It’s sort of in the shape of a triangular prism, but it narrows towards one end.

I was leaning towards slicing it in three and creating a matching set of trillian stones. The other alternative I’m contemplating is a matching set of square/princess cut stones optimized for this stone.

Interested if anyone has some other alternatives or opinions.

To celebrate a year of doing the most expensive hobby ever, I tried my hand at doing a Portuguese cut. Sadly the veils weren't obvious until I started cutting, but I hate throwing things away so I just followed through to the end. Design is Round Portuguese Cut by Justin K. Prim, in amethyst

I cut my first peridot and I gotta say, much easier than the quartz by a mile. My confidence needed that boost. 🤣

I noticed when I googled the best way to polish peridot, there was quite a bit of debate in what was best, and no real clear right answer. I saw 100k diamond on a BATT lap, aluminum oxide, and chrome oxide all suggested. I tried the aluminum and it did okay, but took ages. What do you guys prefer?

(I have been advised my girdles are a smidgen too thick and I'll be putting my future stones on a diet. Whoops.)

Peridot, 2.795 ct, cut in DecaCheck Two by Andrew Brown

I feel like the garnet I cut first lulled me into a false sense of security. I did myself no favors picking a more complex cut, either. Quartz is ANNOYING!

The video mercifully does not show it, but my meetpoints are absolute trash on this stone. I used way too much force and popped it off the dop when polishing my pavilion, so my girdle and my crown don't quite align either.

I struggled heavily with the prepolish step, which in turn led to my polish taking ages. I'm currently using a Zinc+ with 8k Pandimonium which was dreamy on my garnet but the quartz was less enthusiastic about it. Am I just underestimating quartz? What do you guys use for prepolishing?

I just received my v5 last week and I've been working on my very first stone. Technically this is my second, but I FUBARed the first one beyond salvation so this one is my first "completed" stone.

It's a very included garnet, gifted to me by my teacher for practice. The design is Andrew Brown's Little Princess cut.

I'm experimenting with linking videos hosted on Pixelfed because in all honesty my gemstone photo skills suck and don't do this pretty little stone justice quite like the video does.

My first scapolite, in Trioptic Blast by Andrew Brown. I was expecting a lot more trouble with this, due to cleavage planes, but it was actually a joy to cut

Bit of an experimental one, in my own design. Chunky bloodstone, cut from my stock of cabbing stuff. This guy decided to yeet off of the dop, but I managed to save it with superglue. Still, it's made the table a touch wonky.

So finally got this stone done and am super happy with how it came out. A nice clean stone with great color and light return.

Only had an hour this morning to work on the stone. Pre-polish is done, and still need to do the table.

Overall I’m really happy with how this stone is turning out.

Transferred and roughed in most of the main crown facets. I’m taking my time with this one, as it’s pretty large and almost perfectly clean.

And yes… it does look like a jolly rancher. 😋

Got halfway done with the peridot. Family conspired to limit my cutting time. 😉😂

Here it is after prepolish.

Another £1 special, a super cracked bit of topaz that actually polished up real nice. Design is Round Brilliant by Justin K. Prim.

Teeny tiny peridot. It was a very cheap bit of rough for around £1, so I'm amazed I managed to get anything out of it at all. Still, I'm happy with the result and have a bit more experience with stuff that needs Aluminium Oxide to polish. Design is Emerald by Justin K. Prim

A heavily included bit of green tourmaline (my first!) in a simple square cut. You can see the different colours through different angles, which I didn't realise before I cut it! Design is Square Cut by Justin K. Prim

My first stab at a spinel. I think the cut is probably not great for a stone this size, and I'm not sure if it's hazy due to a bad polish, the weird design, or the stone just not being super clear. Design is Time Portal by Andrew Brown

Got my machine back, and it runs great! The motor is even quieter than it was before. This will be my first stone, a nice clean peridot that is 11mm x 9mm.

This is another stone from the past. I like this one as the basic look of it reminds me of an emerald.

My machine is fixed and on its way back, so hopefully I'll have some new stones to share in the next week or so.

This is obviously not facet grade material, but it is one of my favorite mineral specimens I have.

Social media keeps trying to sell me faceted moss agate jewelry, so I had a stab at cutting some myself. The stone is a bit too thick with moss (I can now see why the ads are for stuff that is tiny!) but it was a fun experiment.

This was another stone from the way back machine that I still have laying around. I don't recall what the cut was, but my best guess is a standard portuguese cut.

My machine is on it's way to get repaired, they said 2-3 weeks. Shipping cost was more than I care to admit.

Oh wait, this is not c/facesitting?!

So I finally finished the garnet's for the earrings, and am now waiting on the mounts to come in. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, especially since they are almost exactly the same size!

Left: 4.02mm @ .325 ct Right: 4.01mm @ .320 ct

The one downside here is that the color is different, but my daughter doesn't care. 😀

I hate doing stones this small, as it takes a really delicate touch and slow lap speed to avoid over cutting the facets. I usually rough in the stone and cut the first tier in 1200, then cut the remaining facets using 3000 so I avoid over cutting.

Finally some sad news, my cutting machine's motor is acting up and I have a support request in to Ultratec on how to get it resolved. So I won't be posting any new stones for some time. I'll try and post some older stuff I still have, as well as rough.

Square citrine I've cut. This guy threw from the dop a few weeks back and I've only just got round to actually finish it. Should have pulled the corners in further, as this would have allowed me a smaller table and better optics.