Sneaky Gems.

Latest project. A massive chunk of near flawless morganite. This is the color center for the big block i have been working on. It doesn't show through in the image but the pink is quite pronounced, very well saturated but light in tone. The color grade is the same as a good natural aquamarine.

I have decided to do my latest custom pentagon design. Best fits the rough and it's a simple design. Big stone means big facets and big facets are hard work to polish and very time consuming. I could easily pack a gorgeous 100+ facet design into this piece but some times less is more.

Girdles roughed out on 180# lap

180# roughed out pavillion. So much material to remove so i go heavy and work my way down. Trick is to make sure to not take to much material. Leave enough meat to remove the coarse grit scratches without sacrificing weight.

The facets are so scratched up they appear white.

Worn 320#. Starting to take shape. Next step is 600# sintered lap with final accuracy adjustments tied in with a 3000# preplosh on a 8" BATT. 100k final polish to finish. I have been experimenting with new lubricants for use on the BATTs. Thoroughly sick of the stink from the WD40. I have found baby oil to be the best. Heavier, holds the diamond better, pleasent smell and dosen't strip the diamond off the lap like WD40 does. This means i can take off the swarf without having to recharge the lap every time.

Looking good :Y: :Y:

LW....

Looking really interesting, cant wait to see the finished piece.

As a total beginner (cutting my first stone today) I'd be very interested in learning what you do to prep your polishing laps? I have copper, typemetal and nickle laps and so far have done an initial prep on the copper with a bar of solvol but get the impression this is inadequate as it's holding very little of the 8000 which I have mixed with Sorbolene, we happened to have a large bottle of of it. A friend uses Vaseline intensive care which I want to try next as I am finding the Sorbolene is drying very quickly.

Was planning on using the typemetal for 14,000 and the nickle of 50,000, right way round?

Thanks SC

Gonna be a door knob, awesome.

Finally done! Colour wasn't as rich as I was hoping but it came out ok. I got a bit carried away with cutting and forgot to take more pics. Had a bad transfer so it added a degree of difficulty to the cutting. However, a few minor cheater adjustments and some angle changes later and its accurate by eye. Nice subtle pink morganite, completely natural, 47.68 carat House of Cards pentagon cut. Sould look amazing in a white gold setting.

PM'd Dihusky

Very Noice Mr Cuttle, are you keeping it??

Excellent :Y: i love the photos showing the start of the facet process , very interesting

Hi gilly. Not sure yet. I'd like to put it in a line of wedding jewellery I am designing but if the right offer comes along I might let it go.

Fantastic work there SC!! :Y: :Y: :Y:

And a beautiful piece of stone as well, I can imagine that looking stunning in a white gold pendant. Well worth the time put into it (and it sure is time-consuming work).

The last couple of photos give the impression that you're getting ready to sit down and eat it

I have to say that your photography blows mine away.

Great looking stone, well done. :Y:

Thanks everyone.

Its not easy lefty. I take loads of photos from all diffrent angles and diffrent light conditions to get the right shot. Some times its impossible to get a good shot though. Especially if the design is a super bright one.

Love seeing your process and finished products sneaky. Really impressive and motivating.

WOW, unreal!

I have finally got around to starting/finishing a project. For those of you who have been following this thread you may remeber a particularly interesting smoky quartz trillion I cut mid last year. Well I travelled all over Switzerland in search for a perfect colour match to that particular stone. Despite meeting a number strahlers I never quite found the perfect rock.

Never-the-less I kept my open and managed to stumble across 'the one' sitting on a shelf in a souviner store in a glorious little ski town called Murren.


I bought this piece specifically to finish off an envisioned project I began over a year ago. The aim is to achieve a perfectly calibrated trillion set for earrings to match the big pendant stone I cut last year, whilst trying to achieve the same colour tone. I am pretty sure this peice will deliver on the colour as it is slightly darker than the piece I cut the big one from. This should offset the tone reduction effect from the smaller stone sizes. Won't know for sure until it is done.

Made the first cut.


Cutting for callibration is not an easy thing to do. Especially when it requires splitting a stone. It is of the utmost importance to have a very clear plan before turning the saw on. I'll explain my descion of where to cut below. The aim is to cut the tip first as it is the smaller of the pieces. This will give me a set size to calibrate the next one to.

The reason I cut the tip smaller is becuase the tip already has the rough shape of the pavillion I wish to cut. Saves material and the tip is very clean with this particular piece. Also, I preffer to cut on the C axis where possible.



I was not able to divide the stone evenly as the cut depth for this particular design would reduce both pieces to smaller-than-desired stones. Cutting on the c axis is not possible with the second piece as the bottom of the crystal is a bit odd shaped and as it is a shear point from where it grew, it is possible it could harbour hidden flaws that are hard to detect.

To ensure I get a good calibration its best to leave a bit more meat on the bottom piece and roll the stone over 30ish degrees from the C axis for cutting. As there is no zoning and the crystal is essentially flawless its possible to cut this piece with any orientation I desire.