Some stones i found and had cut from outback W.A

Hey guys, My mate was sending a package of stones to Lambert's and asked if i want any cut so i thought why not. I had a heap of quartz, citrine and smokey quartz that i tumbled and i picked out a few bits that i thought would be suited .
6 months later they are all done and mi very happy with the results... Here they are after tumbling...


The results...





and this 21ct brilliant cut....

Some pretty looking stones there Marc :Y:

Some of them are cut a little differently to how we would do it here in Australia but they are still very attractive nonetheless. My dad still sends plenty of smallerstones over to Lamberts since I cant cut everything he collects, mad gemstone collector that he is.

Wow

They came out beauties.

Nice collection you found too btw.

Thanks guys,
Need to get back out there as there is alot more there to grab .
Forgot about this big one.... might get this one cut too..

That might even look good in a freeform pendant as it is. The face looks nicely polished and the bezel would cover the little unpolished bits down the sides. Could even get creative and put a little LED light underneath it

Great idea mate.
Hey at the location where ive found these ,there is lots more. Are nice smokeys like this worth much or is there any money to be made cutting and selling these?

tailormarc said:

Great idea mate.
Hey at the location where ive found these ,there is lots more. Are nice smokeys like this worth much or is there any money to be made cutting and selling these?

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Unfortunately not really

Smoky quartz can make a fantastic-looking gem and has just the right hardness to be used for general jewellery setting work. But it's not typically a high value gemstone, money-wise. Some extremely high-quality stones from specific locations might possibly command a little bit more..

Can be a beautiful looking stone for rings, pendants and really big ones look great in a collection.

It is a puzzling thing that a cutter is expected to drop his labour charge when they cut a stone that has less value than a diamond or sapphire. Like $40 a carat for cutting smoky quartz is too much but $40/ct for cutting sapphire is ok. It is like a mechanic working on car, his labours are the same whether it is an FJ or a Monaro. Consequently, most lesser value stones are used in cabochons that are generally done in clubs or tumbled by home enthusiasts.
Hey, I got an idea, let's send our stone parcels to Thailand to get cut really cheaply and then we can sell our finished stones for much less. arty:

Pat Hogen said:

It is a puzzling thing that a cutter is expected to drop his labour charge when they cut a stone that has less value than a diamond or sapphire. Like $40 a carat for cutting smoky quartz is too much but $40/ct for cutting sapphire is ok. It is like a mechanic working on car, his labours are the same whether it is an FJ or a Monaro. Consequently, most lesser value stones are used in cabochons that are generally done in clubs or tumbled by home enthusiasts.
Hey, I got an idea, let's send our stone parcels to Thailand to get cut really cheaply and then we can sell our finished stones for much less. arty:

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Yeah, it's true that regardless of the monetary value of the finished gem, a similar amount of skilled labour time went into it, whether it's final retail value is $50 or $5000.

I once cut a beautiful canary yellow sapphire for a lady who went and had it formally valued afterward. I got a couple of hundred bucks for cutting a stone that returned a formal valuation of $9000 (how long it would take to sell for that price might be another matter). But I put just as much time, care and attention into cutting a quartz or labrodorite gem, even though they are worth little by comparison.

Unfortunately, we just can't compete on price with places that have very cheap labour (working poverty by our standards) and a currency worth a fraction of the Aussie dollar

Another worry is automation. It will be a sad day when machines can totally replace a skilled human cutter at cutting natural rough - another human craft that has roots going back thousands of years will be forever lost as the only skill needed will be how to push a button.

Pat Hogen said:

It is a puzzling thing that a cutter is expected to drop his labour charge when they cut a stone that has less value than a diamond or sapphire. Like $40 a carat for cutting smoky quartz is too much but $40/ct for cutting sapphire is ok. It is like a mechanic working on car, his labours are the same whether it is an FJ or a Monaro. Consequently, most lesser value stones are used in cabochons that are generally done in clubs or tumbled by home enthusiasts.
Hey, I got an idea, let's send our stone parcels to Thailand to get cut really cheaply and then we can sell our finished stones for much less. arty:

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for me its about having a nice presentable piece to show what i found. Something i can look at and admire. I dont care if the cutting cost more then they are worth. The reason i was asking was because Im getting a lot of people asking to buy them rough and once cut so if i sell cut ones i dont know what something like these are worth. Last thing i want to do it rip someone off.

The question of value ultimately is with the customer, what are they willing to pay.

A higher value may be realised if you pendant set them and market them as tourist bling and you will no longer be selling quartz. Good memories are priceless.

ie. a bespoke handcrafted gemstone, unearthed in (insert location), a true treasure of the Western Australian outback

You know what they cost to collect/cut all you need is a local silversmith to set them and this should give you a minimum value to add a margin on to.

Out of interest Marc - do you ever find fully-formed quartz crystals or do they always come in irregular-shaped pieces? Not that it matters when it comes to cutting - one clean piece of material is as good as another as long as they both have decent shape and aren't too thin. Was just interested that's all.

Cheers

I think that is where the market will swing to, someday - "hand cut gemstone", just like the market for mined stone against lab created. Something I came across the other day was "hand-crafted gemstone rough", yeah well I guess it is. I am not against lab created stone, I am particularly fond of Strontium Titanate for bling return and the lack of worry about finding cracks and inclusions that appear during faceting, but please, let's be honest when marketing the stuff.

Silversmithing, yep, going out the door as well. My smith chucked it in, and others that I had known had followed suit. If I had to take up my own smithing I would need to add another room onto the house and I know where that option is going to get me.

I did hear of the 925 silver chain that had to be cut to remove a link and the result was 925 silver over lead, from overseas.

Lefty said:

Out of interest Marc - do you ever find fully-formed quartz crystals or do they always come in irregular-shaped pieces? Not that it matters when it comes to cutting - one clean piece of material is as good as another as long as they both have decent shape and aren't too thin. Was just interested that's all.

Cheers

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The ones i had cut were all from a quarry and only in broken chunks that i then tumbled .

I have another location closer to Perth where the points are super super clear. yet to have them cut but they look clearer than the quarry ones. They dont have the glow to them just sharp and clear as.
You can see the point and how i tumbled some from the same spot


Here is a vid of my finding them
https://youtu.be/Bha8ssIowoo

Nice mate! :Y: Those crystals have obviously never moved any great distance - no surface wear, sharp and shiny as.

Incidentally, though they may be relatively small I wouldn't be surprised if those crystals return some of the best faceted stones owing to the clarity. Over here in CQ, they get something called "Moranbah diamonds" which are quartz crystals found near the mining town of Mornabah. They got the name because of their exceptional clarity. I've never cut one myself but I've seen them being cut and the finished stone was bright enough to almost be mistaken for topaz.

I did hear of the 925 silver chain that had to be cut to remove a link and the result was 925 silver over lead, from overseas.

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Yep, people need to be realistic about what it is that they are getting for $19.95 from the local markets. Mate of mine is a manufacturing jeweller (still doing well, until the day they start 3D printing jewellery I guess) and he ended up in an argument with a customer who brought in a gold ring for re-sizing. She had purchased it for a very good price on ebay. As soon as he started work on it, it immediately became obvious that it was not any kind of proper jewellery gold but the owner wouldn't believe that she had been taken and had merely "gotten what she paid for".

I might get into that 3D jewellery now, before the rush comes.

Lefty said:

Nice mate! :Y: Those crystals have obviously never moved any great distance - no surface wear, sharp and shiny as.

Incidentally, though they may be relatively small I wouldn't be surprised if those crystals return some of the best faceted stones owing to the clarity. Over here in CQ, they get something called "Moranbah diamonds" which are quartz crystals found near the mining town of Mornabah. They got the name because of their exceptional clarity. I've never cut one myself but I've seen them being cut and the finished stone was bright enough to almost be mistaken for topaz.

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Yep these are some of the clearest ive ever seen. Might get a few cut i recon!

tailormarc said:

Lefty said:

Nice mate! :Y: Those crystals have obviously never moved any great distance - no surface wear, sharp and shiny as.

Incidentally, though they may be relatively small I wouldn't be surprised if those crystals return some of the best faceted stones owing to the clarity. Over here in CQ, they get something called "Moranbah diamonds" which are quartz crystals found near the mining town of Mornabah. They got the name because of their exceptional clarity. I've never cut one myself but I've seen them being cut and the finished stone was bright enough to almost be mistaken for topaz.

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Yep these are some of the clearest ive ever seen. Might get a few cut i recon!

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The clearer the quartz, the brighter it will cut in general.

Brightest one ive ever cut came home from a petrified wood and chalcedony collecting trip at Riverslea crossing. It was a pea-sized waterworn pebble that came home wedged down the tongue of my boot of all things (walking through the gravelly sand of the riverbank). I have heard of topaz being found downstream but after seeing how bright this exceptionally clear quartz pebble cut, I tend to think the "topaz" is more likely very clear quartz pebbles. The stone was an experimental cut so never quite finished but it sits on my shelf above the faceting machine, glittering wheneverI turn the light on.

Pat Hogen said:

I might get into that 3D jewellery now, before the rush comes.

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Technology marches on but some things about the future seem dystopian Eventually, we'll forget how to feed ourselves and will need robots to stick the food in our mouths for us.