Faceting Rough - How to evaluate a stone for cutting

A great link for anyone getting into faceting gemstones.

"THE FACETING ACADEMY"
http://facetingacademy.com/learn-faceting/learn-faceting-free/rough-class/#lookaroundcolor

Great find Wal, it's the missing information from my gemstone books from the op-shop It's hard to find the information I'm after at times, when I do not know some of the correct terms, and its exactly what I needed. Thanks again

I've known of John Bailey for a great while - like six years or so. Did you check out his "sword in the stone"? Very clever trick!

Hi All, New to PA and plan to take the family to look for gemstones in September. I am not sure on how to identify between a sapphire , garnet or other gems. Are there any good books that I can buy to help me understand how. Regards Remmy-D .

That was all well and good until i read about the paper test. My favorite stone (in my avatar) looks great with a back light.
Was a little disappointed when i seen how it looked with paper under it.
No matter how many pics i took it looked too dark 8.(

Don't worry Greg, nothing wrong with a dark Sapphire, they still look great in my opinion, it's worth getting cut for sure.

Most important ... Lighting , when buying a stone . I've bought stuff that looked good at a show , only to find unexpected and undesired things in and about them in better lighting at home . Backlight for problems then white paper test .

And if you're still not satisfied there are immersion fluids. They have a high RI (refractive index). Water is about 1.34. Chose one close to the RI of the stone you want to check out. The closer the RI the more the stone will disappear revealing hidden flaws. Here are images of immersion fluid with amethyst (RI 1.54) and Topaz (RI 1.62). The fluid is 'Refractol' RI 1.57

The top image is a Topaz sold as 'flawless'. Looks Ok. In the second image we see the true story. The third image shows two Topaz and two Amethyst.

Keep chatting guys, I got some crap stones at lowmead yesterday and want work out if there Trash or Treasure

Hey KIngSoloman, can you explain the White Paper test please?
Mackka

Basically .. When put on the paper the stone ( hopefully ) will push out colour onto the paper, so a blue stone should have a blue colour on the paper . If you can only see a shadow( no blue ) then probably too dark to be worth cutting .... But.. If you think a stone has a lot of potential , then preform the stone and white paper test again.

What would be a minimum size worth working with? I know some cutter can work small stones, but in reality is the cutting worth more than the stone etc... Any comments appreciated.

I have a mix of stones but to me they are way too small? I haven't weighed any as I just felt there was no point.

DeckyDan said:

Keep chatting guys, I got some crap stones at lowmead yesterday and want work out if there Trash or Treasure

Click to expand...

Most of the Lowmead crystals will be cracked Dan. Nonetheless, I have still managed to cut some nice little stones from them.