⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

Very pleasing to the eye Gents, gives me encouragement to try harder when diggin for stones PS ( not blue metal)

ray

Heading off the the local club tomorrow to learn a bit about faceting,

Gilly47 said:

Heading off the the local club tomorrow to learn a bit about faceting,

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Good move there Gilly - it's a brilliant hobby! You won't regret taking it up

SneakyCuttlefish said:

Thanks lefty. It certainly was a challenge. Had the lap going very slow and most of the finer facets where cut on a Batt with 3000#. Even then, one side of the stone was softer and cut quickly whilst the other side was a bit harder and more manageable.

That's bloody terrible news. The person who tripped probably deserved to fall flat on their arse. I love going up there for a scratch around and I'll be really pissed off if they close it down. Probably some inner city loser who can't accept responsibility for their own safety. Actually, I'm quite surprised anyone of that calibre made it up there. Last time I was up there the track was really hard 4x4 to get in. Mind you, that was in the middle of the Wet.

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Yeah, it's a helluva track in there isn't it? I too would have thought that would have put off all but the truly dedicated fossicker.

I got some nice colourless and pale gold stuff there, nothing big. But I bloke I met there once had a bunch of big crystals between 50 and 100 carats, they were a sort of pale brown. At first glance going on the colour you would have said they were smoky quartz but there was no mistaking the topaz crystal shape.

Hi all I have just had a great weekend with a mate and his family to Nundle NSW.
We didnt go after gold as time seemed to slip away but we did go and snag some Prase.
It cleans up nicely and has such depths that it is like Opal in that it is constantly changing depending on the angle you view it.
I just grabbed a piece to rub as the small bits went into the tumbler.
It is very unassuming to look at before you start to cut into it.
Here is the before and after pics I hope they come out OK.

SneakyCuttlefish said:

20.3 carat Topaz. Turning Triangle cut. Rough was 67 carats.

Major pain in the ass to do as there was an error in the Gemcad file. Had to re-cut the pavilion to get the right meet points. Lost a a few carats. But I prefer tight shape over a big personality.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3340/1488413181_img_3654_800x797.jpg

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Is it true these go for 200 dollars per carat? If so thats massive. Did you find this or cut for a client ?

Treasure man, I am learning pricing from a gem dealer up this way and he recons I could get $350 - $400 for it at retail price. Unless I'm selling to the Chinese. Then its $700 with a 10% discount.

White topaz comes out of the ground in huge slabs in certain parts of the world so the value of rough is down as much as 50 cents a carat internationally. (thats a good price for the miner) Here the Aussie miners try to sell it for $1 a carat rough and claim you are getting a bargain. Blue topaz is very much the same because of the mass amount of irradiated material on the market. Unless of course it is big, rich colour, clean and guaranteed untreated. Then it has some value. The only valuable topaz are natural yellow/golden, pink/cherry or Imperial which is a kind of rich yellow/orange or orange/golden coloured stone.

White topaz looks fantastic when cut but is just too common to hold any significant value. Mind you this is based on internationally competitive pricing. A stone is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it so its a win if someone wants to pay the inflated Aussie prices for it.

4.3 carat Barrel Medallion cut Sapphire bomb from Inverell. Instead of cutting a cabochon I decided to try something different. Its essentially the crown of a simple barrel design cut on both sides. The facets on the outside offer some scintillation to bring out the blue. Turned out quite well considering first impression was it would be just a piece of junk.

Wan't easy though. The outer layers of the rough stone had loads of pits and cavities. Small flakes of stone kept breaking off every time I hit a flaw. Original stone was 9.6 carats. Thankfully the centre was solid and took a polish well despite all the crap inside.



With a backlight. Lot of junk inside.

Looks like you have captured a galaxy trapped inside a blue universe

Would look great in a pendant SC, well done.

Nice one there SC - it does look like a galaxy floating in a blue universe!

We facetors probably should consider more stones like that. Rutilated quartz looks great faceted in a tablet to show the rutile needles floating inside and I reckon lots of other things have interesting looking inclusions that could be showed off in a faceted stone rather than viewed as a defect.

In fact, a couple have been quite famous....

Keep up the good work Gents. Started my first Pavilion yesterday, the lessons come quick and many of them.

Started on a piece of glass I found on historical property i work at part time.

ray

I agree lefty. Some inclusions look spectacular when displayed properly. My favourite so far is the rutile needles in topaz from O'Brien's Creek. Rich redish/copper colour with the brilliance of topaz makes for a very appealing stone. I have a nice little rutilated topaz I am planning to cut soon. Still can't decide on an appropriate design yet though.

Some more stones I got back recently, I don't cut them myself I just find them. Comes from quartz crystals from S.A. that has a yellowish colour to it when compared to clear quartz. Not sure what you'd call it, probably slightly smokey/citrine. Never really thought I'd find stones here that you could actually cut, so I'm pretty happy with them.

G'day all,
Let me bump up the topic. Here's a parcel of African amethysts that I recently bought, mostly cab/carve grade, but the small ones are facet quality. Just cabbed one up today (the highlighted one in the rough), 14.75 cts rough finished to 8.5 cts (58% yield, I goofed some today). How do you like that purrrple?



It's clearer than the picture shows (need a backlit shot)



Cheers!

That's some really rich coloured Amethyst there Soda, looking great! :Y:

New member and sort of new to prospecting...parents and grandparents prospectors but never took an interest until now. Could someone please tell me what this rock/gem is please? I took a photo of it next to a jelly bean (didn't have a 5 cent piece) for perspective. Found it in my pan while prospecting in a creek at the side of the road in Savage River Tasmania.

Pieman Prospector said:

New member and sort of new to prospecting...parents and grandparents prospectors but never took an interest until now. Could someone please tell me what this rock/gem is please? I took a photo of it next to a jelly bean (didn't have a 5 cent piece) for perspective. Found it in my pan while prospecting in a creek at the side of the road in Savage River Tasmania.https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11429/1510446765_img_2142.jpg

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Most likely topaz. Google "Savage River Tasmania + topaz" and you will get several hits. I guess that you were out chasing diamonds.

Cheers

Doug

More S.A. quartz that I found myself and had cut recently.

Looking good!