Sneaky Gems.

Looks awesome, would be interesting to see on a larger stone. 121 facets on a stone that size, must have been almost crosseyed by the end

Going to publish the cutting details??

Dihusky said:

Looks awesome, would be interesting to see on a larger stone. 121 facets on a stone that size, must have been almost crosseyed by the end

Going to publish the cutting details??

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Exactly! We need to know.

Lefty said:

Very nice there SC :Y:

Glen Huntly sells some excellent garnet rough, though I'm not sure how you go about getting it without meeting him face to face. I got mine from him at the Anakie Gemfest a little while ago. I think at least one of the rough dealers would mail you a parcel of stones and you could select out which one/s you wanted and then mail the rest back.

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[email protected] - Glenn Huntly

Thanks for the feed back and the contact guys. Always appreciate it.

As with most of my new designs I won't release them until i have fully tested them out under a heap of diffrent conditions first. I'd hate to be responsible for a design that destroyed a pricey stone.

I certainly intend on sharing it but just need to cut a few diffrent stones first and finish refining the cutting sequence and notes. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

Great job, as always, Sneaky C.
Love your work.

Looks beautiful mate.
Mackka :gemstone:

Mmmmm Garnets... My Fav... :Y:

LW....

LoneWolf said:

Mmmmm Garnets... My Fav... :Y:

LW....

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me too :Y:

With the arrival of twin boys I haven't cut a stone in months! So good to finally be back on the machine.

Thought I might start out with a favourite. My signature Valais Fancy Trillion (named after the Valais canton in Switzerland). I ran the design back through the new Gem Cuts Studio program. The rendering is far superior to the old GemRay and it makes a big difference finding the optimal angles.

Just a small topaz from O'briens. I'm planning on cutting a string of matching stones for a bracelet design.

Nice one SC :Y: And congratulations as well

Congratulations SC. Awesome stone as well.

Wow, what a beautiful stone! :gemstone: :gemstone: :gemstone:

Masterfull work.

Congratulations Sneaky, twins eh... they'll keep you on your toes as they grow up!! Love the trillion as well. :gemstone:

I can just imagine a NSW diamond cut like that!!!

Love it. Makes me want to get out there and find some more of those underrated stones. :Y:

As my regular followers have probably guessed by now.... I essentially have topaz on tap. All from the Mt Surprise area. I was going through a fresh bag of the goods this morning and picked out a few odd pieces that are a good show case of what I call the O'Briens Rainbow.

There is one color missing from this line up. That is the ever elusive Green topaz which has been rumored to be found in the area. Though I have to admit, I have handle many kilos of these stones and have never come across one that I would consider a proper green. The vast majority of the stones found out there fall into these color ranges with similar low saturation's. The rich colored stones are much harder to find as much of the best pay-dirt has already been dug multiple times over the past few decades. For example, a strong blue topaz that will cut a rich stone averaging 10 carats or more appears every 1 in 10,000 stones of comparable size.

In the image below is a very interesting stone on the far left. This piece exhibits a pleasant Imperial orange color. Exceptionally clean and weighs in at 32 carats. I have spent a lot of time studying this piece to determine if the color is actually real or a result of a stained skin. To be honest I just can't tell. This piece will be cut into a very carefully calibrated Red Dawn Brilliant design. I suspect that I won't be so lucky and once cutting begins it will turn out to be a standard clear topaz. Best to keep my expectations low.

After all, the odds of a excellent quality natural Imperial Topaz coming from the O'Briens creek area is roughly 1 in 250,000 of comparable size.

Nice line-up :inlove:

Have you thought of putting them through a tumbler, a couple of microns off the surface would not affect gem yield but potentially remove any skin effect.

That piece is really interesting SC - here's hoping that the colour goes more than skin deep! erfect:

I've never been fortunate enough to find any strongly coloured topaz in my fossicking trips while up your way. Found some really nice clean colourless material ans a couple of smaller blues and some very pale gold stuff. Some of the most interesting stuff I saw there was shown to me (think I've told this story before) by another digger at Mount Gibson - they were large 50ct+ - light brown crystals that you would have said were smoky quartz, except that the well-formed topaz crystal shape was obvious.

You talk about Blue Topaz Sneaky, when I was in Stanthorpe over Christmas, the quarry producing stone for the new road Junction opened up a seam of Blue Topaz, but none of the locals are saying what happened to it