Looking for a great gem cutter to cut 200 gems

]Here you go guys glen innes under one ct glen innes zircons more then 10 to 40 hey good joke lol and its about colours and not cut yet

Got valuable Australian glen innes stones not 10sdollars a ct more 70 to 230 per ct stones wanting professional gem cutting there my small stones 1 to 3 ct but my test topaz is this

Sorry Goldinbrisbane but I dont know know how to put in the direct links to Dihuskys cut stones.
Here is a pyrope garnet cut by Dihusky that my wife wears. If you look in Lapidary / Stones I have cut by lefty there are some other examples. Ive pretty much had two topaz cut from rough not dissimilar to the ones youve shown that turned out beautifully. 4.5 ct and 8 ct cut weight.

goldinbrisbane said:

Thanks Marty checked there is there no professional gem cutter on here

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Yes g-I-b, I am a professional cutter and my rate for the last 2 years has been $45ct (and it should be more and will be more), obviously a ct cut stone is going to cost $45, this means that there is more value for me in cutting my own stones, having them set in jewellery and receiving much more than the $45 a ct.

Rough has risen in price, according to Gemfest 2019, so naturally cutting fees will rise as well.

I actually do not know why Australian gemstone prices lag behind American prices but I am sure that Amethyst rough is not worth $4 - $5 a ct, not to me and not to ebay.com.au but sapphire at $500 ct cut is another story.

The end result to my rave is that contract cutters may receive a set rate to cut stones for people, as in $1k a week for a set amount of stones; top cutters, competition cutters will charge a lot more than my $45ct. and, honestly, I am up there with the best cutters in Qld according to a respected gemmologist.

One cannot get better than near perfection and there are cutters here that can get there. One would need a 20x loupe or microscope to pull them down, if one had that sort of nerve.

If you want big bucks for them, maybe and it is a big MAYBE, get them cut and take them Overseas to the likes of the Tucson Show in Arizona... A lot of Aussies are trying that now... Some successfully some don't cover their Expenses...
Problem is can you Prove exactly where they came from? and is there a market for them?... Only rarer Aussie Goodies get big bucks now like 'Sunstone' from the NT and Opal... You will never get 1980's prices again...

Aussie Sapphire stopped mining Sapphires quite a few years ago as it was just not worth it any more... More $ in Lapidary Gear and Cattle... And a lot of Jewellery Places prefer Synthetic over Real now...

I know quite a few in the Wholesale trade and they won't touch Cut or Raw Stones now... More $ in Rocks, Minerals and Crystals...

LW....

Pat Hogen said:

goldinbrisbane said:

Thanks Marty checked there is there no professional gem cutter on here

Click to expand...

Yes g-I-b, I am a professional cutter and my rate for the last 2 years has been $45ct (and it should be more and will be more), obviously a ct cut stone is going to cost $45, this means that there is more value for me in cutting my own stones, having them set in jewellery and receiving much more than the $45 a ct.

Rough has risen in price, according to Gemfest 2019, so naturally cutting fees will rise as well.

I actually do not know why Australian gemstone prices lag behind American prices but I am sure that Amethyst rough is not worth $4 - $5 a ct, not to me and not to ebay.com.au but sapphire at $500 ct cut is another story.

The end result to my rave is that contract cutters may receive a set rate to cut stones for people, as in $1k a week for a set amount of stones; top cutters, competition cutters will charge a lot more than my $45ct. and, honestly, I am up there with the best cutters in Qld according to a respected gemmologist.

One cannot get better than near perfection and there are cutters here that can get there. One would need a 20x loupe or microscope to pull them down, if one had that sort of nerve.

Click to expand...

I would rate a professional gem cutters skill at least 20% above a tradesman - at least $1,000 per day is your true value Pat

Yes goldinbrisbane I have only been cutting since 2018, but some can take to a craft like a duck to water, I'll let others judge my work including respected members here and in the AFG. I set myself high standards, always have done as I want clients to come back.

There are some exceptional cutters on this forum. Being a 'professional gem cutter' means nothing as there are two levels, commercial cutters that can cut a lot of stones in a short amount of time, but don't worry about accurate meets as they won't be noticed by the average punter, and precision cutters who cut the top end stones.

Both cut for a living, a commercial cutter knows a lot of jewelers don't scrutinize a gem under a 10x Belomo, because the buyers don't either, all the want is blingy little stones, apart from the fact that a 1ct gem it too small to pick faults on, whereas on a big gem missed meets, wrong angles, poor polish etc can scream at you.

The difference... cutters on this forum will probably be happy to give a client a 10X Belomo as they are proud to be precision cutters, and if you want precision your going to have to pay for that level of skill.

The real issue when you have a bucket of stone is defining where your interests are

You could maximise profit, maximise turnover, maximise quality, maximise uniqueness, minimise disposal time, minimise capital investment

How do you optimise these factors.......not sure you can

The photo of the eBay zircon is a good example of attempting to minimise capital investment and maximise profit ..... will he minimise disposal time ? Quality has certainly been minimised, but some buyers may not give a rats, to them it represents an opportunity to secure uniqueness

I would class this stone as shaped not cut and it is essentially worthless to me other than being a wasted natural resource that could be re-cut into something grossly overcapitalised and much smaller.



In saying that, I have a bucket of stones that would take me 10 lifetimes to cut, the value proposition I am currently contemplating leads me down the commercial overseas cutting exercise with an eBay dump at wishful prices with best offers considered, or investing significant capital into transforming a few of them into precious Australiana and marketing the rest as rough stones with the option to emulate their uniquely transformed cousins.

Either way the choice is mine, the risk is mine and the financial rewards are completely uncertain. So ATM I just look at my bucket of stones and surf the forum. layful:

Thanks Martyz yes checked out Lefty cutting skills and was very very impressed he is very good

Wally69 its about the colour of stones and where there from as every place in the world gems come from range in colours every place is different and glen innes sapphires zircons come in amazing colours it's like Tassie for sapphires are a really dark blue hard to find lite blue or green or yellow there where in glen innes its hard to find dark blue sapphires most are lite blue or green or tiger patten so yellow and green mix or lite blue yellow mix and zircons are amazing colours you don't often see all I am trying to say is stones are about where they come from and colours you can be the worsted cutter in the world but the colour of the stone is it

My family and I have a chest back in Tasmania at parents place the chest is 75cm long 45cm wide and has the last 30 years in bottles of every fossiking trip we did in Tassie and nsw Glen Innes/ Kings gate / Torrington/ emmaville/ wellingrove New England areas couldn't tell how many stones a lot 3 two week fossiking trips per year for 30 years but Glen Innes Dwyers1 property was the best before they stopped Yarrow creek gave great stones over the years

Goldinbrisbane Lefty is another good cutter on this forum however I was trying to direct you to some of Dihuskys stones that are shown on the same topic that Lefty started. I think Lefty is up in Central Qld. Sorry about the confusion.
It sounds like you have an amazing collection and most likely a lot of fond memories associated with the time time spent holidaying with family. Dont take this the wrong way but it comes across as though you have a substantial quantity of potential value in rough gems that you want turned into actual value in cut gems. Given the amount of time it takes to facet a rough stone in order to realise its maximum worth as a cut gem, an Australian cutter will probably end up getting an hourly rate that most of us wouldnt work for in another occupation, if they are cutting someone elses stones. So why would they bust their hump making someone else rich? They probably wont.
I think that you might need to be practical about what you are trying to achieve with what youve got. If you have some unique and valuable stones that are worth investing in, then invest in a top cutter and pay a fair rate. They will value add to your top stones if this your motivation. If not, then send them to Thailand where you can probably get a satisfactory result at a few dollars per carat. However, a fair to poor cut and a fair to poor polish will reduce their value.
Just so that you know, I started off on this forum with a similar enquiry to yours only without the quantity. Im not an expert but Ive done my research when comes to getting the results I want with my stones and Im grateful to all of those who have helped an advised me along the way.
Good luck on your journey.

Thanks Martyz

No worries Goldinbrisbane. Its a good thing were not all sitting on a treasure chest like yours or they would be worth peanuts. Make the most out of your best ones and hold on to the memories. :Y:

Great advice Martyz.

All the stones in your photos look facetable, which I assume is what you're after. My experience is that even quite small stones (0.20+ct) can still be precision cut. If you were planning on selling in volume then 'commercial' cut would suffice. If you want a better return then precision cut is necessary.

I have a colleague who trained a group of cutters in SriLanka, they use Stirling machines so produce good quality cuts on a financially economic basis, much better quality than Jampeg cutting from Thailand. I've seen some of their work and it's good commercial cutting, as good as any commercial cut from Aus.

I am not sure what they charge but can find out. This would be a much more economic way of getting a large quantity of stone cut, BUT it would be important that the stones be graded beforehand as there is no point in sending poor quality cracked and included stones.

This would probably be the best approach for stones 3ct and lower. Larger stones can be precision cut in Aus.