⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

[Salutations]

Keep us informed on that one, sounds like a cool project, <3 the irony, and that does indeed /will make a great dragon eye....Out of curiousity, could you lay a gem inside something like that?

 

[Dughug]

A stone intarsia dragon would look cool.

 

[Sodabowski]

@Salutations: my jeweler of a sister could (but a tiny one only). I'll leave it as is though, I love the flash and slight blur in this opal, which makes it perfect for the job.
Dughug spon on, mate

 

[Lefty]

Love that colour!

 

[Sodabowski]

MOAR opal goodness, from Mexico this time. Mx honey opal with a few dendrites, I cut and cabbed the highlighted portion of the rough:

Which turned out into this:

The picture doesn't show the clarity of this cab, it's actually quite gemmy, if not for a veil and a few small clouds under the dendrite. My fingers are showing through

Now that I have my cabbing modus operandi well defined (chinese 600 grit grinding wheel for starters, 1k sandpaper on a gum mandrel on the Dremel, then leather with 10K diamond paste, then buffing wheel with the same 10k diamond paste, and call it the day). Still small scale cabbing though, I can't compete

Oh sorry for that one :8

 

[GallicProspector]

Bravo, nice little cab!
I'd like to see it mounted on a ring.

 

[excalibur63]

I am looking for colored roughs (smokey, amethyst, topaz, zircon...), I do not like white transparent quartz, I do not have the same excitement when I remove the dop as with the last colored stone I cut.
Any advice (website, shop in NSW?)?

Hi G.P. Did you have any luck getting on to any rough to cut?

 

[Bacchus]

First time I have read through this thread , seriously impressed with all your work , thanks for a great share

Cheers

 

[GallicProspector]

I am looking for colored roughs (smokey, amethyst, topaz, zircon...), I do not like white transparent quartz, I do not have the same excitement when I remove the dop as with the last colored stone I cut.
Any advice (website, shop in NSW?)?

Hi G.P. Did you have any luck getting on to any rough to cut?

Yes, I have been lucky recently with some donations at the club... smoky, citrine, garnets, opals... I also have a couple of nice sapphires, but I am not ready yet to cut them (shape is a bit funny, and one of them needs to be correctly oriented to let light go through).
I have found nothing interesting on the internet (ebay, etsy, dealers), it is either (very) bad quality (ebay) or really expensive (specialised rough dealers). The best is to visit cutter's shops and be member of a club.

It could be interesting if enough people are interested into amethyst to order a big lot directly to the mine in Bolivia. That is what they did on a french forum, and the quality of the stones is incredible and the price OK. But you need to order a lot, so only OK if enough people are willing to take part to the order.

Now I need time to facet, which is complicated at the moment (traveling a lot at the moment).

 

[Sodabowski]

I have found nothing interesting on the internet (ebay, etsy, dealers), it is either (very) bad quality (ebay) or really expensive (specialised rough dealers).

Dude, I've got a bunch of excellent quality rough that I bought on ebay over the last ten years. Thing is, you have to hunt down the real deal! I actually got far better prices on ebay for really flawless material (10x loupe) than on any of the mineral shows that I've attended! It's hard, but not impossible, you have to create yourself a network of serious sellers with quality rough.

 

[Kingsolomon]

Tourmaline and garnets , havnt been many cut stones here do I'll put up a few , still can't take photos to do justice though!

Barney

 

[Sodabowski]

Whoa Barney. Love those tourmalines! what size is the bicolor btw?

 

[Kingsolomon]

Think that's about 1.4 c .... Pity can't get better photo . Especially the rhodilite garnets. Soon come..only one of the greens sold so far if interested

 

[Sodabowski]

Interested indeed mate. PM?

 

[Varts]

I wonder where you been barney.
Nice ,cheers for the pics

 

[Heatho]

Fantastic work Barney, they look excellent. Was hoping you had done some Tourmaline.

 

[Martin]

Cut my first Opal a couple weeks back and just managed to take a photo of it

Not the best photo but good enough to see a bit of colour. About the size of a 5 cent coin...

 

[Dughug]

Nice, looks like it has a good play of colour - Where did it come from? Coober Pede?

 

[Sodabowski]

Congrats on a nice achievement! There sure is a lot of fire in that stone, needs some sunlight and a pair of eyes to be appreciated in its full glory I guess.

 

[Martin]

Yeah it's from Coober Pedy. Looks great in the sun.

This is the first of many I will cut.