⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

[GallicProspector]

Nice first stone Sneakycuttlefish. Every stone is an improvement compared to the previous one (at least in my case with my slow cutting rate).

Barney, top result as always. Where do you source your amethysts?

Just for fun, my experiment of the week end.
Diagram called "Occitanie", by P. Dubuc, on a stupid simple clear quartz (cross on the pavilion is voluntarily left frozen):

 

[Heatho]

Looks awesome GP wow, not stupid, looks bloody great.

 

[Kingsolomon]

That's a nice design GP . My stone was a rose quartz . If you want rough let me know what size and how deep the color and I'll get you some .this is also rose quartz too , think it was about 1 dollar a carat.

 

[Digginholes]

Some really nice work fellas, I really like the flower cuts barney they look awesome.

 

[SneakyCuttlefish]

Finally finished my second stone. This one turned out a heap better than the first one but it took me a long time to do. I was a bit too eager to cut the crown and forgot to polish the table. Went back to polish it and found a big mistake with the angles, anyway long story short had to re-cut and polish the table and crown. Had I known about a little itty-bitty grub screw that locked the fine tuning dial in place it wouldn't have been such a drama.

 

[Jaros]

If that's your 2nd stone the, well done. Keep going it looks like you might have a talent for it.

 

[Heatho]

Yay the postie just dropped in my latest parcel of gemstones, the Sapphires are only small ones but the others are a bit larger. I love the way they seal the box with a wax seal. Very happy with this batch. The most impressive is the 6 ray Star Sapphire, absolutely stoked with it, looks much better than in the photo.

 

[Heatho]

 

[Heatho]

Rubies before cutting.

 

[Wally69]

Great stuff Heath, how many ct is the star?

 

[Gold689]

Wow Beautiful Gems you've got there Heatho, Amazing Well Done

 

[Heatho]

Great stuff Heath, how many ct is the star?

A touch over 5ct Wally, it's one very very nice gemstone, the star rays look a bit saturated in the pic but they are actually very thin. The star centres wherever a strong light hits it and follows the light at any angle you shine it from including on the sides as a good one should.

The big teardrop cab came in at about 17ct, it was that big Blue and White striped bomb, not sure if you saw it rough but you may have, will look good on a pendant.

The star may go in a pendant but would look better in a ring I think. It's now my fav stone.

Thanks also Gold689, cheers.

 

[Hamish]

Nice stones Health, how do you tell if the sapphire is a star before it is cabbed? I am curious as to some pointers as to how to ID rough stars -- have you got before photos of that stone?

Cheers mate!

 

[Lefty]

Star sapphires typically display a bronze coloured sheen in the rough Hamish. All the ones that have displayed a good star for me showed hexagonal black sergeant stripes on a bronze-gold background when a flat face was initially ground. Got a photo of one like that somewhere, will see if I can dig it up.

 

[Heatho]

Lefty nailed it Hamish, when you move the stone under light too a lot of the time you can see a bit of an optical illusion happening on the surface of the stone. As Lefty said the stone will usually be a dark Bronze type colour with light and dark stripes.

 

[Lefty]

Hey Heatho, do you know if cabbing to a teardrop shape adversely affects the display of a star? I had a little one that was a real barstard of a shape - almost like a boomerang - and ended up cutting a little teardrop shaped stone from it. The rough displayed very strong bronze sheening but next to nothing when cabbed. I had considered doing a larger one in a square cab for a man's ring - to give it a "rugged, manly shape" - but was concerned that the corners might interfere with the star. In the end I just made it a round.

Cheers

 

[Heatho]

Lefty I just typed teardrop star Sapphire and clicked images at the top of the google page and there is a propper star Sapph that has the star effect, I guess it can work.

 

[Heatho]

Nice stones Health, how do you tell if the sapphire is a star before it is cabbed? I am curious as to some pointers as to how to ID rough stars -- have you got before photos of that stone?

Cheers mate!

Hamish I think this one has some potential as a star but it may not be. You can see the Rutile striations running across the stone, it may or may not be but I'm pretty sure it has a good chance of it.

 

[Hamish]

Thanks guys, great info, I'll head back and look at the collection and see if there is anything with the potential to cab! I didn't realise we even got stars in Aus, learn something new every day eh!

 

[Heatho]

Thanks guys, great info, I'll head back and look at the collection and see if there is anything with the potential to cab! I didn't realise we even got stars in Aus, learn something new every day eh!

The opaque/semi opaque ones even just plain old heavily included stones can make great cabs regardless, just depends on the colour or if there is likelihood of a star, if it's an attractive colour and a decent size it costs very little to have them cabbed in Thailand. That one above is 36ct, should make a nice sized finished stone and if it does reveal a star I'll be stoked.

People buy Rutilated Quartz as a gemstone, Rutilated Sapphire is nice too I reckon.