⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

[Mr Magoo]

I ve been looking for that. Design . Have you got. A pic or a link for me?

All aboard the Waybackmachine.

http://web.archive.org/web/20051125032012/http://www.faceters.com/designs/light_house.shtml

 

[Kingsolomon]

Just have to spend more time on the pre polish /polish stage . Maybe more the latter, lefty , And even then...Told you didn't I , has its problems. Thanks for the design guys

 

[Explorer385]

Hi all,
I have 20 sapphires and zircons found at Grabben Gullen away being cut at the moment. Will post photos when I get them back.
I have lots and lots of rough that looks black but some of it could be blue. I check them using a magnifying light on a mirror with either a 500 watt work light shing on the mirror or a 40 watt led work light on the mirror.

What do others use to check for transparency?
Sorry mods if this is not appropriate for this particular thread.
Terry

 

[Lefty]

Unfortunately, if the rough stone looks black it will almost certainly cut a black stone Terry, even if it is in fact deep blue. A deep blue sapphire with a mid-green to olive green cross will cut a stone as black as a bat's arse. If the stone is blue on blue rather than blue on green you might get a little more colour out of it.

I cut a little deep blue sapphire the other week, hold it up to the sun or a strong backlight and it looks magnificent - look at it any other way and it doesn't look much different to a piece of polished black spinel. This is not to say that they are worthless - my father has some virtually black (very deep blue) faceted sapphires with official valuation certificates that have pretty ridiculous figures on them, natural sapphires have value in their own right owing to their overall rarity.

But now that I facet myself, the mid to lighter greens and yellows seem much more appealing than the dark blues. If you can find a lighter shade of blue they will look very nice.

 

[Heatho]

In fact the darkest blues were all the rage in France 100 years ago, the darker the better...... Not these days though..... The white paper test is a good one, it will certainly show which stones have the best potential. The test is simply putting a stone on white paper under light, if you can see through it the clarity is good, if not it's not so good but can probably still be faceted. I like dark blue stones so I still send darker ones off to be cut.

 

[Lefty]

Showed some stones to a co-worker the other week - she picked out a dark midnight blue sapphire as her favourite even though there were lighter colours there. The eye of the beholder!

Moral of the story is, you should never chuck anything away.

One day, smokey amethyst from Lowmead will become all the rage with the Saudi royal family, making me a millionaire

 

[Heatho]

That's so true Lefty especially with gemstones, I've found that more often than not the ladies seem to prefer the nice dark rich blues, whenever they see one they always say "ooohh I like that one" and it's always a dark royal or midnight blue type.

 

[Explorer385]

Thanks Guys,
I have a range of colors being cut at the moment, although I have many many other stones which I am sure in the hands of someone who wanted to cut them would make nice pieces.
I am getting the current lot cut to put into rings and settings for my wife who wants her wedding ring remodeled and some earrings and also for my daughter who is getting married next year. My wife wants stones that I found in her jewellery (after all she loses me when I get the fossicking bug), and I thought it a nice touch to do something for my daughter on her wedding day.
I think the fact that they are personal makes them much more valuable - especially sentimentally.
I am going to check all of my set aside stones again now to see what might be hidden....
Terry

 

[Lefty]

Yep - there's just something special about a stone you found yourself

 

[Explorer385]

Prior to me catching the fossicking bug we bought my wife's engagement ring (some 29 years ago) and paid lots of money for a very pale blue (almost sky blue) Ceylon Sapphire of around a carat and a bit. I like the stone but it doesn't quite grab me in the same way as a deeper blue stone does.
I also notice jewellery being worn by clients and I just love some of the older settings with darker sapphires in them.
I do really like darker parti colors as well with yellow turning through into greens and blues.
I find a lot of green stones at GG but not sure that they are sapphires. I think they may be tourmaline or zircons. Any ideas?
Terry

 

[Lefty]

Do you have any pics of them Terry?

 

[Twapster]

Prior to me catching the fossicking bug we bought my wife's engagement ring (some 29 years ago) and paid lots of money for a very pale blue (almost sky blue) Ceylon Sapphire of around a carat and a bit. I like the stone but it doesn't quite grab me in the same way as a deeper blue stone does.
I also notice jewellery being worn by clients and I just love some of the older settings with darker sapphires in them.
I do really like darker parti colors as well with yellow turning through into greens and blues.
I find a lot of green stones at GG but not sure that they are sapphires. I think they may be tourmaline or zircons. Any ideas?
Terry

GG Greens like this or are they lighter??

I certainly like the darker blues....

Which cut to this...........

Love the dark blues!!!!

 

[Explorer385]

Do you have any pics of them Terry?

No photos yet, just asked my dear wife if she would take some for me so as soon as available I will post them.

The stones I am finding are not the green or parti colourbond sapphires that I see in the photos above but are more of an olive green, sometimes quite angular with striations. On occasion I have found brighter greens with the type of pitted surface often seen in spinel. These later ones may well be sapphires but the olive ones have me scratching my head. I would have thought green tourmaline.

Terry

 

[Explorer385]

I have now read every single post in this thread and I am totally in awe of you guys who can facet. Kingsolomon - I have never seen such beauty as come from your machine. I may have to seek out your services as well!

Terry

 

[Lefty]

It's an excellent hobby Terry. I've chased rocks and coloured pebbles around the bush since I was old enough to tag along with dad but it was only about 18 months ago at the age of 40 that I decided it was long overdue time for me to start learning how to do something with them. I joined my local lapidary club and started off learning to cabochon. I ended up buying a cabbing machine and then started learning to facet at the club and have now bought my own faceting machine. Silver/goldsmithing is the last thing I have yet to start learning in earnest.

Setting yourself up with the equipment is not cheap but is very well worth it.

 

[Explorer385]

Yes, I saw some of yours in the thread too Lefty and I must say you are doing well. I am going to have to divest myself of a few hobbies if I am going to start anything else. I do a fair bit of tumbling, I fossick for gold and gems, I am a mad fisherman - sold my boat but now kayaking and I ride a motorbike in my spare time.
I have a pretty well equipped garage workshop as I run a mowing business and I work part time at Bunnings.
That all being the case I think I'll get you guys to do my faceting - although I am going to join the Canberra Lapidary Club in the v near future!
Terry

 

[Heatho]

Prior to me catching the fossicking bug we bought my wife's engagement ring (some 29 years ago) and paid lots of money for a very pale blue (almost sky blue) Ceylon Sapphire of around a carat and a bit. I like the stone but it doesn't quite grab me in the same way as a deeper blue stone does.
I also notice jewellery being worn by clients and I just love some of the older settings with darker sapphires in them.
I do really like darker parti colors as well with yellow turning through into greens and blues.
I find a lot of green stones at GG but not sure that they are sapphires. I think they may be tourmaline or zircons. Any ideas?
Terry

Could be Olivine, Tourmaline and Enstatite those green bits. There has been a bit of talking about it here in the past, this is what Fossicker_ACT had to say on the subject.

"I think you have olivine, sapphires and enstatite in the little greens from Grabben Gullen. The enstatite is often found with olivine may be olive green to brown, transparent with striations. A google will give you pics looking very like it.
The pics of cut stones shows some Andersine Feldspar I have recently cut from the pale grey/blue material some have been reporting from Grabben Gullen as well."

 

[Sodabowski]

Lefty I didn't know that petalite could have those delicate pink hues, more power to you
As for the dark blue saphs, indeed they had their glory days here in France, since all we can find locally is, well, small dark blue saphs

Terry, tourmalines are very easy to identify, since most display a strong dichroism: rotate each of your pieces in front of your computer screen (it's polarized light) and check out if you can see a color change depending on the axis of the stone (all the way around) like these two (among hundreds of others) specimens of my stock from Africa - the little inserted picture at the bottom of each is taken perpendicular to the axis of the main shot:

If you have a jewelry loupe (cheap on ebay, enough for the matter, I bought several for like $2 each) you can look inside for distinguishing features: saphs grow on a very peculiar pattern that you can often see. I bought this very specimen exactly for that matter:

I don't have any Aussie zircons on hand but AFAIK you won't see any of these behaviours with them.

 

[Explorer385]

Prior to me catching the fossicking bug we bought my wife's engagement ring (some 29 years ago) and paid lots of money for a very pale blue (almost sky blue) Ceylon Sapphire of around a carat and a bit. I like the stone but it doesn't quite grab me in the same way as a deeper blue stone does.
I also notice jewellery being worn by clients and I just love some of the older settings with darker sapphires in them.
I do really like darker parti colors as well with yellow turning through into greens and blues.
I find a lot of green stones at GG but not sure that they are sapphires. I think they may be tourmaline or zircons. Any ideas?
Terry

Could be Olivine, Tourmaline and Enstatite those green bits. There has been a bit of talking about it here in the past, this is what Fossicker_ACT had to say on the subject.

"I think you have olivine, sapphires and enstatite in the little greens from Grabben Gullen. The enstatite is often found with olivine may be olive green to brown, transparent with striations. A google will give you pics looking very like it.
The pics of cut stones shows some Andersine Feldspar I have recently cut from the pale grey/blue material some have been reporting from Grabben Gullen as well."

Thanks for that - it gels with the fact that there appear to be 3 different stone types, a vivid transparent green stone, a blue / green / yellow combo (sapphires I am sure) and the olive with definite striations which is usually a crystal longer than it is wide.
Once I have photos I will post pics. Never seen a photo of Enstatite but will google to see.

Terry

 

[Explorer385]

Twapster - your photo of the green blue sapphire above has light shining up through some type of lens. Is that the bottom of a glass with a torch beneath it?
Terry