⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

[Firepanther]

Yep, one you've found is worth way more than one you bought to me too. The brass monkey effect just shows how much you really love her eh???!!!

Yep. The memories that come with the gems is priceless. Friends and work colleagues ask me how much my gems are worth and I'm like clueless about it and tell them I'm not in it to make money but just enjoy finding them. It's a bonus my other half enjoys it too even though i do the hard work for her most of the time ower:

 

[Wally69]

That's come up a treat Wally, so how long and how were the meets when speed cutting? What was it 1200, 14k, 100k?

Was just saying to my wife that I need one of those punch card timers so I can track my progress. This stone I did in two sessions of about two hours each with some re-dopping time in between.

The design was chosen for speed and is very simple on the meet points, I only did 8 mains on the pavilion, followed by polished girdle facets. The flip side required four goes around on the break facets to cheat the horizontal girdle meet points into perfect place, from there it was quick to cut them down to level and the petals just needed to be cut down to the girdle as symmetry was assured by the getting the tuning right on the break facets. if they did require more work, I could have just raised the mast a touch and polished down to the meet point. The table is cut to look in proportion, so no meet points were required there.

I used a 1200/3k/100k, the stone handled the sequence wonderfully and the attention to get the 1200 meets perfect does slow it down but I did not need to correct a single facet on this stone due to getting a consistent polish by applying consistent pressure and counting the stones contact times. I had two petal facets that still had a scratch but they were removed by a couple of extra seconds without compromising the meet point.

I put the success down to this garnet being wonderfully behaved; not like the rouge sapphire sitting on the dop next to it :argh:

This shot shows the breaks and petals so you can better understand my response.

I think garnet will be my new experimenting stone as it seems to be very easy to work with :inlove:

 

[Mr Magoo]

Nice work Wally

You're become a garnet addict! I love 'em. :Y:

 

[Wally69]

 

[Lefty]

Very nice stone there Wally! erfect: erfect: erfect:

 

[Wally69]

I think I might steal the wifes iPhone, it seems to take a better photo, just need to stop the darn dust from settling in the middle of the stone 8.( looks like I have lost the before shot

1.7ct champagne zircon - modified Northern Star design - deepened to make the pink zircon darker.

 

[Lefty]

A jeweller gave me one of their anti-static dusting cloths but it still doesn;t seem to do a perfect job.

 

[Wally69]

A jeweller gave me one of their anti-static dusting cloths but it still doesn;t seem to do a perfect job.

I have one somewhere I inherited a decade ago, but cant find it. :argh:

I have had good success with isopropyl achohol spray and tissue clean followed by a squirt of metho and a t-shirt wipe. After about 60 wasted shots the odd bit of dust settles. Keep thinking, where did I put that cloth every time I get to the t-shirt stage.

 

[Dihusky]

Have to look up the Northern Star, has some lovely effects, particularly in the first shot, come up super well.

 

[Wally69]

Have to look up the Northern Star, has some lovely effects, particularly in the first shot, come up super well.

Thanks, I was a bit nervous that the extra depth on the pavilion would ruin the design but it turned out great. I think I will cut another to the intended proportions to see if it has the same effect.

You should definitely give this design a go and see the stone spun in full sunshine, it is absolutely brilliant and you can almost taste the rainbow. I will PM you details.

:inlove: Not sure what it was trying to say to me in this photo.........maybe I should call it the I love you stone

 

[goody2shoes]

Beautiful... Just beautiful... erfect:

Goody

 

[Lefty]

Nice work Wally

You're become a garnet addict! I love 'em. :Y:

Garnets are great! :Y:

 

[SinHof]

Hi Wally, long time no see, re the dust problem;what about building a mini laminar flow device with appropriate grill and a small computer fan, should not be too hard to knock something up along those lines, worth some thought to keep the dust out of your images.
Cheers, SinHof.

 

[Wally69]

Hi Wally, long time no see, re the dust problem;what about building a mini laminar flow device with appropriate grill and a small computer fan, should not be too hard to knock something up along those lines, worth some thought to keep the dust out of your images.
Cheers, SinHof.

Thanks Mate, it has been far too long between nuggets.

I just happen to have reclaimed another computer fan.

Have some plans for building a mini light box, was thinking it had the same functional design as my biltong box but without the fan. Think you are on a winner, might combine both, then I will be able to use it to make rabbit or frog-leg biltong when I am not photographing the gems. layful:

 

[Mackka]

My hardiest congratulations Wally , that it just amazing, magnificent, and glorious.
Mackka :gemstone: :gemstone: :gemstone:

 

[Wally69]

My hardiest congratulations Wally , that it just amazing, magnificent, and glorious.
Mackka :gemstone: :gemstone: :gemstone:

Thanks Mackka, still trying to come to terms with outcome myself.

I had a look around the city at all the high end diamond jewellers today and this stone has colour and brilliance that make them look ordinary. I think the good-old Aussie zircon is a very underrated gemstone........or we need to start our own cartel to drive their value up. They have to be the next best thing to a diamond.

 

[Pat Hogen]

"I think the good-old Aussie zircon is a very underrated gemstone " there is no greater truth than that. :Y:

 

[Jaros]

Very, very nice job Wally. erfect:

 

[Wally69]

:argh: :skull: :brokenh: :argh:

The Superman garnet I finished last night wants to dance but does not want to be photographed this morning. It is raining, so the light levels are low

 

[Lefty]

Love garnets! Did you inscribe a superman symbol into the back Wally?