Taste the rainbow (but please don't actually lick this)
A video showing off the insane rainbow sparkles from my faceted x-cube! Please see my other post for details on the material and cut.
I decided to try faceting an x-cube! X-cubes are basically fancy glass, so the material itself has little value, but the crazy colors they throw around when faceted really make them a fun material to experiment with.
For those curious, I oriented the X on my girdle, at 96 and 48.
Here is the link to the still photo
And here's a photo of the original material
Material: x-cube (dichroic glass) Measurements: 5.990 ct, 12.47 mm x 12.41 mm Design: Heart of Nines by Robert Strickland
You also have a decreased risk of ovarian cancer if you completely remove your fallopian tubes, and it doesn't require an 18.75 year financial, emotional, medical, and time investment to gain.
The faceting community would welcome anyone who wants to create a wine pairing guide for our lickable rocks.
Our girl just had a TPLO in January. The day she comes home, have zero plans and take off work. Your pup will need your companionship because they will feel so traumatized and confused. The next day was a lot better, she was bearing just a little bit of weight.
My dog is always tough and pretends she has no pain, coupled with the pain pills she acted like she could run marathons a week in. It was A LIE and we had to put her on anti anxiety meds to chill her out so she didn't damage her hardware. 12 year old dogs should not have zoomies but she just felt that good. 😩 Don't be shy asking for anti-anxiety meds to mellow your pup out if she's normally an energetic mess. It helps a lot.
Jumping on furniture was also a problem. We ended up putting our mattress on the floor and sleeping there for six weeks so she wouldn't jump on the bed. We also bought dog beds and put her favorite blankets on them in EVERY room to bait her into not jumping. It mostly worked. Mostly.
We're two months in now and she's doing awesome. She had a bad few days last week, after sleeping on it funny, that scared me because she refused to use the leg at first but she just needed time to heal from her self-inflicted discomfort and she's walking normally right now.
You're question has seriously amazing timing. Two weeks ago I would have answered you with "several thousand dollars" because the machines that were on the market are all very expensive.
However, last week a passionate faceter came up with an economic solution for those who don't have thousands to throw at a fancy machine. By modifying an unusable machine from Amazon, you can make it a viable option for faceting and it costs about $500. It will be without bells and whistles but it's perfectly usable.
https://store.turtleshoard.com/pages/cutkit-one-get-started-faceting-for-under-500
The only other thing you would need to budget for is your rough, and that's only expensive if you want it to be. If you have local metaphysical shops near you, they often sell quartz pebbles for like $5 and I faceted several of those as my first stones. 😉
Of course, if you want to try before you buy you could look for a local lapidary club or gem and mineral society in your city - send them an email and ask if they know anyone who teaches faceting. I did this and I was very happy to have the experience!
I have been excitedly waiting for you to post your moissanite results!! It's gorgeous, excellent work! That sparkle is really something isn't it?
I'm not actually sure. Typically faceting uses water to keep the stone cool while grinding. The water would dissolve the sugar and the friction heat would melt and move the candy ever so slightly so I'd never get a perfect polish or accurate meetpoints. If an oil coolant was used, I'm not sure the stone would be edible after... And that doesn't even touch on what a nightmare it would be to clean sugar out of my equipment.
Conceptually, with a lot of foresight, you might be able to do a really crappy faceting of a piece of candy. Realistically it's a nightmare idea and an expensive mess.
I faceted a Jolly Rancher!
Okay not really! It's just nanosital, which is a synthetic material very similar to glass. Gemstones always look alarmingly tasty, but this one was so reminiscent of a green Jolly Rancher when I polished it that I just had to give it an appropriate staging.
Design is "Green Lion" by Scott Laborie - several other faceters had been talking about this design as one of their favorites and after cutting it, I can see why! Strongly recommended by me now as well :) 24.0 cts, 19.6 x 12.7 mm
(Only one Jolly Rancher was harmed in the making of this photo op)
Spinny video can be found here, if you want to see it in sparkly action (and a nice proportionate girdle): https://pxlmo.com/p/meggied90/675122420686447993
It's not a silly question at all 😄 faceting is one of those rare hobbies to stumble across in the real world.
For perspective, this stone took me about 8 hours to cut, so this little comment probably makes the execution sound simpler than it is. Most faceters use a diagram to cut which tells them the precise angle as well as location on the the stone to cut that angle.
We glue our uncut stone to a stick, called a "dop", to attach it to our angle machine.
We have spinning discs, called "laps" that are basically like sandpaper but made with diamonds instead of sand. When we cut the stone we start at very low grit laps which will cut fast but leave behind deep, rough scratches, then we progress to finer and finer grit laps until the diamond scratches are so microscopic that to a 10x magnification the stone still looks flawlessly polished.
We do this grinding technique to one half of the stone at a time, typically the pavilion (the backside of the gem) first and then the crown (top half) second.
Crylos has actually posted a much more in depth how-to earlier in this community if you want to drive deeper into the rabbit hole of faceting.
In this stone, the frosted facets are actually un-polished areas of the stone, so the snowflake you see is actually very fine scratches that aren't bouncing light correctly, creating the "line" appearance. There's multiple facets on the crown, so it is bouncing the "line" appearance through different angles, making it look way more complex than it actually is.
Here's a photo of the frosting lines on the pavilion. Deceptively simple compared to what you see on the final product, isn't it? 🤭
Frosting an aquamarine
I saw another faceter experimenting with frosting the edges between facets and the result was so intriguing I decided to copy the idea. It created such a cool snowflake effect in this aquamarine!
I finally have a gem that is showcased better as a still photo than a video. 🤯
5.94 cts, 10.78mm
Design (unfrosted) is Sparkle Six by Wayne Emery (can be found on the USFG website)
Massive blue lab spinel
No spinny video this time... I am working on my camera set up and this video in the sunlight did the stone more justice than the spinning plate did.
Just finished faceting this monster over the weekend. This thing was so dang easy to polish it felt a little suspicious if I am being perfectly honest. Overall I am extremely happy with my results. Even the girdle!
!square blue gemstone sitting in the nook of a tree
12.3 cts, 12.4mm, design is Jumper by Arya Akhavan. The rough was acquired from Tom's Box of Rocks.
For synthetics I have two go-to vendors.
https://store.turtleshoard.com Turtle's Hoard stocks a lot of weird, interesting, science-y facet worthy materials. The Christmas Garnet is worth a gander, I've got a piece of that I'm holding on to for a rainy day.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TomsBoxofRocks Tom sells more "traditional" synthetic material, like corundum, CZ, and nanosital. He has a lot and you can find some cool color change and bicolor versions. I find his corundum is competitively priced with Joe Henley so check them both when you're shopping.
I had this vendor recommended to me by my mentor, and recently bought from him: https://www.westerngem.com His website doesn't display well on mobile, the pictures rearrange in strange ways, it's better with a desktop browser. He sent me a complimentary citrine when I placed my last (rather large) order. Everything was exactly as described and the topaz was even more blue than the picture suggested!
Joe Henley is an amazing resource! Everything I've gotten from him has always been on point. I just wish his shop didn't auto-sort with most expensive first because it is such a tease 😭
Well in that case…!
https://store.turtleshoard.com
His synthetic stocks vary but if you’re nerdy, you’ll find lots of weird and cool things to facet. I faceted the PET scan LYSO pixel for my stepmom who is a doctor and she geeked out SO hard.
This particular rough was his needled moissanite. I really want to try his dichroic next!
I'm a sucker for a princess cut, and this one is gorgeous! I haven't yet cut zircon but I have my first rough to experiment with, any forewarning/advice you'd like to share before I find things out the hard way? 😂
I've been wanting moissanite rough for a bit, and there's a vendor who specializes in synthetic stuff who stocked this particular rough piece. I don't want to test the boundaries of this sub's rules but if you want to know the vendor's name you can DM me.
As much as I profess to hate faceting it, I am low-key wanting more rough so I can cut more sparkly things 😍 foul seductress, why must thy rough be so ridiculously expensive per gram!
Moissanite is so sparkly!
I have just finished faceting my first piece of #moissanite! This material is quite literally very hard (mohs 9.25, a diamond is mohs 10) so the #faceting took longer than "softer" #gemstones I've cut in the past. 7.98 mm, 2.84 cts, design is Mind Games by Arya Akhavan (modified for better light r...
I just tried cutting moissanite for the first time and goodness gracious, it took forever at the prepolish and polish steps, I assume because of the mohs hardness. After spending ungodly hours on that polish I will never again complain about polishing quartz.
I know, I know - FAT GIRDLE. It doesn't look so comically big on the dop, I swear my camera adds 0.1 mm!
7.98 mm, 2.84 cts, design is Mind Games by Arya Akhavan
Arrrg my fat girdle habit strikes again! I definitely do regret not cutting it farther down. I'm going to give the spray bottle a try, I've got a lovely misting bottle that will probably work wonders for the job.
I agree with you the light return on it is lovely, I really dig the cut. I'll keep practicing it and hopefully improve my technique.
Red sapphire (polishing advice welcome)
I finished cutting a lab #sapphire a couple of days ago. Red sapphire is also known as #ruby. This design was a little bit above my skill level, but I am overall happy with my final results and enjoyed the experience I gained from trying it. 7.7 cts, 12 x 9.3 mm, synthetic corundum #gemcutting #lapi...
I took on a design way beyond my skill level just to see how I would fare. I didn't leave quite enough material for my crown so please ignore the small divot in the center of the table, as well as the occasional missed meetpoint. Learning experiences abound!
While taking my video I notice my table polish has an annoying streak across it at just the exact right angle of light. I polished the hell out of that table using my BATT lap and 60k Pandimonium - so how did I accidentally create this streaking? Did the lap need more lubricant maybe? Or not enough 60k? Or too much...? Argh!
Design is Superpear 96 by Robert Long & Norm Steele
12 x 9.3 mm, 7.7 cts
Synthetic corundum (sapphire)
Your son is quite talented! How much longer until you have to buy him his own machine? 😂
Some may call this junk. Me, I call them treasures.
This #amethyst (and 39 others) was considered junk by the vendor so I bought the whole lot for dirt cheap. Half were useless, but the other half just need some trimming to find beautiful #faceting material inside. This beauty is one of them! There is only one small flaw here that I consider inconseq...
Amethyst (unknown location), 2.085 carats, 8x1 mm x 5.8 mm, design is Spellbound by Jeff Rhonemus.
A few months back I was at a gem show, and a vendor was selling large bags of amethyst stones for very cheap, as she thought they were all unusable junk. I bought the lot and I don't agree with the vendor - I think about half the stones do have facet material in them, they just need some trimming.
This stone is one of those "junk" amethysts, after removing the cloudy parts of it. There is one inclusion you can see in the video: as it rotates away there is a line that looks like a hair inside the top right corner. I consider it a pretty trivial inclusion, since you can barely see it straight on.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the stone before cutting off the cloudy parts. Here is an example of some other rocks from the bag that I think might have hidden potential too (ignore the silver sharpie on some): !9 translucent rocks ranging from clear to purple, held in someone's left palm
(Sorry not sorry for the Skyrim reference in the title, I just picked the game up again after a long hiatus and it seemed fitting.)
Whoops! This poor fire opal was victim to my (numerous) mistakes
You can more easily see my mistakes in this video. There's two chips and several of my meet points don't actually meet. Even with these mistakes the "fire" of this fire opal is still incredible, and I look forward to cutting more of it in the future. #lapidary #faceting #gemcutting
Fire opal, 0.335 carats, Princess Trilliant by A. Collins
This tiny beauty has quite a few mistakes in it, if you look past the pretty sparkles.
As soon as I started cutting the crown, the thing flew off my dop and clear across the room! The landing caused some minor chips on the pavilion, one of which is extremely obvious in the video.
I did my best trying to realign the thing but it took several attempts, and even with my best effort it was not quite right. My girdle is not level, and several of my meet points don't actually meet.
I wanted to share this one so any other newbs or aspiring faceters don't feel intimidated by all of our beautiful cuts - we make mistakes too! Sometimes many of them all at once, and we spend hours coming up with as many curse words as we can think of while we're trying to fix them! But even this dumpster fire turned out rather pretty, all things considered. :)
And when I say this thing is tiny, I really mean it. American penny for scale: !tiny orange triangle about three times the height of a penny
A whopper of a cubic zirconia
I cut my first cubic zirconia! This stone is my biggest yet, 14.13 carats. #gemcutting #lapidary
I wanted to gift my maid of honor something special, since she really went above and beyond in my wedding planning. She loves giant flashy diamonds (which of course I don't cut... and can't afford!), and was thrilled to learn I was giving her this massive 14 carat beauty.
I don't know what kind of jewelry setting she's going to put it in but knowing her, it'll be beautifully ostentatious and she'll be showing it off for the next twenty years at least!
I bought myself one of those macro lenses to try to get better photos and goodness, those things are unforgiving! My polish looked fine to the naked eye but the macro lens had no hesitation showing me every streak I didn't perfectly polish out. Guess I need to spend more time on my final polish - and y'all get more videos without the macro lens for now so I can hide my shame. 😂
Cubic zirconia, 14.130 carats, design is Gram Princess by Jeff Graham.
Edit: here is a photo of it beside my hand, for better scale: https://pxlmo.com/p/meggied90/637487568069056822
A citrine with a sappy backstory
This #citrine I just finished cutting will be a gift for my father, as thanks for helping us pay for our wedding. When my grandfather passed away he left behind 3 square-cut citrines he cut, which I inherited and commissioned into a pendant. I will be wearing that pendant at my wedding. As a thank ...
For those just interested in the stone information and not the backstory: Citrine, 3.015 carats, design is Gram Princess by Jeff Graham (optimized in GCS to work for citrine RI).
And a quick THANK YOU to this community for pushing me to get that 3k lightning lap - quartz and I are finally getting along thanks to your advice, as you can see from this beauty.
THE BACKSTORY
My grandfather was a hobby gemcutter, and passed away over 20 years ago. When my grandmother finally passed a few years ago and we were clearing the estate, we found several cut stones of his left behind and divided them across the family - and I inherited 3 square-cut citrines.
Last year my partner proposed, and we set our wedding date for November 12, 2023 (yes next week! aaah!). I decided I would commission those citrines into a pendant as my "something old" and "something new", and a way to symbolically have my grandfather at my wedding.
After I had gotten the pendant back and was showing it to a friend, they pointed out to me that citrine is November's birthstone, the same month I chose for our wedding... which was a wonderfully spooky coincidence.
My dad is generously paying for our venue, and he has no idea I have started to cut gems like his father used to do. I plan on surprising him by giving him his own square citrine, cut by me, as a thank you for his generosity and for attending. I intentionally chose a princess cut since, after all, I am his little princess. :)
I can't post my gem anywhere on social media lest my family see it and spoil the surprise, but I know none of them use Lemmy so here I am, sharing with you all!
(side note: handling my grandfather's stones and seeing that beautiful pendant is what spurred me to finally learn to cut my own, so there's my origin story too.)
I have a new personal best!
I cut my first #sapphire and WOW!! I definitely picked the right type of cut to make it sparkle! I'm also extremely happy with my facet precision, this is definitely a stone I'm proud to say I made. #lapidary #gemstones
My mentor gave me some leftover rough when he taught me, to include a small piece of lab sapphire. I wanted to try something more complex than the Andrew Brown cuts I was doing, so I found a round cut that looked fun and relatively easy, and it was conveniently already designed for sapphire. (Also it sparkled very pretty in Gem Cad Studio)
I'm extremely happy with my meet points on this, and it's my first where there's no mistakes! And my girdle is 0.43mm! I'm quite proud of this stone.
Seeing the final stone for the first time was an incredible experience, I forgot how to breathe when I first saw it off the dop. I hope seeing a final gem is always so exhilarating (don't tell me if it gets old 🤣)
Synthetic sapphire, 1.3 cts, design is Gamma Brilliant by Jeff Ford (I got it from the USFG website)
My first peridot!
I cut my first peridot! This one is 2.795 cts and I'm quite happy with my facets, although my girdle could use some slimming down according to my mentor 🤣. #lapidary #gemstones
I cut my first peridot and I gotta say, much easier than the quartz by a mile. My confidence needed that boost. 🤣
I noticed when I googled the best way to polish peridot, there was quite a bit of debate in what was best, and no real clear right answer. I saw 100k diamond on a BATT lap, aluminum oxide, and chrome oxide all suggested. I tried the aluminum and it did okay, but took ages. What do you guys prefer?
(I have been advised my girdles are a smidgen too thick and I'll be putting my future stones on a diet. Whoops.)
Peridot, 2.795 ct, cut in DecaCheck Two by Andrew Brown
Quartz is really challenging - prepolish tips?
This is a rutilated quartz. I am actually not very happy with my cutting of this stone, my meetpoints were not very accurate and I accidentally knocked it off the dop once, making my alignment slightly off. #lapidary #gemstones
I feel like the garnet I cut first lulled me into a false sense of security. I did myself no favors picking a more complex cut, either. Quartz is ANNOYING!
The video mercifully does not show it, but my meetpoints are absolute trash on this stone. I used way too much force and popped it off the dop when polishing my pavilion, so my girdle and my crown don't quite align either.
I struggled heavily with the prepolish step, which in turn led to my polish taking ages. I'm currently using a Zinc+ with 8k Pandimonium which was dreamy on my garnet but the quartz was less enthusiastic about it. Am I just underestimating quartz? What do you guys use for prepolishing?
My very first cut
I am learning to cut #gemstones and this is my first stone, a heavily included garnet. #lapidary
I just received my v5 last week and I've been working on my very first stone. Technically this is my second, but I FUBARed the first one beyond salvation so this one is my first "completed" stone.
It's a very included garnet, gifted to me by my teacher for practice. The design is Andrew Brown's Little Princess cut.
I'm experimenting with linking videos hosted on Pixelfed because in all honesty my gemstone photo skills suck and don't do this pretty little stone justice quite like the video does.