Spazzartite!

[VapidLapid]

I am such a spaz. I forgot I bought this spessartite until the postman rang the bell and told me I had registered mail from africa!
7.6 carats, it will cut a 9mm stone, if I dont forget.

 

[VapidLapid]

 

[platinumrock]

Oooooh what a nice looking spess rough! It appears to be a reddish orange color. Is it from Nigeria?

 

[VapidLapid]

IRL it is more orangy but that malaya rosiness is strong too

 

[VapidLapid]

much more orange in sunlight
yes, from nigeria. I remember I was thinking I wanted a sugarloaf like the ones from Swala but there were none so I just went for a big rough.

 

[Kismet]

Very pretty! It looks orange in the first pic and then a bit pink-orange in the second.

 

[chrono]

Date: 4/8/2010 3:26:55 PM
Author: Kismet
Very pretty! It looks orange in the first pic and then a bit pink-orange in the second.

Ditto that. Who are you planning to ask to cut it? Was the yield estimated by the rough vendor?

 

[T L]

Awesome, looks to be a nice color. When are you getting it cut, (as well as your aqua?). Do you have more rough you''re waiting on getting cut?

 

[VapidLapid]

this is in afternoon sunlight reflected off the building behind me.
The estimate is my own, me and my caliper, and I am going to try to cut it myself!
Even though I don''t have a faceting machine!

 

[Nomsdeplume]

That looks like a lovely color.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Date: 4/8/2010 3:41:50 PM
Author: VapidLapid
this is in afternoon sunlight reflected off the building behind me.
The estimate is my own, me and my caliper, and I am going to try to cut it myself!
Even though I don''t have a faceting machine!

You are going to to try to cut that lovely as your first attempt?

I would sincerely advise you to try some cheap rough first. I understand you going for a cab? Do you have any tools?

The most help I can give you is to point to this gemstone carving how-to: http://www.meevis.com/jewelry-making-class-gem-carving.htm.

 

[movie zombie]

what a nice surprise for you! you will, of course, be posting pictures once its cut!

mz

 

[VapidLapid]

here are some of my other rough

the cherry on the left is paler and more delicate, it is an "imperial" garnet from Tanz bought about 5 years ago. Above that is a tourmaline that is much bluer than the green it looks. out of focus in mid is the aqua and more tourmalines!

 

[VapidLapid]

another view

 

[VapidLapid]

this is the big tourmaline that looked black. Really it is more purply

 

[T L]

Date: 4/8/2010 4:00:56 PM
Author: Lady_Disdain

Date: 4/8/2010 3:41:50 PM
Author: VapidLapid
this is in afternoon sunlight reflected off the building behind me.
The estimate is my own, me and my caliper, and I am going to try to cut it myself!
Even though I don''t have a faceting machine!

You are going to to try to cut that lovely as your first attempt?

I would sincerely advise you to try some cheap rough first. I understand you going for a cab? Do you have any tools?

The most help I can give you is to point to this gemstone carving how-to: http://www.meevis.com/jewelry-making-class-gem-carving.htm.

I agree. Most beginning lapidaries start with cheap synthetic material, and go from there to blue topaz, pale amethyst, and on up.

 

[Jim Rentfrow]

I would not cut that on your first attempt! Start with quartz because it is a difficult stone to polish and will teach you a lot about polishing. Cutting is the easy part of faceting, polishing is the hard part. What is the mm dimensions on the stone or how are you estimating 9mm? Good luck on the faceting, it is an exciting and rewarding hobby or career choice!

 

[brandy_z28]

How exciting!

I''m not sure I''d start out with a spess either but I can imagine how fun it would be to cut your own stones.

I just happened to notice that Barry''s, www.acstones.com , gem topic of the month is the faceting process. Might be of some help, I found it an interesting read.

 

[PumpkinPie]

rough gems always look like candy to me.. yum!

You''re very brave to try cutting your own stones!

 

[Arkteia]

God, what a beautiful stone! I am orange with envy!

 

[ma re]

Like candy indeed...

 

[chrono]

PLEASE do not use this lovely piece of large rough as your guinea pig.

Start with a cheapo synthetic material that is easy to polish, and slowly work up to quartz, inexpensive beryls and so forth. From talking with experienced precision cutters, getting 30% yield from rough is extremely fortunate, so your 7.6 ct stone will probably end up at around 2 to 3 carats final weight. However, you mentioned that you are cabbing this one? In that case, your yield will be higher but it looks too pretty to be cabbed.

 

[PrecisionGem]

My feeling is there is no point in cutting lab created stones to learn faceting. The hardest part of cutting is actually selling the stone and making any money. You will never sell the lab created stones, and you won''t learn much about cutting from cutting them. The mechanics of cutting is not the hard part of the actual cutting, it''s learning how to orientate the stone, work around inclusions, and pick a design that will yield well for the rough shape. None of these will come from cutting a perfect cube sawn from a slap of man made rough.

Buy some inexpensive tourmaline like sunset, or cheap olive green stones from Nigeria. Tourmaline cuts and polishes with out too much trouble. Light colored aquamarine is not too expensive, and is about the easiest stone to polish. Quartz polished different than most other stones, gums up your laps, but is cheap. Topaz is cheap, but can be a bugger at times to polish. Step, cut the garnet.

 

[mastercutgems]

I agree with Gene wholeheartedly... My first stone was an amethyst; still have it. As cheap as some rough is these days you will only have one first cut; make it something you will want to keep.
I have only cut one synthetic in my life and it was a copy of a a 44 carat tanzanite the lady wanted to put in the safe and wear the synthetic. That was my first and last; as Gene and many other professional cutters will state; it takes just as long to cut a natural gem as it does it''s synthetic counterpart. So why waste the precious time... Do not get me wrong or take offense anyone; cutting synthetics is not bad or wrong; but when it is your first stone; make it special... All gems have their place; and just because I do not cut synthetics means nothing to the rest of the gem world; I have friends that is all they cut; their choice...

Gene is also right that it takes more time to create the market, business, reputation, and clients than it does to learn how to facet properly...

Have fun cutting those ; my first stone was the simple emerald cut and the next was the round brilliant; it all went downhill from there LOL

But seriously practise on a nice clean piece of beryl or tourmaline, the cutting and polishing does not give any problems to speak of unless you are dealing with closed C axis tourmalines. Danburite is another good one that gives good results without a lot of issues or cost...

Most respectfully;

 

[Michael_E]

Date: 4/8/2010 3:41:50 PM
Author: VapidLapid
this is in afternoon sunlight reflected off the building behind me.

The estimate is my own, me and my caliper, and I am going to try to cut it myself!

Even though I don''t have a faceting machine!

How are you going to cut it VL ? I''m not being critical here, you seem to be a man with a plan and I find your approach to things interesting. Is this going to be a dremel or flexshaft carved piece, strictly hand tools or what....???? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[VapidLapid]

I may not have a machine but I have this contraption I''ve been working on we''ll see how it goes. Not really my first attempt. Some of you may recall the emerald ring I made my sister, and the moonstone ring for my niece. This morning I was cutting up a piece of spectrolite to make cabs for a necklace I designed and am only now getting up the courage to make. also my new Fretz mini hammers arrived and I''ll need them to forge all that metal! Here are the cut up pieces.

 

[VapidLapid]

 

[VapidLapid]

here is the uncut spazzartite next to the fantastically cut malaya garnet from Gene

 

[oddoneout]

Great colour.

 

[gsellis]

I agreed with Jim... but after your reply to Michael's question, cool. A carver