paging Jim Rentfrow - re: stones in Afghanistan

[sphenequeen]

Hi Jim,

I have an uncle who is working as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan and is interested in knowing what stones he should be looking out for at the various markets he attends. So far he has purchased green tourmaline rough (I have not seen this rough yet, but he told me it is dark green). As you stated in an earlier thread, there is not a lot of cut material, but he is intersted in knowing what stones to focus on so that he can bring some rough home to be cut.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - he is in an extremely dangerous area and this gives him something positive to focus on.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Roger Dery]

Hi Jim,

I have an uncle who is working as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan and is interested in knowing what stones he should be looking out for at the various markets he attends. So far he has purchased green tourmaline rough (I have not seen this rough yet, but he told me it is dark green). As you stated in an earlier thread, there is not a lot of cut material, but he is intersted in knowing what stones to focus on so that he can bring some rough home to be cut.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - he is in an extremely dangerous area and this gives him something positive to focus on.

Thanks in advance!

Hi sphenequeen,
I am taking the liberty to respond on Jim's behalf. Not sure where your uncle is, but Jim is working for USAID in Kabul. In addition to the time he is paid to work/teach, Jim is also contributing much of his free time to assist the locals in building up their businesses. As such, he is spending little time on forums. Your best bet to connect with him is through email - which you can pick up through his website.

If anyone wants to hear about his exploits in Afghanistan, he will be giving a presentation during the Tucson Gem Show.

Hope you find this helpful.

 

[minousbijoux]

If anyone wants to hear about his exploits in Afghanistan, he will be giving a presentation during the Tucson Gem Show.

What about those of us who really, really want to hear about his trip but won't be going to Tuscon? Wahhhhhh....

And Roger, when will you have a cut of your documentary for us folk to review?

 

[Roger Dery]

If anyone wants to hear about his exploits in Afghanistan, he will be giving a presentation during the Tucson Gem Show.

What about those of us who really, really want to hear about his trip but won't be going to Tuscon? Wahhhhhh....

And Roger, when will you have a cut of your documentary for us folk to review?

Hi Minou,
I'm sure that Jim will communicate a few things regarding his excursion from time to time. But, as you can imagine, he will have enough to write about that it could be a book someday. And, it has been noted for years within the industry, there are too few books written about the gem craft.

As for me, the director sent me a rudimentary mock up to review recently. However, it was just to give me an overview of where it was headed. And, I needed something to assist me [visually] with working out the timing of my voice-over work so that I could work on getting it to match up.

The sound engineer is performing his magic this week with my voice, and hopefully I will have something in my inbox by the weekend. In this 1st round, it is just over a minute long, and its primary mission is to support a gemological and lapidary school in Arusha Tanzania.

To be clear on this, I am a much better gem cutter than on-screen dude. I tip my hat to those who do this professionally. Such patience.

 

[sphenequeen]

Roger! Thank you for the reply - I will locate Jim's email on this site and try that route.

 

[Roger Dery]

Roger! Thank you for the reply - I will locate Jim's email on this site and try that route.

Hi sphenequeen,
Jim's a good guy and I'm sure he will be helpful as that is his nature.

For those of you who intend to make it into Tucson for the show, Jim will be giving a presentation regarding his exploits in Afghanistan. It is Friday, February 3rd. Here's the write up going into several publications this week.

Afternoon session ~ 3:00pm to 4:45pm
Jim Rentfrow - will discuss all things Afghan; faceting, gem business and culture. He has been living and working in Afghanistan as a contractor with USAID. In his presentation he will share about the culture, lifestyle and dangers of operating in Kabul. Jim will discuss how he has been conducting faceting, jewelry and business training in Afghanistan. And, what started as instruction in precision faceting soon changed to proper business operations and tweaking techniques they were using. This will be riveting. Lots of photos. Be prepared to learn of the goodwill transpiring in Afghanistan through the efforts of outfits like USAID and others.

Hope someone finds this useful.

 

[Jim Rentfrow]

Hi Sphenequeen,

If your uncle is in Kabul please give him my email and then I can give him my local Kabul cell phone number. This is actually true for any of you who have relatives as contractors or in the service over here. If they want feedback and are in Kabul I can try to reach out to them. I can usually get into most places here but we are locked down quite a bit from time to time.

We have several presentations each month on how to select rough, what gems to buy, what to look for in prices etc. Tourmaline can be pretty easy to work with for beginners due to its unique crystal structure. There is a lot of synthetic gems and a lot of gems from outside Afghanistan sold here. If he works for ISAF and goes to the ISAF Bazaar he needs to be especially vigilant. Some of the better stones I have seen here for value and without synthetics are: Sphene, tourmaline and peridot. The quartz, aquamarine and topaz are generally lighter and can be pretty included. The ruby and emerald here is priced at higher than retail pricing sometimes, and there is a lot of lead glass filling, and synthetics as well. The dealers are not aware of these treatments and sell the stones as totally natural. Just the other day I had to explain the different to a dealer between: natural, natural heated and natural with diffusion heated. The stone had a certificate that stated, "Natural sapphire with diffusion treatment". This was looked as a natural gemstone and they were trying to get retail prices for unheated sapphire. If he is buying spinel rough he needs to be very, very careful because inclusions can be hard to spot especially if he is buying stones indoors.

Hopefully that helps. If you have other questions feel free to ask or email me. I check in on PS maybe once a week while I am here because the internet is not very good here as you can imagine!

Thanks Roger for helping me out, I greatly appreciate it! And Roger is right, I have written enough down while over here to fill a book, something I am heavily considering publishing when I get back.