BB rubellite tourmaline arrived today - take a look

[icekid]

I''m learning a ton from this thread!

I guess most of my stones ARE precision cut, and I''ll certainly agree that they do not look their best in direct sun.

It does not make much sense to me really that it would have to do with the better cut quality. I mean, really- a well cut "native" will still offer great light return. I would suspect that Gene is right and that it is more likely caused by the material itself.

 

[T L]

Date: 5/31/2009 6:32:25 PM
Author: PrecisionGem
This doesn't make any sense. Good polish, accurate meets wouldn't make the stone look dark or glared in direct sun, where a lousy polish and bad meets wouldn't. Unless the polish is so bad that it doesn't glare any light.

I think it would have to do more with the gem material, than the cut. I would think that if I took 2 identical stones, and cut one well, and did a fast crappy cut on the other stone, the poorly cut one wouldn't look better in sunlight.

The cutting on the round in the above picture is from a very expert faceter, and the cutting and polish are amazing on that stone, just superb. The pictures speak for themselves. That same stone looks exceptional in indirect sunlight, and I have pictures to prove it in SMTR. I don't think it has anything to do with the gem material since this is a low RI stone (tourmaline) and with the exception of a few needles, pretty clean. The other stone is a garnet that has a few inclusions, but again, it's mostly clean. Now the rubellite in the other picture is precision cut, but it doesn't glare on me. Maybe it's a combination of precision cutting, native cutting, and the saturation of color within the material that causes a wide range of responses with direct sunlight. However, as you can see, not all gems look bad in direct sun, some even look better

.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I''m going to have to yield to your eyes on this one. In fact I''m going to find some native cut stone on ebay to buy and see if it performs better than my stones. If it does, Im going to quit cutting.

Viewing stones in direct sunlight isn''t something often done. I have had dealers take my stones outdoors into the natural light to view them before buying them, but always away from the direct sun. This is something new to me, I''ll have to research this more. Maybe next weekend if the sun is shining here, the ticks arn''t biting too bad, I''ll try an outdoor photo shoot of a few trays of stones, in both the shade and the sun.

 

[T L]

Date: 5/31/2009 10:57:24 PM
Author: PrecisionGem
I'm going to have to yield to your eyes on this one. In fact I'm going to find some native cut stone on ebay to buy and see if it performs better than my stones. If it does, Im going to quit cutting.

Viewing stones in direct sunlight isn't something often done. I have had dealers take my stones outdoors into the natural light to view them before buying them, but always away from the direct sun. This is something new to me, I'll have to research this more. Maybe next weekend if the sun is shining here, the ticks arn't biting too bad, I'll try an outdoor photo shoot of a few trays of stones, in both the shade and the sun.

OMG, don't do that Gene!! Talk about giving me a guilt complex.

I don't want PS'ers coming after me with pitchforks either!!

I guess what I'm trying to emphasize here is that the vivid color on some gems will bow to the majesty of the sun. They could be just a cabachon, or a piece of rough, and the color just explodes in the sun. This is how a stone performs color wise, but as far as light return, I have to say that precision cut gems are cut primarily for that purpose. Sometimes color improves with precision cutting, and sometimes it doesn't. I think precision cutting serves an important niche in the gem and jewelry world, but some gems don't need it, and can remain in their native cuts. JMO.

 

[chrono]

Date: 5/31/2009 10:57:24 PM
Author: PrecisionGem
I'm going to have to yield to your eyes on this one. In fact I'm going to find some native cut stone on ebay to buy and see if it performs better than my stones. If it does, Im going to quit cutting.

Viewing stones in direct sunlight isn't something often done. I have had dealers take my stones outdoors into the natural light to view them before buying them, but always away from the direct sun. This is something new to me, I'll have to research this more. Maybe next weekend if the sun is shining here, the ticks arn't biting too bad, I'll try an outdoor photo shoot of a few trays of stones, in both the shade and the sun.

Goodness Gene, don't say such things!

 

[cellentani]

I think I''m out of my league in my own thread. I have boxes of ugly stones with bad, native cuts that I ripped out of earrings bought a decade ago (somehow they looked okay back then). So I have the opposite problem of Gene - I''ll need to buy a bunch of beautiful, precision cut gems to do my own research!

 

[Stone Hunter]

I just don''t have enough colored stones to do this experiment myself and am depending on those of you with more stones.

I am looking forward to seeing Gene''s trays and trays full of gemstones. So bring on the pictures, but please keep cutting the stones.

 

[princessplease]

So pretty!!!!!!