Calling All Cutters!

[minousbijoux]

We have had a series of threads recently where individuals are asking about rough. Sometimes, they have a certain piece in mind, sometimes they know of someone who is selling a boatload of emerald or sapphire grav...er, rough, sometimes its an aha! moment when someone fairly new to gems decides that they could save money if they could just buy the rough themselves and have it cut by one of you lapidaries. Typically, you politely weigh in with your thoughts - just as George did on the amethyst thread. I bet there are many stories you have to tell, so please tell 'em here! Was there ever a time when you were sure a certain piece would cut a beauty, and it turned out to be a dud, or fly apart? Have you ever cut something "just for fun" thinking it was surely unexciting and have it blow you away? Weirdest dop story? We'd love to know!

 

[ChrisA222]

Im not a cutter...and, this isn't about rough..LOL..but I do have a story that sort of fits.

Jerry Newman had this killer little Red Spinel..really nice bright red, but not eyeclean-not at all. I bought the stone, and had a brilliant idea of sending it back to Jerry to recut the stone into a checkerboard crown. Of course, "to hide the inclusions". LOL. This was obviously the thinking of a newbie, but Jerry went along with it. He knew how bad I loved the color of the stone, and I was enthusiastic.

Well....

Here is what happened. He told me he was almost finished with the faceting, but he hit a fault and there went part of the stone.

The first pic is Jerrys (right on the dop!!) and the rest are mine. He refunded me for the stone (Jerry is awesome) and was going to throw the stone in the fishtank. I took it back to use it to help me compare colors, so I snapped some of my own pics. I did return it to Jerry and its probably in his fish tank.

 

[Lula]

Im not a cutter...and, this isn't about rough..LOL..but I do have a story that sort of fits.

Jerry Newman had this killer little Red Spinel..really nice bright red, but not eyeclean-not at all. I bought the stone, and had a brilliant idea of sending it back to Jerry to recut the stone into a checkerboard crown. Of course, "to hide the inclusions". LOL. This was obviously the thinking of a newbie, but Jerry went along with it. He knew how bad I loved the color of the stone, and I was enthusiastic.

Well....

Here is what happened. He told me he was almost finished with the faceting, but he hit a fault and there went part of the stone.

The first pic is Jerrys (right on the dop!!) and the rest are mine. He refunded me for the stone (Jerry is awesome) and was going to throw the stone in the fishtank. I took it back to use it to help me compare colors, so I snapped some of my own pics. I did return it to Jerry and its probably in his fish tank.

Ahh, you could have hid that under a prong LOL

Beautiful color, though.

 

[chrono]

Maybe a giant ribbon prong that covers 1/4 of the stone.

I don't have the pictures with me at the moment but one lapidary offered to recut a Mahenge spinel at no cost to improve the cut, and I was not obligated to buy the end result. He selected a nice looking poorly cut piece, checked that it is a good candidate, used the computer imaging for the best design and whole 9 yards. After he was almost done, an existing feather started to grow. And grow. And grow. It finally stopped growing after a few days. He was forced to remove it and the 2 ct spinel ended up a 1 ct spinel. I felt badly for him because in spite of his experience, it just didn't go his way.

I'll post pictures later once I find them.

 

[Quantz Studios]

I'm fairly new and without the experience of most the cutters around here, but i've had a few unfortunate incidents.

I had an absolutely stunning Tanzanian green opal give me nearly every trouble a cutter can have. Migrating cracks, hidden inclusions, falling off the dop, polish problems. I was having a bad day... But the worst part about it is it started out 15ct and will end up about .75ct when I'm finally finished with the stupid thing. I attached a picture so you could see how stunning the material is and how utterly painful it is to know most of one of those pieces is in my front yard right now in powder form.




On the flip side... A good incident. I was beginning a faceted stone- a 10-some-odd carat gorgeous blue-green tourmaline. I was roughing in the pavilion and careless me hit the stone on the spindle knob. Of course it came off the dop and was flung around the metal splash pan a few times before being bounced out of the pan down to the TILE floor, and bouncing across the room. I was amazed that it didn't suffer any damage whatsoever! It hit the pan hard!! It hit the floor hard and bounced about 15 feet from me... on tile! No damage, not even a chip in the culet point.

 

[minousbijoux]

Ryan: Thanks for sharing your experiences...not that I know anything, but a 5% recovery - wow

 

[ChrisA222]

Like Chrono said...there was no prong that would have covered that up...and, the stone was small to begin with, around 1ct/5mm or so...a recut was out of the question. It is a nice bright red pebble in his fishtank though. LOL.

 

[chrono]

I promised to return with pictures and I keep my promises.

 

[bobsiv]

I imagine most of us cutters have had both good and bad surprises. My most recent bad surprise was an odd piece of tourmaline I bought. The a/b axis was clear, the c was light green, and it had a blue/purple rind:



I debated whether to cut it or leave it as a specimen. I decided to cut it and it was a nightmare to cut and ended up looking awful. This picture of the rough still bums me out.

Most recent good surprise was a piece of Mali garnet. The rough was't too big (less than 5 carats) and had some visible inclusions. By sheer luck my recovery was great and all of the inclusions cut out. I ended up with this near two carat stone, eye clean. The rough cost me $17.

 

[ChrisA222]

Bob, the Mali looks nice, but c'mon and show us the pic of the cut Tourmaline, that came out of the odd-looking rough. I know I want to see!

 

[chrono]

This is where we want to see not just the good but the bad too, so don't hold back the tourmaline picture.

 

[minousbijoux]

Bob: That Mali is stunning! Great job! I love the happy ending surprises!

 

[bobsiv]

Ha! Ok, Ok, I will post a picture of the bad tourmaline when I get home from work.

 

[ChrisA222]

Bob, I love trillions, thats a great stone in your avatar. Is that a Spessartite? Or something else?

 

[bobsiv]

Thanks Chris, it's a Nigerian spessartite.

 

[Jereni]

Just wanted to chime and say this is a really interesting thread to read, thanks to everyone for the experiences they've been sharing.

 

[Dioptase]

I know our cutters had some trouble with several tourmalines, even when the rough appears to be totally clean. Some crystals have strong internal stress and they can break without warning during the cutting process. One or two broke afterwards...in the safe! Stone was finished and clean, then a huge crack appeared later on.
Such is life!

 

[texaskj]

Just wanted to chime and say this is a really interesting thread to read, thanks to everyone for the experiences they've been sharing.

Ditto....we want to see it all, the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

[chrono]

This one is with a different lapidary about 6 or 7 years ago. The rough looked to be a promising seafoam tourmaline so he went ahead and started faceting. As he kept going, more and more colour seemed to be peeled away. It turned out that this tourmaline had all its colour in the rind (outer "skin") and after all is said and done, he ended up with a colourless tourmaline! I was not obligated to purchase it so he listed it on his website and sold it shortly after. The rough was originally his too. Seems like tourmalines enjoy frustrating the lapidaries.

 

[minousbijoux]

I know our cutters had some trouble with several tourmalines, even when the rough appears to be totally clean. Some crystals have strong internal stress and they can break without warning during the cutting process. One or two broke afterwards...in the safe! Stone was finished and clean, then a huge crack appeared later on.
Such is life!

Now that is just not playing fair! Who says it can just go crack "when it feels like it?!!

 

[Starzin]

I know our cutters had some trouble with several tourmalines, even when the rough appears to be totally clean. Some crystals have strong internal stress and they can break without warning during the cutting process. One or two broke afterwards...in the safe! Stone was finished and clean, then a huge crack appeared later on.
Such is life!

Now that is just not playing fair! Who says it can just go crack "when it feels like it?!!

Maybe it just didn't like being left alone in the dark But seriously how often does that happen?

Bob: Lovely Mali garnet - I'm so glad that cutters have nice surprises as well as bad ones.

Feather on pavilion then started to grow and grow and grow, going almost completely around the pavilion after it stopped "growing".

How terribly disappointing.

Ryan: The colour in that green opal is beautiful - what a shame it's given you so much trouble and disappointment.

Great thread everyone!

 

[Dioptase]

Maybe it just didn't like being left alone in the dark But seriously how often does that happen?

After cutting? Very rarely, thanksfully! Maybe twice and we cut hundreds of tourmalines.

 

[Starzin]

Thanks Dioptase - it's good to know you don't lose too many stones this way. Is it particular to tourmalines?

 

[Dioptase]

Thanks Dioptase - it's good to know you don't lose too many stones this way. Is it particular to tourmalines?

I will ask.

 

[Jim Rentfrow]

I know our cutters had some trouble with several tourmalines, even when the rough appears to be totally clean. Some crystals have strong internal stress and they can break without warning during the cutting process. One or two broke afterwards...in the safe! Stone was finished and clean, then a huge crack appeared later on.
Such is life!

You mean like the 10 carat bi color tourmaline that recently cracked during recutting? God that was heartbreaking! Cracked righ down the middle of the color split and the crystal looked totally clean. Needless to say, after that incident, I am debating if I am going to cut other peoples stones anymore!

 

[PrecisionGem]

These kind of stories are part of the reason that I won't cut others stones.

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

This is a great thread. I found the red spinel post fascinating. I never thought that a feather would grow during the recut. Very informative.

 

[chrono]

Isn't a bi-colour tourmaline more prone to splitting into 2 pieces, following the colour division, even if clean due to the way the crystal was formed? Of am I mistaken in this?

 

[NKOTB]

Chrono, I had been debating whether or not to have my red Mahenge recut, but after seeing your post, I think my decision has been made!

Bobsiv, that is a beautiful Mali garnet!!

 

[minousbijoux]

These kind of stories are part of the reason that I won't cut others stones.

Gene, we KNOW you have stories to share - you can't come on here and do a post and dash without us coming after you! Let's here the stories - the weird, the wild, the fantastic!