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How far can a gem fly?

ForteKitty

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
5,239
I was stupid. Was just about finished w/ taking pics of my gems when i realized the glass cover made too much glare on the last one. Took the lid off, took my pic, and is slid out... i tried to catch it but tipped it off and it went flying... into one of the many boxes on my floor. I'm in the middle of cleaning out everything and had boxes full of stuff to donate, paperwork, trash...

Sigh. now it's time to dig thru each box. How much do you wanna bet it's in the very last box i check? :rolleyes: :lol: :lol:
 

bright ice

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
4,328
Darnit, I just hate it when that kind of thing happens :sick:
 

ForteKitty

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
5,239
thank goodness it wasnt a faceted gem!! it's a carved chrysophrase so should be sturdy enough.
 

ForteKitty

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
5,239
Think i'm gonna stop looking for now. just stepped on the packaging tape's metal cutting part and sliced my toe open. Yay.
 

soberguy

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 25, 2009
Messages
650
My alexandrite came out of my tweezers last night and landed in a potted plant! Had to dig it out of the soil! So scary!
 

marcy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Messages
26,275
Sadly off in to the unknown. I dropped a 5mm garnet on a white tile floor and never found it. I hope yours shows up.
 

ooo~Shiney!

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Messages
1,501
Oh, God, I feel y'alls pain !
When my Spinel pear flew into the grass, I just KNEW
I'd be tearing that lawn apart.

It's amazing how quickly s*** happens....

So sorry about the cut !!!
Is your Tetanus shot up to date???
 

minousbijoux

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 5, 2010
Messages
12,804
...and I seem to have just realized that I lost my favorite chysoberyl - a chartreuse colored one from Roger Dery in a octagonal cut...I took it out the other day with all its relatives to take a family photo. Everyone else has reappeared, but that one has gone missing... :cry:
 

Fly Girl

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2007
Messages
7,312
Good luck searching for your missing stone. I've been there too. :((

BTW, it is absolutely true that the stone will be in the last place that you check, because you will stop looking once you find it. :wink2:
 

VapidLapid

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
4,272
They can fly much farther than you would expect. put a flashlight on the floor and look for long shadows. You will be horrified what else you will find! I found a sapphire under my lateral filing cabinet!

Minous that is horrible news. The rectangle, not the cushion though? I'll be right over; finders keepers.
 

brandy_z28

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
May 23, 2008
Messages
1,934
Fly Girl|1309141694|2955840 said:
Good luck searching for your missing stone. I've been there too. :((

BTW, it is absolutely true that the stone will be in the last place that you check, because you will stop looking once you find it. :wink2:

Fly Girl beat me to it. LOL
Hope you find it!
 

ForteKitty

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
5,239
I found it! it wasn't in a box at all, i stepped on it while walking to the bathroom... seriously, how did it fly 10 feet away? luckily it's a carved cab so no damage.

Oh no Minous... i hope you find it!!

ooo~shiney- tetnus shot up to date so i'm good.
 

TristanC

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 6, 2011
Messages
995
I'm glad this is a global phenomenon. You search and search and can't find it. Then you walk to take a pee, and your feet locate it for you. Sigh. Can't recall how many times this has happened.

Congrats on your find.

Hmm, there seems to be missing treasure everywhere.
 

Deathspi

Shiny_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
385
Haha, glad I'm not the only one dropping gems all over the place!
I usually wave a small light about and look for sparkles. I should use the gem holder more often really but I'm always paranoid it will crush the stone! :cheeky:
 

JewelFreak

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 3, 2009
Messages
7,768
Whew, glad it turned up! I lost a green tourm in the grass a while ago, had panicked visions of never seeing it again because it matched so well -- & nearly barfed at the thought of the lawn mower grinding it to dust. Did locate it after crawling around on hands & knees.

Minous, holy mackeral, what a horrid thing! Are you sure your chryso isn't hiding in your drawer? Maybe it took a little jaunt underneath something else in there. Dust for finding it!!

--- Laurie
 

y2kitty

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 30, 2009
Messages
1,770
Earring backs also tend to fly far. Glad you found it kitty.
 

ruffysdad

Shiny_Rock
Trade
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
127
Glad you found it :mrgreen: You should have been there when my cat, booger, knocked a parcel of melee cut tanzanite onto a a shag carpet. On second thought, no you shouldn't have. The language was on the colorful side :mrgreen:

Pete
 

chrono

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 22, 2004
Messages
38,364
What a relief to find it unharmed although the same cannot be said of your toe. I've had a stone fly about 6 feet or so but luckily, the floor was carpeted.
 

Pandora II

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 3, 2006
Messages
9,613
It is amazing how far they can travel. My secret weapons to avoid assuming the 'jeweller's position' (nose to floor, butt in air, shuffle slowly) are my 2 year-old who is now expert at retrieving gemstones and if that doesn't work a small hand-held vacuum-cleaner - the sort with a small box that you empty every time.

My worst nightmare in the practical exam was pinging a stone across the room. I'd done it several times in class and since we work in the dark it had involved me, the tutor and anyone else assuming the position and grovelling around on the floor (brown carpet) with torches looking for it. If you do it in the exam there's not only the timing issue but the stones are shared between 6-8 people so you are in real trouble if you lose one!

I never use tweezers with slide-holders as they are notorious. I'm also thinking of starting to keep my stones in parcel papers as I have issues opening the little boxes without them going places.
 

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
10,614
Glad you found it! I would say tho that a couple of your gemmies could just fly on over to my house anytime.
 

cookies

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
706
Glad you found it! I once dropped a 10ct white zircon, either under the dresser or behind the jewelry drawer. :(( The dresser cannot be moved (way too heavy and big), and the drawer cannot be pulled out. That was a good lesson. Since then I handle all my gems and jewelry in the bed above the fitted sheet.
 

kt

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
286
Speaking of lost stones, I JUST heard this on the radio the other day:

There's this guy who is making some serious $$ on 47th St., in the Diamond District in NYC...by crawling around various buildings and finding "lost" stones that have been dropped by dealers etc. as they move between buildings, in elevators, on the sidewalk, in lobbies and so on. He said that he could come up with $100-200 on most days. He'll start looking and usually come up with stuff in a few hours. And it ranges from diamonds, to colored stones and everything in between. He said that dealers he's talked to openly acknowledge that stuff gets dropped quite a bit, never to be found again except by some lucky duck on his hands and knees.

So the DJ's were asking him, why are you sharing this with people - don't you want to keep this your own secret? and he's going, nah, he's open for sharing the wealth as there seems to be SO MUCH OF IT, more power to others who can find it! :-o

I was super tempted to jump on the next train into the city with my tweezers and just go crawling around. Seriously! the next time I go i'm keeping my eyes peeled. Crazy, right?
 

minousbijoux

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 5, 2010
Messages
12,804
Happy to hear you found it FK!

Mine was a classic example of cleaning and organizing never pays because you forget you've done it and then panic because its not where it used to be - in my case, in the disheveled box holding all my new, uncategorized gemmies. It was instead in a new tray of gem holders I bought at Intergem.

I love the story of the guy on his hands and knees in NY looking for gems. I guess they all know him by now?
 

Lovinggems

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
3,622
minousbijoux|1309194334|2956278 said:
Happy to hear you found it FK!

Mine was a classic example of cleaning and organizing never pays because you forget you've done it and then panic because its not where it used to be - in my case, in the disheveled box holding all my new, uncategorized gemmies. It was instead in a new tray of gem holders I bought at Intergem.

I love the story of the guy on his hands and knees in NY looking for gems. I guess they all know him by now?

I put all of mine in a gem display case now since I lost my pair of imperial topaz. Except the case is now full and some of the cabs are sharing the same gem box. Maybe it's a sign that I should stop buying gems.
 

jstarfireb

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 24, 2007
Messages
6,232
I'm so glad you found it! I had a scare with a mint garnet a few days ago. I had it sitting on top of the gem box so I could admire it and try to take some pics, but my hand hit the lid it was sitting on and flipped it somewhere. It ended up on the floor pretty close to the table it was sitting on, but I had to search for a good 10 minutes before I found it. I tore apart my armchair and started shaking out blankets and clothes over the floor.
 

TristanC

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 6, 2011
Messages
995
kt|1309193307|2956261 said:
Speaking of lost stones, I JUST heard this on the radio the other day:

There's this guy who is making some serious $$ on 47th St., in the Diamond District in NYC...by crawling around various buildings and finding "lost" stones that have been dropped by dealers etc. as they move between buildings, in elevators, on the sidewalk, in lobbies and so on. He said that he could come up with $100-200 on most days. He'll start looking and usually come up with stuff in a few hours. And it ranges from diamonds, to colored stones and everything in between. He said that dealers he's talked to openly acknowledge that stuff gets dropped quite a bit, never to be found again except by some lucky duck on his hands and knees.

So the DJ's were asking him, why are you sharing this with people - don't you want to keep this your own secret? and he's going, nah, he's open for sharing the wealth as there seems to be SO MUCH OF IT, more power to others who can find it! :-o

I was super tempted to jump on the next train into the city with my tweezers and just go crawling around. Seriously! the next time I go i'm keeping my eyes peeled. Crazy, right?

Most people don't have the patience to put up with this search process. It takes a special kind of patience and knowledge that it will all pay off in the long run. More power to him. Hope he someday finds a bag of unmarked diamonds.
 
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