Native cuts

[mellowyellowgirl]

How are native cuts cut? I am really curious!

So I was told that precision cuts need angles to be a certain way and need to follow strict parameters.

How does one approach a native cut? I have a lovely ruby that is heart shaped that is....hmm how do I say this....looks quite randomly cut to me. It's a lovely heart shape but it looks like someone just trimmed it any way they wanted to give a nice heart whereas I have seen hearts which I assume a precision cut (amethysts and tsavorites) that have perfect matching cuts on both sides.

Do native cuts waste less material?

Are there certain stones that benefit more from native cuts rather than precision?

Anyways I would love to know more in general.

 

[voce]

I'm pretty sure all native cuts maximize weight, not beauty. If the stone is too included to be precision cut, or like some emeralds and aquamarines where you are looking for body color instead of reflected color, then native cuts serve that purpose better (more weight = more saturated body color).

 

[lilmosun]

My understanding is that the term precision cut is most often referred to stones where a faceter has taken the time to maximize the stones attributes over weight..often using modern equipment allowing them more control for precision cuts. Whereas, most stones are cut in shops where the goal is to retain weight and mass produce...lower production costs and higher selling price (more weight). But a native stone can be well cut and to me, the important thing is the end result.

 

[chrono]

Basically, anything not precision cut is “native” cut. Just as there are varying quality of native cut from fantastic to butt ugly, there are also varying quality of precision cut. The key lies in the lapidary or faceter understanding how to best bring out the colour in a piece of rough without sacrificing the other attributes too much.

Most try to preserve weight, especially if the material is expensive. I’ve seen precision cuts on those material attempt to save weight too using certain “tricks” but the result might be a large tilt window and such. Sometimes a precision lapidary won’t even tweak it because the “native cut” has already made the best of it.

 

[arglthesheep]

its not that easy to describe, as the border between them is not that sharp. A precision cut is normally a cut where the meetpoints of the facets are defined and sharp and the angles are normally calculated for the best effect on the stone. A native cut is (in my definition) a stone where there wasn´t any meetpoint concentration or just weight retention matters. But here is where the problems begin, as I see and did also by myself many freeforms cuts without any diagramm but very good meetpoints and a freeformcut just to get something out of a misshaped rough, colour orientation, or special colour zoning for example. Is this then precision cutting anymore?
So as in many countries, where native cutting (mostly with very crude machines) is done, many are changing machines and do real good cutting (not perfect, but compared to the normal commercial quality which we are used to).
But there is another big difference, which makes a precision cut a precision cut: The polish. Most of the "native cuts" are fast polished and have rounded facets. A precision cut stone, has very sharp facet edges as the finish of a stone is done normally in at least 2-3 steps for the polish. So in my opinion these two points make the difference. Very good precise facetmeetpoints and a very good polish, which make a stone a precision cut stone. But please have in mind, that I think around 90% of the stones in the market are native cuts and not all of them are bad. To come to the last point mentioned is that weight retention is not the best quota in precision cutting as here the angles and facets are more important than yield in the most cases as there is always the question to get a 1 ct stone in perfect cutting or a 2 ct stone with window. For me it depends on the stone itself, if it is a commercial stone and i would be probably be set in jewellery the optic is first step. If it is a rare stone or just a collectors stone weight could be also a big point as the stone itself is so rare that cutting away to much material just for better looking is not the best idea. many collectors are not that picky with rare stones as they are happy to own one of these at last. So difficult to draw borders here. Many cutters who buy rough and sell stones have to calculate for most stones what makes sense. If the rough was expensive or inclusions are killing the outcome it could be a thing to go on weight to realize a margin on that stone.

 

[Nosean]

There are butt ugly precision cut stones too - depends on the design.

 

[Burmesedaze]

Native cuts are much maligned. I agree that it depends on the skill of the cutter and most will try to maximise both colour, weight and beauty. Or to cut around inclusions and such. Rough is hard to predict sometimes.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Cutting any stone is an exercise in compromises. The cutter must choose what attributes to compromise. These are attributes normally faced when cutting a stone.

1. Cut for best color
2. Cut for largest size
3. Cut for best performance
4. Cut for cleanest stone
5. Cut for fastest cut
6. Cut for a shape and proportion that is well suite to be set into jewelry

You can almost never achieve all of these, and the main goal is to cut for the highest value stone from the piece of rough.

The term "native cut" is kind of misused as is "precision cut". Technically native cut means it was cut in the location is was mined. Now we know that all Tanzanite is mined in Tanzania, but most of it is not cut there. Much tanzanite is cut in India and China. So technically these stones are not really "native cut", but often the cutting is pretty bad.

You hear people say: "Native cutters cut for weight and color", assuming that modern western cutters do not. This is just hog wash. Every cutter tries to get the biggest stone, but you need to consider the other attributes and decide which ones you are willing to compromise on for each stone. And it changes for every stone, with the goal always to produce what you thing will be the most valuable stone from the rough. The way most commercial or 'native cut' stones are done is by cutting the crown first. Often they are not cut by just one person, by almost in an assembly line fashion, where one person selects the shape and preforms and dops the stone. The next person cuts the crown, passing the stone to another person to re dop it and cut the pavilion. The cutting of the final facets is actually cutting and polishing, where a fairly coarse polish is used which can also cut the facets.

I western style cutter (precision cut), will normally cut the pavilion first, then the crown. So you may ask why this makes a difference. And why do most native cutters cut the crown first. Look at your native cut stones, you will see that the crowns are done better, and have better meets and more symmetrical. Then after the crown is cut, the pavilions are then worked to fit the rough, and often the cutter runs out of stone and is left cutting a very shallow pavilion which of course makes for a big window in the stone.

The precision cutter knows that most of the performance from the stone comes from the pavilion and that the angles of the pavilion are very critical to achieve a bright good performing stone. If you run out of stone, I would rather run out on the crown side and lower the crown than the pavilion, the lost performance would be much less.

I could add more information if people are interested about this topic.

 

[icy_jade]

I could add more information if people are interested about this topic.

I’ll love to hear more if you are willing to share with us. TIA

 

[kindred]

@PrecisionGem, Your post was very interesting and informative. I would love to hear more.