Newbie looking for a good cutter

[prb101]

We just got back from kenya and have a good selection of rough stones, and various sizes. We visited the Mines and had a great time. Now we need to get them cut. We had some cut there, but soon found out that the cutters were not very qualified.

I am looking for a couple cutters. I am open to sending the rough anywhere in the world, but want a good job for a reasonable price. I have a couple stones that I want cut very good, but then I have a bunch of rough that I would not mind having cut then reselling, so I need cutters that I can get the stones cut at a very reasonable price.

If you have any ideas please let me know.

Thanks

 

[Lady_Disdain]

A lot of the good cutters don''t work with client rough, as it can lead to a lot of headaches (bad quality rough, a stone coming out smaller than expected, colour not meeting expectation, etc). Dan Stair of Customcutgems does. In fact, he cut the spinel in my avatar from rough I sourced. He is great to deal with, his cutting is excellent and his charges are reasonable.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

A few more words on getting rough cut:

- Look at all the different cuts out there and see what shapes (round, oval, cushion, square) and styles you like (step cut vs barion vs brilliant). Not all cuts work well with all the different gems. When I had my spess cut, I exchanged a lot of emails with the cutter (Tim Spawne put me in contact with her and she did a beautiful job) as the cuts I liked wouldn''t work well with spess.

- Sometimes, the shape of the rough will be more suitable for one shape or another. Of course, you can have it cut in almost any shape you like, but more rough will be cut away. The cutter can give you a good idea of what will or won''t work with your rough

- In general, yield will be around 20% of the original weight (for example, 5cts of rough will cut into a 1ct finished gem) but this can vary a lot. Sometimes, the crystal is perfectly shaped for a cut and yield can be very high (I have heard figures of 40%+). At others, there may be hidden flaws inside which the cutter will have to work around and yield is lower

 

[cellentani]

Can we see pics of the rough? I''d be very interested in seeing what you got.

 

[T L]

Doesn''t Peter Taccora do recuts as well?

 

[Roger Dery]

prb101,
As you may discover, many/most faceters in the US and CA prefer to work from the rough, and usually the rough they own. But there are a few professionals who may be willing to work with you. From their eyes, this process may seem problematic because there *may* need to be some 'hand-holding' on their part working with someone new to the gem industry. Please understand, I am not being critical, it is just that time is money to them, and generally it is not easy to get paid for the coaching part of this type of relationship.

 

[chrono]

The reasons Lady D and Roger have given are good ones why you may find some custom cutters unwilling to cut your rough. I would let the cutters examine the rough to decide which shapes are best based on the location of inclusions, shape of the material and etc. Another thing you may be unaware of is that the material loss is very great. To get a 30% retention after cutting is very good. If you have a 6 carat rough to begin with, do not expect anything larger than a 2 carat final weight.

 

[Roger Dery]

prb101,
Oh yeah.... regarding Peter Torraca, even though Peter *may* take on re-cuts from time to time, I can say from my personal knowledge of him that it is unlikely he would solicit the re-cutting of gemstones from others at this time. His backlog of existing cutting projects is already long (weeks) and so I can''t imagine that he would accept new commissions knowing he may run the risk of disappointing some.

 

[Gailey]

I would suggest you contact The Gem Doctor. This gentleman spends his life doing restoration work and re-cuts. He did a great job on a friend''s emerald pear.