Opinions---Rose cut white sapphires

[sharkiee00]

Hello,

So I am looking to have a bezel eternity band made with rose cut stones. I was thinking that white sapphires would go nicely in it and began to search and found a source for them out of county, but was looking to see if maybe someone in the US could cut them for me. I'm looking for 4mm rose cut stones. So I emailed two faceters/vendors and one stated that they would be looking for some rough or even a source to buy from. The other stated that rose cut sapphires would be "terrible" and would look like cut glass and I should find a different material. Is this true. I have seen pictures of the out of country vendor and they don't look like cut glass to me, but that is just a picture. I know that typically rose cut diamonds don't disply much fire or brilliance because of the cut so I assumed a white sapphire would look similar I don't want it looking like glass either. Please provide your opinions. Thanks

 

[chrono]

Most lapidaries will not bother to cut sapphires that small - it's just not that time cost effective for them. Rose cut stones are huge light leakers and even diamonds aren't sparkly in this type of cut. Given that the RI of sapphire is even lower than that of a diamonds, I concur with the second lapidary that it will look like cut glass.

 

[sharkiee00]

Thanks so much for the explantation...that really helps me....sooo what would be another option for a colorless stone. What about white topaz or even white zircon? Are their RIs any better than the white sapphire.

 

[chrono]

Refractive Index (sparkle)
Diamond = 2.417 - 2.419
Sapphire = 1.762 - 1.778
Topaz = 1.609 - 1.643
Zircon = 1.81 - 2.024

Dispersion (fire)
Diamond = 0.044
Sapphire = 0.018
Topaz = 0.014
Zircon = 0.039

As you can see, zircon is close. The reason why zircon is not a good substitute is because they chip easily. Wear and tear such as facet abrasion is very commonly seen in ring stones after just a short period of time if worn frequently. With an eternity ring, the girdle is protected but the table facets remain exposed.

 

[sharkiee00]

So...that's kinda depressing...lol...if you in my position what would you do. I want a rose cut eternity band but don't want to send the diamond price?

 

[chrono]

Synthetic is the best of both worlds if you can get over the non-natural mind block.