Rough Sapphires Advice

[jakester2222]

I have this large amount of rough from a Montana mine. I have no idea what to do with it or best way to sell it? I'm out in Seattle area if anyone knows a local contact. This is around 1000 plus carats. Any advice is appreciated. Should I spend the time having someone look at stones? Thanks

 

[Michael_E]

You really need to have someone go through them. Most of the sapphires that you have there are not really worth cutting, as the sizes are small and the colors rather bland. The larger, more colorful stones are worth cutting and are worth quite a bit in fact. The problem is that no one can tell what is worth what without looking them over in person. My suggestion would be to go to a local gem show, find a faceter and ask their opinion. Here's a list of gem shows in the northwest in the recent future: http://www.rockngem.com/ShowDatesFiles/ShowDatesDisplayAll.php?ShowState=WA

There are also several facet guilds in the northwest. The closest to you is here: http://www.facetguild.com/ and they have a meeting in Mt. Vernon in a couple of weeks. These groups are typically a bunch of old guys who sit around gabbing about the technical details of design, polish, etc. and in my experience they LOVE to chat up a newby, especially one with a cool box of rocks.

I, and a few other cutters that I know, have been known to make all sorts of deals for decent facet rough, including cutting a portion of the parcel using the remainder as payment for cutting, trading of other stuff if you're into bartering or just buying outright. I would avoid going to jewelry stores, since they usually have no idea what they are looking at and, if they are interested in buying, only offer a small percentage of the actual value of the stones. E-mail me if you want more info or advice on how to proceed.

I'm going to the Sedro Woolley show next weekend since I live a few miles north of there...yeeehah!