Tell me about your rough?

[sparkle-magpie]

Have you ever bought rough? Where do you buy your rough? In your opinion, what are the benefits and drawbacks.

Any advice for someone looking to buy rough sapphire and have it cut?

Thank you for all your advice.

 

[Pandora II]

Have you ever bought rough? Where do you buy your rough? In your opinion, what are the benefits and drawbacks.

Any advice for someone looking to buy rough sapphire and have it cut?

Thank you for all your advice.

Bad, bad idea IMO.

I'm a qualified gemmologist and have handled a fair amount of rough as well as having a personal collection of the stuff and I wouldn't want to do it.

You need to know a fair amount about crystallography, optics and how they affect different species, then you need to learn how to evaluate a piece of rough as to whether it is a) gemmy, b) facetable and c) what can be cut (the loss in weight can be spectacular).

Good rough isn't cheap either. For sapphire you also have the problem that one of the major producers - Sri Lanka - has a ban on exporting rough to protect their industry, so you would have to buy stones for recutting. Sapphire also grows with zones of colour so you need to know exactly where to place the stone within the rough to get the best colour, shape and size.

At some point I will have a go, but I intend to spend a lot of time making friends with lapidaries who will let me watch them cut first so I can see how they go about selecting a piece to cut a certain stone.

It's a job for the experts.

If you want to have a go at faceting, then I'd recommend going with some of the quartzes or even synthetic material - good big sizes and cheap so when it goes wrong you have only spent time learning what not to do rather than having a disaster on your hands.

 

[kenny]

I think that rough that is offered to the public is rough that was rejected by the experts in the trade . . . for sound financial reason.

Even after knowing that there is still a rough or two I have seen that I have been tempted to (probably) overpay for.

 

[sparkle-magpie]

All very interesting. Most of it I did suspect. There are a couple of other species I am just dying for...it is mined here in the states, the color is very rare...and there is only ONE supplier that I can find of the cut stones. I'd have to make friends with people on the inside. Sounds like all in all, a not worthwhile proposition. Oh well.

 

[ruffysdad]

Hi Sparkle,

I concur with pandora on this. As a cutter I can tell you that good rough is hard to find, it's not cheap andthere's a lot of pitfalls and traps out there waiting for the newbie. I think that just about all cutters have been burned at one time or another and going into it without background in this area is like walking into a minefield. It takes time to develop a good eye for rough and most important to develop contacts that you can trust and will get you the "good stuff".

As Pandora mentioned, if you want to have a go at faceting, that's another matter but I personally, never start a student out with quartz or sythetics. Quartz is soft and scratches easily while synthetics......well, if you're cutting your first stones, why not make it a real gem that you can be proud of instead of a fake. Faceting ain't rocket science .

If you still want to look for the rough I'd advise you to get with a cutter on the board here or a local one at a gem & mineral club and see if the particular rough is available and check on prices, quality, cost of cutting etc. Remember that most cutters consider a yield of 20-30% a good yield so if you want a 1ct finished stone you'll have to shop for rough that's 3-5 times larger than what you expect out of it. A lot of times the numbers won't work out after you pay for the rough and the cutting. I'm not saying you can't get a good deal by buying rough but you've got a lot of factors to consider in the evaluation.

Hope it all works out for you

Pete

 

[minousbijoux]

Hi Sparkle,

I concur with pandora on this. As a cutter I can tell you that good rough is hard to find, it's not cheap andthere's a lot of pitfalls and traps out there waiting for the newbie. I think that just about all cutters have been burned at one time or another and going into it without background in this area is like walking into a minefield. It takes time to develop a good eye for rough and most important to develop contacts that you can trust and will get you the "good stuff".

As Pandora mentioned, if you want to have a go at faceting, that's another matter but I personally, never start a student out with quartz or sythetics. Quartz is soft and scratches easily while synthetics......well, if you're cutting your first stones, why not make it a real gem that you can be proud of instead of a fake. Faceting ain't rocket science .

If you still want to look for the rough I'd advise you to get with a cutter on the board here or a local one at a gem & mineral club and see if the particular rough is available and check on prices, quality, cost of cutting etc. Remember that most cutters consider a yield of 20-30% a good yield so if you want a 1ct finished stone you'll have to shop for rough that's 3-5 times larger than what you expect out of it. A lot of times the numbers won't work out after you pay for the rough and the cutting. I'm not saying you can't get a good deal by buying rough but you've got a lot of factors to consider in the evaluation.

Hope it all works out for you

Pete

Just wanted to say what a nice post this is. Thanks.

 

[sparkle-magpie]

Thank you for your insight, it is very helpful. I'll have to find another way to get my hands on the stones I'm wanting!