Tsavorite extinction help - too dark or salvageable?

[polarisfire]

Hi everyone,

I just got this lovely Kenya Tsav from Yvonne’s sale on impulse and am hoping I could get opinions on what to do from people who have tsavorites and are familiar with setting some deeper colors, perhaps. I’ve been on the fence for a couple days. The color is stunning but, I think because it’s been cut marginally too spready, it has a lot of extinction that makes it black out when light hits it face on, especially in lower light. The color shown off by the brilliant bits of the stone is just an amazingly saturated, true green.

Photos in natural light, stone is slightly bluer in real life than some of the photos. First one has flash added to show off the extinction seen in real life (Sorry for the fingerprints.)




Indoor light:



I sent some photos to Jerry at GemArt to see what he’d say, and he said a recut would probably be 150 and I’d loose about 25%. That seems scary when the stone is already fairly small but the non extinct color is just so lovely it seems a shame to leave it.

What do you guys think? Is it too small to be worth the recut? Should I return it and wait for another with similar color? Would a recut even help or am I mistaken thinking it’s just extinction making it look dark?

On the bright side, pun intended, the reflection pattern looks kind of like a butterfly

Thanks in advance!

 

[T L]

Is it a final sale? If it’s too small, and the extinction bugs you, then I would wait to get a tsavorite you’re head over heels with. I’ve spent too much money on stones I’ll never set, or enjoy, and that money could be put to better use.

 

[polarisfire]

No it’s not final sale. Good point on saving money for stone that I’m head over heels with.

 

[Arcadian]

Return it.

 

[2Neesers]

I would return it too. Jerry has recut the pavilion of a couple of darker tsavs for me, and it did make a difference with the extinction issue, but I only had them recut because I couldn’t return them.
I like darker stones like the Tsavorite you bought from Yvonne. I have found that precision cutting helps with extinction in darker stones, although you will sometimes still see them blackout due to the depth of color of the stone. It doesn’t bother me if I only see it in certain lighting.
Here are few precision cut Tsavorites in a similar size to the trillion that are available:

Precision Gem - Gemstones for sale

Precision Gem Store - listing of current gemstones custom precision cut.

www.precisiongem.com

Westview Gems

www.westviewgems.com

I‘m not sure if this one is precision cut. They usually say cut by Gary if he has cut the stone:

1.02 ct Tsavorite Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet

www.finewatergems.com