World's Largest Blue Star Sapphire Found

[Rhea]

I knew I'd lost it! So glad they found it for me!

It's huge, like fist sized. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35226276

 

[redwood66]

Beautiful!

 

[Andelain]

Oh, the finger coverage!!!

 

[WinkHPD]

I can not help but wonder how much better it might look if cut so that the rays of the stars were straight.

Wink

 

[Rhea]

I can not help but wonder how much better it might look if cut so that the rays of the stars were straight.

Wink

I wondered that as well, but then thought I'd deal with that once they return it to me. I jest.

Is there any way to find out the cutter, or why they cut it the way they did? One of these we read about in rocky talk where it was cut for size alone? You know, just to hit the 1404.49 carat mark and not a point less!

 

[lambskin]

I'd halo it.

 

[kenny]

I think it's incredibly ugly.

They need to polish it down to an attractive shape, and hopefully improve the star.
Carat weight be damned.

 

[WinkHPD]

Years ago, long before most of you were born, (late 1979 or early 1980 if I recall correctly) I bought a 16 plus pound piece of rough blue Topaz from Brasil.

It took Richard homer four years to assemble pieces and parts necessary to build a machine large enough to polish such a large gem, many of which fabricated by friends in the business as we could afford to pay for them. It took Richard another year of his life to facet it into an incredible 20,769 ct beauty. We could have beat the then world's largest faceted gemstone but together we decided that beauty was more important than beating the current world's largest at the time which I think was just over 400 cts larger than ours finished.

We could have cut nearly a thousand carats larger, but only to the extreme detriment to the beauty of the stone because of the inclusions.

It took us another year to market the gem, and it sold to a Japanese investor for an undisclosed amount of money. At the time it was the single largest sale I had ever made.

Many years later I was dining with a Thai friend in Bangkok and spoke of this stone. He got a strange look on his face.

"You! You were involved with this beautiful gem? I was in the house of Mr (Japanese name). It is the centerpiece of his entire collection!"

The joy of that alone was worth more than being the largest and unfortunately rather ugly stone. It truly is a very small world.

Wink

 

[Andelain]

Wow, Wink, I'll bet that was a moment to remember forever.

And I agree with both of you about cutting that poor baseball properly!

 

[Andelain]

By any chance, do you have a pic of it?

 

[redwood66]

By any chance, do you have a pic of it?

Ditto Wink. And what a great story.

 

[WinkHPD]

By any chance, do you have a pic of it?

Andrey has kindly said that I may post a picture of this wonderful gem. My accountant is here and is on my main computer, so when she leaves I will post a picture of it for you all to enjoy.

Wink

 

[dk168]

The star is a bit too wonky for my liking, and the colour is too light, does not do a lot for me, sorry!

DK

 

[WinkHPD]

Okay. Here are two photos of the 20,769 carat blue Topaz from Brasil.

Here is one that was, I believe, taken by a professional photographer next to a nice loupe to give it some scale. This is the only large stone that I have ever seen that was not full of polishing marks from being polished on a lap that was too small to do the job properly. I searched for over two hours and could not find one on Richard's finished gem. He was distraught at the poor quality of his cutting because he found two facet junctions that were not perfect. He reminds me of another cutter I know and respect...



And this is a photo of Richard Homer holding the gem. This is from an issue of Lapidary Journal, which explains the weird pinhole look to the photo.



I hope you enjoyed seeing these photos.

Wink

 

[kenny]

Wow.
I'm surprised anyone had polishing wheels that large.

... or was some other process/machine used?

 

[Andelain]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hey, do you think you could set that in a ring for me?

 

[WinkHPD]

Wow.
I'm surprised anyone had polishing wheels that large.

... or was some other process/machine used?

That is part of what we had to create, a polishing wheel was just one of the technological problems. He got the receptacle for the wheel compound made and then drilled small holes in the bottom. Then he poured the molten material into the receptacle and some of it poured through the holes and locked the main plate into place. In doing so he ruined the floor of his apartment's kitchen, which did NOT please his land lord. He then had a local machine shop finish the compound to a perfectly flat surface. It is a truly HUGE wheel compared to commercial versions that are available. It took Richard a total of four years and cost me about $6,000 to make the cutting machine which was not available commercially at any price. He got to keep the machine as part of his cutting fee. This was back when $6,000 was a lot of money to a man who was just starting a business. Middle class at the time was in the middle 20k per year and a man making $50k was well to do.

Another part that took a LOT of time and effort to solve was the dop that was to hold the gem and of course the arm that held the dop. It had to be built not to flex with the weight of the gem. Even after Richard trimmed some of the larger pieces off, it was still extremely heavy and finished at well over nine pounds.

From the time Richard and I bought the rough gem until it was finished and finally sold was a little over six years. It was a labor of love and wow, was it a lot of labor, most of it by Richard. All I had to do was keep putting money I did not really have into the project. It was a glorious day when it was sold and I paid off Richard and his former mother in law who had also invested in the rough with us. It was a nice pay day and a memory that none of us will ever lose.

Here is a photo I just snagged off a very poor video that was taken at the Tucson gem show back when it was still held at the old Double Tree. Even as bad as the picture is, you can see it is a MUCH YOUNGER me.

Wink

Wink

 

[partgypsy]

Wow that is so cool! Thank you for sharing Wink.

 

[redwood66]

That is so amazing! Thanks Wink!