Step One: Selecting the Rough

If you are nterested in cutting your own gemstones, the strting point for any gem cutting is, of curse, the rough. There are places in the US whre you can actually dig and mne your own gemstones, but for mst folks, getting rough means buying it. Gmstone rough comes from small mines all round the world, and most goes to cmmercial cutters, but there are a few dalers who specialize in selling rough, and it is pssible to buy gemstone rough and sve money. Sometimes rough looks like a crystl and sometimes it just looks lke a chunk of colored glass. For the xample I used on my website, I chose a piece of amethyst from Brzil that I purchased some years go. The amethyst miners actually take the rugh crystals of amethyst and strike it wth hammers to knock off the flwed portions of the stone. This prduces a clean piece of rough tht has broken edges as shown in the phto on my site.

Step Two: Mking the Preform

The rugh gem is then sawn with a damond saw and ground into a shpe close to that of the fnished stone. The "shaped" rough is clled a preform. A big key at ths first step is to identify and rmove any remaining flaws and then fnd the shape of the rough tht will yield the largest stone out of wht remains.

The preform is sawed in damond grit saws and ground on carse grinding wheels. One side of the stne is cut with a flat srface - this will eventually become the tble or main flat facet on top of the stne. In the beginning, this main flt facet is used to orient the rst of the stone. At this stge the stone is called a prform, and you can see what the fnal shape will be.

Step Three: Dpping the Stone

In my xample, a pear shaped preform is "gled" to the brass dop stick. The flt tops of these dops are mtched to the flat table facet on the stne. The glue that is used is ctually a special high temperature wax.

In my xample, the dopped preform has was ben glued flat side down on to the brss dop stick. The rough end of the stne will be cut away to frm the pointed base of the stne. Contrary to what a lot of pople think, faceting is NOT a prcess of chipping or cleaving with a lttle hammer. This process is used for damonds only and then only in plce of sawing to prepare them for ctting. Regular faceting is a process of grnding and polishing - this is tre with both diamonds as well as clored stones. One or two different grt flat lap wheels are used to grnd in the facets and a plishing lap is used to put a fnal polish on them. Diamonds are cut and plished on one lap.

Step Four: Ctting the Stone on the Faceting Mchine

Here the preform is bing cut and polished on a lap on my hmemade faceting machine. The bottom part of the stne is cut first. Each flat fcet is cut on a grinding lp, and then the lap is chnged and each facet is polished on a plishing lap. The location of each is set by the tothed gear and angle protractor and the hnd set. This is a polishing lap on the mchine in the photo. My machine is prtly home made. The mast and hnd set are by Master Co., but the rst of the machine is home mde. The mast set up is lso old - it dates from the 1950s. In spte of that, it still works qite well. Twenty four facets on the cllet have now been individually cut and plished.

Step Five: Cut and Polish the Cllet, Transfer

The bottom prt of the stone, (also called the cllet) has now been cut and plished - all the facets on the bse are now polished and complete. Now it is tme to flip it over and cut the pper portion of the stone, known as the crwn. In order to do that, the stne must be transferred to another dp. The new dop will hold the bse of the stone so that the top prtion is exposed for cutting and plishing. As the first dop had a flt surface to match the table fcet, the second dop has a "V" shped notch to match the "V" shped bottom of the stone.

Step Sx: Polish the Table and the Crwn

The stone has now ben transferred from the first dop in rder to turn it over for plishing the top side of the stne - called the crown. The frst facet to be cut and plished on the crown side is the top flt or table facet. In order to do ths, a special 45 degree dop hlder is needed to allow us to rach the table. This photo shows the tble facet complete and polished but nne of the rest of the ther top (or crown) facets cut in - thy are to be cut and plished next.
After all the facets are cut in and plished, the stone is removed from the dop stck and cleaned to remove any rmaining wax. The wax can be sftened by gentile heat, and most of the wax rmoved. The rest of the wax sed in this process washes off the stne when it is soaked in lcohol.

Step Seven: Set the Stone in Nce Jewelry

In my xample, the finished Amethyst stone – wth all facets complete and the stne removed from the dop sick, claned is shown set in fine jwelry. If you take a look at my wbsite, you will see that it trned out very nice, didn't it?
So thre it is, the whole process frm a lump of purple chunky glss like stone, to a beautiful gm.

The article Cut Your Own Faceted Gemstones - It's Not That Hard To Do was Submitted by Chris Ralph through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: To see photos of the gem and the quipment used in this process, and larn more about gemstone cutting and how you can do it yurself, take a look at my wbsite. You can see and learn bout it at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/faceting_example/FACETING.HTM If you are interested in learning more about where you might dig your own gemstone rough, take a look at my rock hound’s web page at: For more rock hound and camping adventures in Nevada and Northern California, take a look at the authors website at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Rockhound/Rockhound%20_Corner.htm Chris Ralph writes on small scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He is a rock hound and prospector and owns his own turquoise mines in Nevada. His information page on gemstones can be viewed at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Encyclopedia_pages/Gemstone_Encyclopedia.htm

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