Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/28/gemcutter-demonstrates-how-to.html
…
8 Likes
Yeah, but can you access the GoldenEye satellite with it?
8 Likes
No, just the Zircon weather balloon.
8 Likes
This cut in the video takes phenomenal concentration to get the angles to intersect properly on that multilevel pavilion. He’s making it look a lot easier than it actually is to get those facets to meet that symmetrically. He’s very good.
I’ve done a little bit of lapidary. I learned on a machine different than his though. His style is called a boom and mast type faceter, which is what most faceters use.
There is an older more complicated style in a handpiece faceter like I learned on, called a Raytech-Shaw facter. You can pick up the whole gem goniometer instrument (the device portion called the handpiece, the parts that are specifically for angular indexing) off of a separate platen, to inspect the gem off the machine whenever you wish.
It takes a lot more patience to use than his style, which is much quicker than a Raytech-Shaw, but it’s not as good at making very minute facet adjustments, because a Raytech-Shaw uses 3 feet to independently level the stone and handpiece.
Here’s a pic of the only stone I ever finished, a tourmaline from rough from a mine in Minas Geras, Brazil. Never figured out what I wanted to do with it, so it sits in a case.
32 Likes
I remember finding out stones are ground, vs cut, and being disappointed. I always Imagined people tapping on them with hammers and tiny tools.
I have always wanted a lapidary set. Probably wouldn’t cut gems like this, but use it to polish stones!
8 Likes
What about Cleopatra’s Needle? How did it end up in New York? Some say, it was aliens.
2 Likes
That is done, it is. It’s called cleaving.
It was done with the famous crown jewels of England, the Cullinan diamond, for example, which was originally much larger, but not capable of being faceted as one piece, so it was skillfully cleaved into smaller stones for finishing to preserve as many of the total carats as possible.
It’s done occasionally with rough where inclusions mar an otherwise usable piece of rough- except it’s often done with diamond wetsaws rather than a skillful chisel.
10 Likes
What a beautiful stone! I’ve only ever seen such deep green tourmalines in Namibia and they fetch impressive prices.
And I admire your persistence in completing the gem, I can’t imagine the patience and precision needed to get perfect symmetry.
6 Likes
Was hoping for a synergy with the ‘uncomplicated skincare for men’ ad, but watching this fellow free cut with fine gems is pretty cheery.
3 Likes
This popped up on reddit the other day.
13 Likes
Cleopatra??? Eye of Sauron if you ask me
1 Like
Well, there are these things called ships, you may have heard of them…
3 Likes
Yeah, he said that. Space ships!
4 Likes
It really is.
I was intrigued to find out that he uses a 3D CAD program to plot and prototype his designs – and then I felt a bit silly because of course that’s how it’s done in the digital age. And then I had to download the gem cut studio demo just to try it out for myself.
5 Likes
I was used to seeing faceting diagrams that gave you the angles needed, the 3d stuff is new to me, at least on the gem front.
It needs raytracing ability to simulate the actual reflections though
5 Likes
I suggest exporting to STL and rendering in LuxCoreRender. With proper setup it gives physically correct reflections, refractions, caustics and even dispersion.
4 Likes
YEah, I didn’t feel nearly enough rage when I saw he wasn’t going to cleave other gems out of the facet/cube mismatch (not that I’ve done any w. any zirconia.) It came out! Then I wondered why the rig isn’t automated.
And of course I’d root for the impossible geometries, though it’s fair to say that’s competitive setting really. Then price them in Ethereum, where the conflict is in the future…er…skip it.
Maybe YouTube squads will spend a lot of time dressing faces with gems…okay, anything of this cut really; landscaping red rock, synth. diamond, burlwood, bales of used plastic, engine blocks. Pavillion 32, 256 to go…
1 Like
Bravo! I love Tourmalines - the weirder, the better 
2 Likes
Tourmaline (proper name Elabite) is the only gem that actually does come in every color of the rainbow. It’s unusual and unique in that regard.
It’s also a stone that can, in very rare cases, change color depending on the light it is in.
I’m sure there are some serious stone folks here who will call bullshit on that, it’s not Alexandrite. The thing is, the guy who taught me how to cut, he’s the guy that identified this phenomenon, which is exceedingly rare in Tourmaline.
This is a guy who has one of the largest collections of hand cut tourmaline in the world, a very private fellow in rural PA, in a small town I can’t name.
Apparently with tourmaline the rarest color is a blueish purple, and he has one of these, rough was like 20k, if I remember right- he estimated the cut stone is worth more than his house.
There’s some neat things out there in the world.
3 Likes
You can always get a rock tumbler, they’re cheap. Use normal stones, like quartz, make smooth pebbles.
Raytech-Shaw facters come up for sale occasionally on Ebay, cheaper than new.
If you want to make money with it, find a custom jeweler or goldsmith, and present them with a unique cut, and they may buy from you.
The guy that taught me met a goldsmith once, that guy very rarely will buy a stone, because my friend really doesn’t do it to make money, he’s just an obsessive collector of tourmaline. He doesn’t like to sell pieces much.
3 Likes
