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Cutting the stone : Amethyst, Brilliant Pear, #38
What I wanted to do here was to give you an idea of how a stone gets cut. The stone starts off in the "rough" and is attached to a short brass rod called a "dop" using hot wax. The dop is inserted into the "quill" which can be rotated in increments.
The quill can be set at certain angles and in some of the photos you can see the digital angle read out. Precision cutting gems, ie. faceting, is all about correct and accurate angles.
I generally start out cutting the bottom of the gemstone, which is called the "pavilion". The "girdle" comes next which is the middle belt around the gemstone. After this, the stone is then "transferred" onto a second dop and the cutting of the top half, the "crown", is done.
Finally the "table" which is the top surface of the gem is cut.
Once completed, the stone is then removed from the dop, cleaned to remove all the traces of wax and then its ready to sparkle.
My workbench and faceting machine. |
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Cutting the girdle, which is done at 90 degrees. |
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Polishing the girdle. |
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Cutting the crown. |
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Close up of the crown. |
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The crown all cut and polished, ready to do the table. |
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The table has been cut and polished. |
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All done. |
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The finished gem. |
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