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Cutting the stone : Amethyst, Utopia Pear, #41
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.
The pavilion of the stone has been cut and polished. |
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The stone has been transferred to another dop and we are ready to cut the crown. Notice the rough surface on the top... this will all be cut away. |
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Cutting the crown. |
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The crown has been cut and is ready for polishing. |
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Polishing the crown. Each and every facet has to be polished individually. |
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Closeup of the polished crown. |
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The table has been cut and is now being polished. A special attachment is used to get a perfectly flat table top. |
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Perfectly polished table. |
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All done. |
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The finished gem. |
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