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Cutting the stone : Topaz, Mt Surprise, Trouble With Tribble, #42
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 rough stone is affixed to the dop. |
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That's a big piece of rock!!! |
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Cutting the pavilion... there's a lot of grinding to be done. |
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grinding, grinding, grinding... |
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Okay, we can start to see the pavilion taking shape. |
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View of the pavilion with the girdle cut as well. |
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Side shot of the stone. |
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Pavilion and girdle nicely polished. |
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I was cutting the crown at night and took this photo with the lamp shining onto the topaz. Look at how it lit up!!!! |
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It positively glows!!! |
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I couldn't stop moving the topaz around under the light and taking photos. |
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Okay, getting sensible again... a view of the crown. |
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Side shot showing the profile of the stone with the crown polished. |
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Cutting the table. |
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Table has been polished. |
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Another shot of the table. |
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Looking good. We've finished cutting and polishing. |
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Just have to take the stone off the dop. |
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All done, straight off the dop and about to be cleaned. She certainly's a big stone! |
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