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Cutting the stone : Tourmaline, Smith Bar, #43
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 in it's original shape. Tourmaline often comes in the shape of a triangular rods. |
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We're ready to begin cutting the stone. It has been attached to the dop using wax. |
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The pavilion has now been cut and is ready to be polished. |
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Polished pavilion. |
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The crown has been cut and is ready for polishing. |
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Note the rectangular bars of the crown. These run at 90 degrees to the bars on the pavilion and this is what gives it the wonderful checker board effect. |
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The polished crown. |
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All done. |
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