Crylos

Good idea, I’ll work on a write up with pics.

Argh! Thanks, fixed the link.

I generally buy the rough from dealers or gem shows. My bucket list has a couple of line items to visit some mines and buy direct.

Yes! That’s what I did as well gemstone faceting check it out!

Same! It feels great!

My mom was a geologist and she tried her hand at it, and that peaked my interest. I learned from a Japanese woman in Maryland who cut for custom jewelry stores in the D.C. area. I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, so it really was a great fit for me.

It is an expensive hobby. A setup like mine in a post here costs around $7k not including rough. Rough can range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars or more for a single piece depending on the material, size, color and clarity. I’ve sold some of what I cut, taken on commissions at times but never enough to cover my costs. For me it’s about the creation and giving stones as gifts to friends and family, that’s payment enough. There are plenty of cutters I know that make a living doing this, so it’s totally possible to be profitable. As an example, I cut a $20 dollar rough London blue topaz (6 hours) and sold it for $250.

One question I do get asked is how long does a stone take to cut? It varies based on size (larger == longer), cut difficulty and the material itself. The amethyst in this post took about five hours or so over the course of four days. As much as it looks like it’s a difficult cut, it’s actually relatively easy.

That was weird… I posted that on a story about TikTok .. and it got out on the I35 one?!?

The deleted comment was meant for a different story.. no idea why it got attached here.

It depends on the material and size. For example, that's just a piece of quartz but fairly large. For this cut you would want a medium to large sized stone, something like at least 8mm in diameter. A good piece of Topaz might run anywhere from $100-$450 depending on color and size.

I've cut this particular cut in Topaz and Quartz (above). I tried it in CZ to see what it might look like if it were cut in diamond, but the pattern is totally washed out by the light return, so likely higher RI will likely not work as well as a more color saturated stone.

Here is an example diagram from a site that has tons of diagrams that can be cut. I like to joke that it’s a bit like color by numbers.

http://www.facetdiagrams.org/database/files/pc01006a.html

Let’s just say off and on for more than twenty years. There were gaps in there where I didn’t cut for several years, and not nearly as often as I’d like. Now I’m cutting at least one stone a week, as I balance work, life and this hobby. I tend to cut in the early mornings for an hour or so, day and evenings are work and family.

My best advice is to not fret over quality of your polish, symmetry or mistakes. Keep calm and focus on learning the technique, speed and precision comes with practice. Focus on simple known cuts and avoid the more complex cuts until you have the skills in place, no matter how temping the cut looks. If I told you all of the times I got frustrated with a mistake or with a stone popping off the dop you’d be rich. 😂

I learned while in high school a long time ago from a Japanese woman who did this for a living in Maryland for many of the high-end custom Jewelry stores in the D.C. area. I've continued to cut off an on since.

That being said look around for lapidary clubs that might exist in your area. Here in the US there are local clubs that have classes and such. I've also seen people learn by self teaching and asking for advice online. Generally performing basic cutting isn't really that hard, it's a test of patience and a steady hand. Most of the simple designs can be found online.

The hard part about getting into this as a hobby is the upfront expense. For a good setup like what I have, it can cost you $6-$7k not including the rough. You might be able to find a used machine, but you need to be careful with those or cheap ones where they either have damage or are not precise enough. This can lead to frustration as the stone never turns out quite right.

Bottom line, see if you can find a cutter nearby or a lapidary club. Take the hobby for a test run and see if it satisfies that itch before investing in the equipment.

For me the satisfaction is more than worth it, along with being able to give gifts to family and friends.

The design was based on originally trying to achieve a swirling affect, but I ended up with this when I was designing it in gem cad studio. I loved the render and decided to try the cut.

For those that don’t know how gems are cut, there are a couple of different style machines, I use what’s called a mast style from Ultratec. A stone is cut based on index(position around the circumference) and angle and is cut by grinding the stone down on different grit laps. For this stone I used a 260, 1200, 3000 and finally 60,000 diamond.

Overall this stone took about 5 hours to cut.