Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

This is just in from the mail bag: I can't thank you enough for recommending the 600 cutting lap and BA5T to pre-polish with 3,000 diamond powder and then to use the BA5T for the final polish with 50,000 mesh … Continue reading →

Original post at Polishing Sapphire, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

This just in from the e-mail bag: I started to facet this piece of Sunstone yesterday and  when I used the 600 lap this strange surface appeared on this particular facet and it wouldn’t polish away, any idea what or … Continue reading →

Original post at Polishing Sunstone Cleavage Problems, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

I just received another e-mail from someone asking about re-cutting a native-cut stone. Someone apparently offered to re-cut the stone, and: "it would likely only need the pavilion facets straightened out, and the the bulges removed from underneath ... so … Continue reading →

Original post at Recutting Native Cut Gemstones, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

This question came via eMail today: As diamond laps are very expensive and their diamond surface is a thin layering, have you heard of major producers of these laps offering any kind of reduced price to resurfacing worn laps. I … Continue reading →

Original post at Diamond Faceting Laps Question, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

This is a natural Sapphire recut of a native gem that was pretty bad in terms of geometry and color presentation. There was a chip at the girdle, lopsided geometry (check where that culet is), bad meets, bad polish, and … Continue reading →

Original post at Insane-color Natural Sapphire Recut!, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

This is an article about gemstone prices that’s important to STUDY – not just skim – about the story your pricing tells – and how you tell your story through your pricing. This is part of the core business skills … Continue reading →

Original post at Gemstone Prices and Your Story, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

Someone recently asked me: “Do you use a polariscope to determine (locate) the C axis before you dop the stone?” The short answer is “No, that’s not necessary”. The longer answer is about why you don’t usually need a polariscope … Continue reading →

Original post at Facet Rough Orientation with Polariscope, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

As you begin to build your web site, you’ll be wondering how to get traffic onto the site. An important way to achieve that is to have high-quality, relevant inbound links directing interested people to your site. It would be … Continue reading →

Original post at Getting Inbound Links, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

One of the Apprentice Members asked if I would share my Gemstone Certification card (the one for ID and Provenance) to maximize value. And, of course, the template for that card is included in this post, below, because I’d like … Continue reading →

Original post at Gemstone Certification, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.

Offered by The Faceting Academy - Learn to facet precious gemstones!

Someone noticed that on GemstoneArtist.com I am calculating gemstone prices down to the penny. And, they asked me about my methods for calculating gemstone prices. First, I use The Guide – which is the de-facto standard reference (at least in … Continue reading →

Original post at Calculating Gemstone Prices, courtesy of The Faceting Academy.