Postings in this category are for the newer faceter, and open to the public.
More faceting questions from the Mail Bag: Like your site 🙂 Someone asked you about pricing and you did the usual dance around it, as you should! But please post something about earnings, since no one mentions what part-times or full-times are making yearly doing this. I wish to go into this full-time, but can […]
Mail Bag: Make Money Faceting Read More »
More faceting questions from the Mail Bag: Recently I have had some interest from a local jeweler in purchasing some of my faceting work. To date I have only sold a few stones to friends/family and I was using the pricing guides which were available on Jeff Graham’s website for pricing. Do you mind if
Mail Bag: Gemstone Prices Read More »
More faceting questions from the Mail Bag: I have a quick couple of questions I hope you have time to answer for me. My bother-in-law brought back some Australian opal from his six month trip in Australia. Some of the opal is translucent and he wants me to try to facet some of it. I
Faceting Questions Read More »
This just in from the mail bag: Please advise the best sequence for cutting and polishing. Should one do all of the cutting, pre-polishing and polishing on each facet row before moving on to the next row or polish in reverse order once the culet is pre-polished? An early reply would be appreciated as I
Faceting Sequencing Read More »
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 diamond powder for cutting corundum. I purchased the 2 BA5T’s and the 600 cutting lap.
Polishing Sapphire Read More »
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 why? What amazed me was that it only happened on this one facet, the stone is
Polishing Sunstone Cleavage Problems Read More »
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 use the Crystallite steels and it just seems like they would be one that would
Diamond Faceting Laps Question Read More »
Someone recently asked me: “Do you use a polariscope to determine (locate) the C axis before you dop the stone?” The short answer is “Not always”. The longer answer is there are three reasons to orient according to optic axis: Structural (as when cleavage relative to OA is known, in a materials like Topaz or
Facet Rough Orientation with Polariscope Read More »
I get this question frequently: >>Did you cut the bowl on your machine so that you can make your 90’s on the girdle? The answer is NO: I DO NOT RECOMMEND chopping-up a perfectly good splash bowl. And, I have never had a problem cutting a girdle. I don’t recommend faceting machine modification. I recommend
Whenever it’s “Academy Time” I get lots of questions about what a person needs to get started in faceting: “What’s in the “beginner’s kit?” people will ask? And, there aren’t many one-stop shops for all this stuff, though there are plenty of guys who will try to sell you their kitchen sink and the old
Getting Started in Faceting Read More »