Wonderful, meet points accurate, polish flawless and on a gem that isn't easy to cut. Lots of time to get the diamond to cut and polish sapphire; as always beautifully done. Thanks for another fine gem cutting and polishing.
I like your mention of “Meet Point” faceting, your use of polished girdle facets is one that can aid in the stone coming to life by giving more colour play in the finished gem.. You do very good work and use the exact same methods that I use myself.. 🎉🎉🎉
Good show ! You showed the students another tool - Benzyl Benzoate . A whole lot safer to use than Methylene Iodide I've seen others use. Take notes, folks ! On the subject of polishing girdles. My lapidary background is mainly opals. Like you polishing the girdle, I always polish the backs of my cabochons. It looks better & more professional to me . I hate seeing all those commercial opals out there with unpolished backs. Lovely rough & lovelier work ! Looking forward to your next creation !
Wow Cliff! I don't know how I missed this video. The reveal really shows what a great job you did cutting the stone. I've cut a few small sapphires and really appreciate your tip about using a 3,000 disk for the cut... I've always "attacked" the stone with a disk that is far too coarse. Thanks for the instruction and a very good video.
That is one stunning gem. I really like how you narrate the videos and explain so much about what you are doing what a fascinating job/hobby this is. My favourite stone is probably amethyst. Then tourmaline and spinel.
I've been fascinated by shiny stones since a child,now I'm retired I would love to learn how to cut some. I'm in Scotland,(no gem mines here,yet)so not many 'cutters' clubs around.you have a very calm and matter of fact way of teaching,so I recon I'll be watching and learning from your good self.As time goes by I'll hopefully do a reasonable job of watching and listening. So, no pressure then 💎👍😁😁😇
Awesome video. I went mining in North Carolina and came back with hands full of rubies and garnets. Looking forward to cabbing some and faceting some. Your video will help. I enjoyed the "rounding off" of the girdle. I also appreciate starting the prepolish with 3000 grit. Thanks!
The whole works is fascinating indeed! I was looking for exactly this full faced worked video on sapphire! I am extremely satisfied on your demonstration with full of details in every steps of the work process! Awesome! Thank you very much.
I have never seen a sapphire that colour before,but it’s a lovely stone and of course cut beautifully ..It’s always interesting to watch the stone coming to life from the raw pieces you have 😀
Because that color is usually heated to about 1000°F, to turn it blue, especially Montana, "Blue," ones. I prefer stones the way they are, as both faceter and wearer.
@@nicklabellarte2390 I've been to Blaze N Gem's mine and classified 10 buckets of concentrate which is the closest I have come to actual mining. I've also been to Gem Mountain which is more touristy and basically a pay dirt site with a store, and wash stations, but it's not at the dig site itself. This is the site where they can heat or cut your gems locally, but they also send away. We actually got more curable gems at gem mountain which is the rock creek deposit than at Blaze's. I think it was just unlucky with the concentrate with Blaze. Only 2 small cuttable gems in 10 buckets. A little discouraging.
Hi ,I am not a Gem cutter and enjoyed this video very much.I collect Gemstones from around the world but mainly Australia as I live in Tassie . I guess half would be cutting quality as most are large and I have boxes full .I have brought some found some and been given some.I am thinking of selling some as I am starting to collect coins.The gems are on the way out as I must keep my mind occupied .All the best on your quest.Cheers.
Thanks for watching. Shame you have to sell your gems. I must go to Tassie one day and find some Sapphires. There are not too many half decent sapphires in Victoria. Cheers
@@VintageTimeGems There is one good place here in Tassie for Sapphires I have a small jar full . I do have a couple of vegemite jars full of nice topaz.
Your spot on with classing sapphire as a dearer gem , better off learning to fossick if you want larger stones ,, topaz are beautiful , the zircon is underrated
Hi Mark your right about fossicking. I do fossick, but Sapphired are over a1000 kms away in Queensland. What's in Victoria is to small to facet. However, the citrine and smokey quartz are nice in Victoria. Topaz is my favourite gem and Zircon comes close second followed by Spessartite. I can be contacted at vintagetimegems@aol.com
@@VintageTimeGems G'day matey ,First time viewer to your vids good job and you have brought back some very good memories and yep you're right some of the best gems are located in Queensland , Ruby vale and Sapphire QLD to be precise. I lived in Emerald for 7 years and 40 kms away was the fossicking area , mostly in Ruby vale. Got some great Topaz over the years , one was cut by a professional cutter in that area and once he finished , i had it appraised and it was $AU 14,000 , i have dozens upon dozens of gems from Topaz to Black Stars , i even have one Star which is shaped like a Great White Sharks tooth , very rare , so i am told. Anyway great video and thanks for the info. Cheers matey. Regards Eric
Hi Cliff here is a cut I haven't seen in your videos. The "opposed bar cut" . Have you done them? Would you be willing to share a video of it. I am fascinated by the pixelated look of it on gems and plan to do one later this year.
That was the first stone on my new Poly Metric machine. 23 BIG & LONG facets. One would think with that few a facets the stones would not sparkle as they do. I'm currently finishing a piece of rose d' France in that cut. It is fairly easy to do compared to some of the fantastic doorknob sized beauties Cliff creates ; ^ )
Wow didn’t think you could cut a sapphire into standard round brilliant thought sapphires be to dark but obviously get light coloured one can do it thanks for video and the tips in it
Wow your Sapphire looks wonderful. And I enjoyed the info you provided about where it was sourced. I agree about faceting the girdle though I have been taught to just round them on SRB. I think it looks more finished and sets craftsmanship a cut above what may be regularly practiced. Oh as a side note I located and purchased a copy of "The book of gem cuts" volume 1 year 1971. By Jack Alger where You shared your French Cut Diamonds diagram from. Aka French Star. Thank you for all you share. I am studying and absorbing as much as I can for when hopefully by the end of August I will be cutting gems again. With both my hands on the road to recovery. Thank you again Cliff.
Hi Tam, I would begin to learn how to facet a girdle on a SRB, it will look so much better. The "French Star" is exactly the same as what is referred to as a "The French Diamond Cut". It's difficult to source some of these early designs. I'm looking for a French Rectangular Design with specific pavilion cuts, but I have yet to find the design I'm after. Some of these earlier designs are really fun to facet. Regards Cliff
@@VintageTimeGems ohhh that french rectangular sounds interesting. Much luck in finding what you are searching for. Hmmm I wonder if my mentor may have or know more about what you are looking for. He has been cutting stones since before I was born and is a wonderful gent of 80 plus years.
Years ago a goldsmith friend showed me how he photographed his jewelry: He used a camera system that was set up for photographing or transferring 35mm slides onto regular film. It was basically a camera set up at the correct distance to focus with a black background. With everything stationary he could arrange the light source or sources to produce the best picture. Maybe this will be of some help.
Hey cliff beautiful stuff. I love to mainly watch Aussie content. Can’t get enough of it between yourself and Justin . Do you know of any other great channels out there on utube to peek at?
Beautiful stone. I so look forward to each and every one of your videos. Gemstones fascinate me, and I greatly enjoy learning as you cut them. Sapphire is one of my favorites, and that Madagascar example is exceptional. It must be hard to find deep, rich colours without heat treating. The final reveal showed just how brilliant a sapphire can be. There was a lot of sparkle and fire in it :D I do hope that you'll reconsider the Herkimer diamond, and that you can get a specimen soon. :D Wishful thinking, maybe, but you might enjoy the challenge. If nothing else, it should likely cut like a quartz.
This gem looks so much better in real life. If I can get hold of a clean Herkimer diamond with no flaws I will facet it and video it. Thanks for watching
I learn from everyone of your videos. What type of machine are you using? I have a super amount of Montana sapphires that need cutting. Thank you for teaching this old man stuff.
Hi Cliff Fantastic cutting I learnt something new by keeping the girdle thick helps setting the gem. Please can you do more 64 index cuts as I have this index wheel. Thanks
Hi Cliff! I'm a new subscriber and a beginner gem cutter. I have been working on some rough I got from Tim Petek. Do you have any videos that explain in detail the polishing stage? I always seem to have trouble getting a good polish with the 50,000 grit diamond. I am using an Ultratec with a BA5T lap with WD-40. I have a hard time seeing whether the scrathes have been removed with the oil sheen on the facets. Maybe I need better light. Also, I am not sure when to clean the lap, add more oil, or add more diamond. Any help would be much appreciated! Also, do you always polish the facets from the girdle toward the table or culet or does order not matter? Merry Christmas and thanks! Andrew
You will have to wipe the oil off else you cannot see the scratches....I use toilet paper. Polishing is the most difficult. Learn to polish Topaz...It's the easiest.
@@eduardbuletsa9485 not sure now.its been about 8 years since i stopped using it and got rid of it. Ask the man in the video. Its an easy machine to use but not as well supported as facetron
@@jadekayak01 What on earth do you mean 'supported'? Faceting machines don't come with support, lol. If you receive it broken, I'm sure they'll make good on it, but that's about it. It's a very DIY hobby. I am also 95% sure that isn't even a commercially produced machine. It looks to be based off of a facette, but isn't the standard commercially sold machine.
@@sophiophile you can buy any number of attatchments for a facetron-more than any other machine. Custom index wheels so you have no numbers-only slots. 96,120 + more tooth wheels
@@jadekayak01 What can you buy other than extra dops, index wheels, and maybe a cam preformer. Also ultra technical definitely has more stuff you can add on.. Not to mention the interoperable concave and fantasy setups
Congratulations on doing such a fine job with such a piece of rough. Did you purchase more than one such piece? They are just the right size to make earrings for a woman with green-to-hazel eyes. Oh, and I think you did the right thing on the final reveal this time. The only thing I would have done different was to put a dark colored, preferably dark green, cloth on the table and then put that tiny what box on it rather have the entire background being white. Still, what you did worked. Are you planning to sell this one?
Cliff I have a cornflower blue sapphire you may want to try to cut. I saw the size of that one you cut and this one will be much easier to see. This stone is 850 carats give or take. Let me know , I also have 35 carat ruby if the sapphire is to big. 😁
I'm quite surprised at the price you mention for rough sapphire. There are places in Montana that let you dig through sapphire bearing gravel as a tourist (or will mail gravel to you) and you can get quite a lot of good rough stones this way. I just had 40 facetable stones evaluated (from 0.7 to 3 carats rough, average 1.3 carats). Including the cost of the gravel, shipping and everything, I'm paying on the order of $15-30 per carat for the rough stones. Of course, it's only that cheap because I enjoy it and my labor is free. Obviously, it doesn't make sense to have a box of gravel shipped from Montana to Australia, but you have alluvial deposits of sapphire there too. Maybe it's worth a trip; Montana is some beautiful country.
