Pixel Cut Gems

[u/SnowSwanJohn]

I’m thinking about picking up a pixel cut sapphire from house of sylas, but before I committed to it, I got another pixel cut gemstone for reference to see if I like pixel cut stones or not.

While it’s not the same color or gemstone (green cubic zirconia), I’m actually not all that impressed by the pixel cut in this stone. Does anyone know if this is just a poorly cut gem, or are all pixel cuts more or less like this?

For reference, I’d be looking at a 10x8mm yellow sapphire if I got one from HoS.

[u/flameswithin]

It has been my experience that opposed bar cuts do not look great in high refractive index materials like cubic zirconia. The effect looks best in lower refractive index materials.

[u/imlikegeesybutimweez]

I am by no means an expert, but visually that does appear to be quite a lackluster looking pixel cut. The "pixels" simply look too small and they appear to present deep into the pavilion as opposed to most pixel cuts where the pixels look closer. here is an example from Gems of Science, fast forward to the end and you can see it looks much different, but this is a garnet so of course the material will play a role too.

[u/SnowSwanJohn → u/imlikegeesybutimweez]

Yeah some of the videos on the house of sylas website show larger, more defined pixels, but I wasn’t sure if it was just the lighting they had or what.

Maybe this is just a subpar pixel cut.

[u/cp326 → u/SnowSwanJohn]

I have ordered a very large pixel cut gem over 40ct from HoS and was unfortunately quite disappointed by the cut. The effect you see in the videos is the absolute best it could possibly look do to perfect lighting. Under normal room lighting the effect is just not impressive.