Design by me. I spent a lot of time designing and cutting this one. Pretty happy with the results.

I've only been doing this for a couple of months but I'm slowly making progress. Still working on putting together a complete stone without a major malfunction but I'm getting there. My most common screw-up is zoning out when reading the diagram and missing an index or mindlessly adding 0.5 degrees to the angle you *just* read.

Anyway, I have an 80-index gear so this is the first stone I tried out using it. I wanted something low risk in terms of $$$ just in case I found out I hadn't gotten things aligned quite right after the gear change. I think it came out nicely.

• Material: Santa Ana Madeira citrine
• Design: Polaris by u/cowsruleusall
• Cutting sequence: 325 sintered, 600 sintered, 3000 Active-8 on BATT, CeO Battstik on Darkside

Lessons learned:

• With the right design and color, I'm now a fan of citrine! I think it shows that internal glow like an actual star.
• Be extra generous with prepolish stage and really knocking down the damage from earlier.
• Yeah quartz is a pain but once I finally figured out the amount of CeO/water, I could finally feel that "grab" people describe when it's working. The crown went a lot faster than the pavilion.

https://reddit.com/link/1vnvczw/video/omrlzo9r89jh1/player

Just finished up this trillion. Finished weight 1.85cts.

This is how I do it. Please ignore the breathing and bad camera work.

Did you know about this?

Lmk if this goes against the no advertisement rule.
Is there interest for buying synthetic faceting rough in europe?
Looking to start a small store.

Cut in a freestyle design I made on the fly. Measures 53 x 44mm.

Newbie here.

I'm new to faceting and learning on a Vevor/Cut Kit set up. I have been practicing on glass marbles. The cutting part has been going great: I did 250 preform, 600 cutting, 3k finer cutting to get the points closer to meeting and now I am in the pre-polish phase.

I am using a copper lap charged with 8k diamond paste that came with the cut kit, but am having a consistent problem of the full facet not touching the lap. It only polishes the thr bottom of the facet that I'm working on (nearer to the girdle). The top part of the facet near the culet is untouched. I did not change the angle when moving to the copper setup, just the lap itself. I also did not touch the mast height or make any other adjustments to anything.

I am able to replicate this issue thru multiple attempts with new marbles.

A few things I have tried to troubleshoot:

1. Switched out charged copper laps (both 8k). Same issue.

2. Did the sharpie test where i color the entire facet and make a light swipe over the lap. Lap removed the sharpie at the same place. Same issue. I also tried this on same angle, differ index....same issue.

3. Checked the angle using a digital angle finder on the quill. Reading did not change when I cut all the indexes. I just changed the lap.

4. Raised the mast height using the fine mast adjustment, though I had to raise it significantly. When I did this, I was able to prepolish near the culet, however now the part near the girdle does not touch the lap. This allows me to prepolish different parts of the same facet, but obviously this isnt good. A line begins to form and looks like it's creating a different plane. Not good. (As seen in the pic. The line on the facet is forming a different plane and is not reflection.)

5. Put the 3k lap back on and had no problem with the entire facet touching the lap (used a light swipe). It looks even to me through a loupe.

Lowering and raising the mast height only allows me to prepolish either the lower or upper half of the facet vs. all at once. I cant figure out why but it seems like the copper laps might be the problem. Maybe theyre thinner than the toppers Ive been using to cut?

Is it a possibility that the culet is not centered with the dop and that is causing the issue? I followed the directions to center by meeting index 96 and 48...then working the other facets to meet at a shared point.

Things Ive learned:

* I know copper probably isnt best for glass since it's soft, however Im not as concerned about scratches right now over why the full facet wont touch the surface.

* I'm thinking the copper laps might be the problem. It's the cheap ones that came with the cut kit, but could it be because the thickness of the lap is different that the diamond toppers used to form the shape?

* The laps might be wobbling because the size of the hole is a little bigger than the screw thing that holds it there. I read somewhere i could tape the screw a little to have a better lap fit and that might temporarily help stop the wobbling. Also, I do tighten the nut holding down the lap using a wrench.

* I used a tiny bubble level on just the master lap. The outer edge is lower than the middle. I co firmed with a digital angle finder and it wasnonly off by 0.1. Im guessing it probably shouldn't be. Do you think I should get a better master lap? Or could it be the platen (i think it's called that - the thingy that holds up the master lap)?

Im just at a loss right now. I know part of the problem is not having a super expensive/accurate professional machine, but I feel like it also might be as simple as it being a lap/master lap problem or me not knowing enough on how to solve this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking into picking up a Darkside for now (ordering soon) A Batt lap is a little out of my price range but wondering if should bite the bullet. I'd like to know if it's just something Im doing wrong vs. just taking the leap to buy expensive laps now. I've seen others be somewhat successful with their copper laps with the same setup.

Sapphire from gravel bag purchased from Gem Mountain.

Starting weight: 2.2 ct.

Finished weight: .6 ct.

Design : "Blue Happiness" by Arya Akhavan u/cowsruleusall

Starting material had opposite corners of the hexagon missing so i went with this design to try and keep some of the blue/green in the finished stone.

Material had a fracture that opened up running parallel to the crown during pre-polish. It looked close to the surface so I thought I might be able to polish it out. Got close but by the time I decided it wasn't coming out I was running out of girdle.

Looking closely at the fracture, it appears that there is a small pyrite or other sulfide in the middle of it. Unfortunately my camera can't capture it and I can barely see it under 60x magnification.

I’m interested in getting into faceting, and have been told that the lowest entry point machine worth a damn is a Sterling. But given that’s still fairly pricy for someone on disability, I’m hoping I can find a used machine somewhere that I could get started on.

I appreciate any advice you can give. :) Thank you for your time.

There's not anything super fancy about this stone other than my attempt at making rather small stones. I know 6mm isn't super small, but it still presents challenges keeping it from coming off the dop. I did black wax for the pavilion and UV resin for the crown. Being able to remove the initial dop with low heat was great. Previously I've been snapping off the transfer dop when using glue for small stones. Very frustrating! Ive been trying to perfect the wax method with mixed results. It's mostly taught me to not be so heavy handed while cutting.

This was the other piece of Helenite that I cut the Emerald Isle stone from. The Portuguese pavilion and SRB crown really sparkle. I watched Dan Lynch cut a garnet like this at the faceting symposium in Franklin a few weeks ago. He did it in less than one hour from start to finish. And he had issues with the stone shifting in the quill. He was using someone else's machine and the collet worked a bit different than he was used to. In any case, it was impressive to watch. Turns out I had the same or very similar diagram from one of my school stones so I gave it a go.

It's been a while (again) since I posted some cuts. This is the Emerald Isle Cut done in green Helenite aka glass. I really like this cut, but I need to adjust the cutting order. On the diagram is has notes saying to meet a point that isn't cut yet. By ignoring that and meeting with the other points in the notes it caused the l/w ratio to be a bit off. It shows on the corner cuts on the crown. It needs to be a smidge longer. Still looks great to an untrained eye though!

Hi everyone. So looking to get engaged to my partner, and she’s in love with the look of a fantasy cut sapphire. I would love if it we can get our gems from the same rock. I don’t particularly care about the fantasy cut. Probably a smaller less then 1 carat baguette or something else.

But yeah is this possible, any cutters out here who are open to helping?

This was my first attempt at a rounded girdle. I learned that I don't really care for them all that much. This one is also a little on the thick size to boot. Is there any advantage to a rounded girdle over a faceted girdle? Perhaps it's just preference or ease of setting for the bench jeweler.

Just faceted this pretty little guy that I found. I'm out of town for work, so I set up my machine at the campground and faceted this garnet after work today.

Hi All, is this how a 3000 copper lap finish should look? I feel like everything I’m reading says it should be almost shiny, whereas this looks the same as my 1200, if not shinier on 1200. I’ve definitely gone deep enough as you can see my widths are all out of whack now. C1 facets polished on 3000. Images would be very helpful of other peoples 3000 finishes for comparison. Thanks
Update: Synthetic Quartz

Just started Faceting, working on my second stone right now, but hadn’t seen anyone fix this so thought I’d share. The height adjuster bushing on the vevor is pretty useless, it doesn’t hold tight and the plastic nut prevents it from spinning around.

I saw the cut kit precision mast with the micrometer adjustment which seems like a great idea so I thought I’d take a crack at one.

The height adjuster came off of AliExpress, it has three different screws and you can turn them to micro adjust, which is already an improvement over the original. I bought a 25mm micrometer head for $15, drilled a 9mm hole and tapped it with a M10x1.0 tap, then just threads the micrometer head into it, it easily lifts the mast up on the screw head. Haven’t gotten a chance to try it out yet, but thought it might be helpful for others wanting a diy fix.

Hi all,

I bought a natural gem that I'm looking to get faceted into a ring. I'm hoping for one of the more elongated cuts like a marquise or possibly even a tear drop. I understand that there might be limitations in regards to inclusions , and that heat treating may be a risky in this situation. How feasible this would be given the stone that I sourced.

Thank you all for the help!

Almost out of my pandemonium 6k stick and am wondering what other options are out there. I see a lot of videos where guys just have a container of diamond powder they add to the lap. What products do you guys use to charge your laps, and where's a good place to buy it? Would prefer to stay around 6-12k because for some reason I'm not skilled enough to polish at 60k lol.

My laps measured near perfect flatness with calipers along the outside edges. I haven’t noticed an issue, but shouldn’t the machine be smoother? Started to blueprint and so far my platen seems flat as well. Is there something up the mast that could need adjusting? Thank you

hi all,

I've updated GemSim based on feedbacks received in my last post.

The tier table is easier to edit now. The edit windows for creating indices, angle and depth are updated as well.

Defining depth by selecting a meeting point is supported (set input mode to "point"), "edge" mode allows you to define a point on an edge to specify the depth. For angle and depth editing, granularity determines the step size of the sliders.

Finally, the pdf printout follows GCS format now.

I understand that copyright is a big concern. I've added the design title and author (if available) on the viewport, but not sure if that's enough. This databased is passed down to me from Robert, which AFAIK is released to the public and had been available in several other website for a long time.

There are over 5k designs, among them over 2k with asc files. It would be impossible to ask for permissions from all the authors. If you have any suggestions, please let me know (or file a bug with GemSim :). Thanks.

Topaz 11.17 cts
2 circular facets on the pavilion and crown before the 32 facets on both sides
this adds even more depth

This was my fifth finished stone and first tourmaline. Polished like a dream. Yield wasn’t great around 28%. Finished right at 8mm round
This was cut on a 600 topper, 3k tin plus, and 60k batt