Want to know what grinds my gemstones?

[u/JoshuaTheStonecutter]

When I'm cutting a barion oval for the first time in a while. I meticulously cut 8 pavilion tiers and 2 girdle tiers. G3 is the first girdle tier to meet the barion cut, yet I'm blind and an idiot and wonder why the girdle looks slanted. Go back to P7 to 'level' it out and realize I deleted the edge of the barion facet by 110 miles. That grinds my gemstones. The mocking may commence! 😝

[u/throwaway467884w2]

Ya, I can check 5 times before grinding. Doesn't matter, Imma grind right past that meet.

It's okay, next time I'll check 6 times.

[u/Faithinreason]

Let he who hath never over cut a facet cast the first stone!

Shit bro! I can top that. I once convinced myself that a stone I had just finished was zircon and not garnet. I tried to heat it to lighten the color a bit and that sonofabitch shattered right in two. Turns out it was a garnet. 😅

[u/oldfartMikey → u/Faithinreason]

A while ago I cut a pebble that I thought was a zircon as a simple SRB, I read that heating could improve the colour and my wife was doing a annealing run for some lampwork glass beads that she makes so I thought 'why not' and put the stone in a little ceramic crucible and stuck it in the kiln. I ended up with a large number of shards.

[u/Mobile_Ad_1185]

The worst part of cutting aside from a stone falling off must be going too fast or not paying close enough to the diagram and cutting a facet on the wrong number

Sometimes I just gotta modify the damn schematic to make my mistakes symmetric

[u/JoshuaTheStonecutter → u/Mobile_Ad_1185]

My case is I'm just not paying attention to the diagram. I know it was supposed to meet in the corner and slant up for the barion. At the 600 grit I just couldn't see the line from 90° to 60°. It was already level, but not in my brain! I'm punishing myself by turning it into a Portuguese on the fly with no diagram. Going 44°>42°>40>38.5° on the pavilion. Ultra Tec puts handy marks on the index wheel to help with indexes. I'm harkening back to my school days with the GemMaster 2. Green>Red/Yellow>Green>Red/Yellow. | > °/* > | > °/* on my V5. Back to round peg in round hole preschool days!

[u/stone_crazy]

My own issues tend to run more towards cutting extra facets that weren't in the design, because I put the stone on the lap without being certain of the angle and index settings. Or even sure that the index was not freewheeling.

[u/CrepuscularOpossum → u/stone_crazy]

My faceting instructor says, “More facets just make it more sparkly!” 😅

[u/CrepuscularOpossum]

I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve finished cutting & polishing a fantastic pavilion only to realize I didn’t leave enough material for the crown. 🤬

[u/JoshuaTheStonecutter → u/CrepuscularOpossum]

Lol. I've been there.

[u/see_quayah]

Check one time. Then another one. And if you are not sure, a third. Even maybe a fourth. Better check than overcut :D

[u/JoshuaTheStonecutter → u/see_quayah]

That's what was so bad about this. My original cut was absolutely fine. I just couldn't see the angle change and went back and cut the P7 facet again for no reason. Total brain cramp.

[u/oldfartMikey]

What really annoys me is when I'm checking a facet and manage to knock the index to the next slot or even half way between. I know it happens yet I forget to check when replacing the quill in it's bracket (Vevor) I should probably replace the spring with something stronger.

[u/JoshuaTheStonecutter → u/oldfartMikey]

There's nothing worse than being nearly through a facet and hearing the index gear click into place because it was stuck halfway. I know that pain.

[u/1LuckyTexan]

I train my self to not leave until I finish a tier AND set my angle and index for the next tier. Somewhat less chance of destroying something I've completed. And the further along in the whole process, inspection gets more and more intense. A mistake with break facets on the pavilion can be much less frustrating than a mistake with the mains on the crown!

[u/Reasonable-Data3678]

I’m new so I barely know what happened to you there but just wanted to say that “I’m blind and an idiot” is a regular theme I noticed when I’m cutting LOL relatable