Step One: Selecting the Rough

If you are interested in cutting your own gemstones, the starting point for any gem cutting is, of course, the rough. Ground into a shape close to that of the finished stone. Sometimes rough looks like a crystal. One side of the stone is cut with a flat surface – this will eventually become the table or main flat facet on top of the stone. The preform is sawed in diamond grit saws. Sometimes it just looks like a chunk of colored glass. Ground on coarse grinding wheels. At this stage the stone is called a preform, and you can see what the final shape will be. Gemstone rough comes from small mines all around the world, and most goes to commercial cutters, but there are a few dealers who specialize in selling rough, and it is possible to buy gemstone rough and save money. The amethyst miners actually take the rough crystals of amethyst. Strike it with hammers to knock off the flawed portions of the stone. In the beginning, this main flat facet is used to orient the rest of the stone. The rough gem is then sawn with a diamond saw. This produces a clean piece of rough that has broken edges as shown in the photo on my site. A big key at this first step is to identify and remove any remaining flaws and then find the shape of the rough that will yield the largest stone out of what remains. The “shaped” rough is called a preform.

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Step Three: Dopping the Stone

In my example, a pear shaped preform is “glued” to the brass dop stick. The flat tops of these dops are matched to the flat table facet on the stone. The glue that is used is actually a special high temperature wax.

In my example, the dopped preform has was been glued flat side down on to the brass dop stick. The location of each is set by the toothed gear and angle protractor and the hand set. The mast set up is also old – it dates from the 1950s. In spite of that, it still works quite well. Polishing – this is true with both diamonds as well as colored stones. Regular faceting is a process of grinding. This process is used for diamonds only. Twenty four facets on the cullet have now been individually cut and polished. Diamonds are cut. Polished on one lap. Polished on a lap on my homemade faceting machine. My machine is partly home made., but the rest of the machine is home made. The rough end of the stone will be cut away to form the pointed base of the stone. Each flat facet is cut on a grinding lap, and then the lap is changed and each facet is polished on a polishing lap. Here the preform is being cut. The bottom part of the stone is cut first. One or two different grit flat lap wheels are used to grind in the facets. A polishing lap is used to put a final polish on them. Then only in place of sawing to prepare them for cutting. This is a polishing lap on the machine in the photo.

Step Five: Cut and Polish the Cullet, Transfer

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The bottom part of the stone, (also called the cullet) has now been cut and polished – all the facets on the base are now polished and complete. Now it is time to flip it over and cut the upper portion of the stone, known as the crown. In order to do that, the stone must be transferred to another dop. The new dop will hold the base of the stone so that the top portion is exposed for cutting and polishing. As the first dop had a flat surface to match the table facet, the second dop has a “V” shaped notch to match the “V” shaped bottom of the stone.

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Step Six: Polish the Table and the Crown

The stone has now been transferred from the first dop in order to turn it over for polishing the top side of the stone – called the crown. The first facet to be cut and polished on the crown side is the top flat or table facet. This photo shows the table facet complete and polished but none of the rest of the other top (or crown) facets cut in – they are to be cut and polished next. In order to do this, a special 45 degree dop holder is needed to allow us to reach the table.

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After all the facets are cut in and polished, Buy Man Made Diamonds the stone is removed from the dop stick and cleaned to remove any remaining wax. The wax can be softened by gentile heat, and most of the wax removed. The rest of the wax used in this process washes off the stone when it is soaked in alcohol. If you take a look at my website, you will see that it turned out very nice, didn’t it?

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So there it is, the whole process from a lump of purple chunky glass like stone, Buy Diamonds Online Thailand (just click the following website) (Read A great deal more) to a beautiful gem.