Concave

Fantasy progress

Pictured below is a 10.41 carat, 12.9 mm. colorless topaz that was one of the batch of stones that I cut over the past few weeks while I was getting familiar with using my new UltraTec Fantasy machine to cut concave facets.

Most of the work was done with rose quartz which is not the most exciting material. However, the price is right for the practice situations where you expect that major errors are likely. And they did happen. I learned that timing is important when bringing down the stone to the mandrel as unlike the OMF where only the mandrel is moving in and out, with the Fantasy machine, the entire tool drive moves. I was not paying attention and collision with the slash guard took off a big chunk of the pavilion in one instance. Needless to say, lesson learned.

Now I have a more colorful and varied batch dopped up and ready to go for the next phase where I start exercising some of the options of the fantasy machine which go beyond what I had with the old OMF.

I am also getting used to being back in my workroom. We moved things around for remodeling a couple years ago and somehow just never got back until a new piece of equipment provided extra motivation.

 

 

 

Beginning with an Angle

Here is my first attempt using my new Ultra Tec Fantasy machine for something other than straight on concave facets.

This is a 9.49 carat lemon citrine which measures 14.9 x 10.8 mm.

one third of the way

Here is the first stone cut using the new fantasy machine. It is a 12.1 mm., 7.11 carat rose quartz hexagon with concave facets on both pavilion and crown.

For faceting demonstrations at the local club shows, I typically want something that is big enough for visitors to see, but inexpensive enough that I won’t be upset when working in less than ideal conditions (distractions!) results in mistakes. Lemon citrine and rose quartz seem to be what I end of choosing for these situations.

Since I had a number of pieces of rose quartz pre-formed from a chunk I acquired for just that purpose last year from Steve Ulatowski / New Era Gems, I am working with that for the “learning experiences” I know I am going to have getting used to new equipment and cutting options. It was a good choice — on this piece I had several “oops” happenings ranging from rolling off the mandrel (had it turning the wrong way) to running off the end of the mandrel (did not check the mast position adequately).

Yet Another Ametrine

This 7.44 carat, 11.5 mm. gem is the last of my ametrine parcel purchased from Steve Ulatowski / New Era Gems last February in Tucson.

It was another experiment to see if the gold / purple color break could show up and still have a stone that sparkles and glows.

The camera shows the color variation better than it appears to the eye.

Just for Fun

This stone was as much for fun as for anything else. It is a 8.47 carat prasiolite, 13.2 mm.in diameter. The pavilion had a row of narrow concave facets splitting the normal culet row facets. Then the crown was rounded up to the table instead of using rows of flat facets. Finally a number of concave facets were added to the crown.

The camera once again sees things the do not quite match what I see. The pattern in the center is not something that I “see”. and the light and dark pattern is much more subtle.