Being a well-informed customer when buying natural gemstone rough for faceting will save you time, money, and aggravation. Before I started faceting gemstones, I worked primarily with opaque gemstone material, creating cabochons and carvings. I had very little understanding of the criteria for purchasing good faceting rough and found limited educational resources.
It did not help that my initial sources and experiences for facet-grade rough were less than stellar. It was very frustrating to get an order for a faceted gemstone from a client, place an order for a facet-grade rough gemstone with a broker, and then receive a very included gemstone unsuitable for faceting. This situation put me in a difficult position between the client wanting their faceted gemstone promptly and arguing with the rough gemstone dealer that their piece of rough was unsuitable for faceting. It was then that I decided to educate myself on the aspects and terminology of quality facet-grade rough gemstones.
Like every industry, the gemstone industry had a lexicon all its own and levels of expertise, which meant I had to start at the novice level and teach myself. I began by reading several gemstone books and earlier published faceting books, and I also took several gemstone classes, which were offered online by the Gemological Institute of America. What I learned could be distilled down to the four main categories that have the most significant bearing on the quality of gemstones, both rough and finished. These are the four C classifications:
Clarity - the level of transparency for a gemstone
Carat - the weight/size of the rough and finished gemstone
Color - the available and desirable color of gemstone types
Cut - the design in which the gemstone is faceted
This story is from the August 2020 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
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This story is from the August 2020 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORGAN HILL POPPY JASPER
In California, there are very few places to collect semi-precious stones. Many locations from the past have been either exhausted of the material or the land has been developed.
THE ACORN
The briolette gemstone has the same design attributes of a regular gemstone, however, the pavilion is elongated and the crown is usually domed. This is perfect for an elegant pendant, earrings or a pendulum.
HOW TO PUT A PROTECTIVE CAP ON A CAB
To protect a specimen cab, often a cap is needed. In my case, I had a slab with the because of the color of the background and the pattern. This background had a more silicified consistency than most sandstones. It had no graininess like most sandstone, so I'm inclined to compare it to a jasper. The pattern was typical of a dendrite.
The Resilient Revival of Anne Brontë & Her Stones
For the first time, the Anne Brontë rock collection underwent complete description and identification, and along with Professor Hazel Hutchison of Leeds University and Dr. Enrique Lozano Diz at ELODIZ (a company specializing in spectroscopy analysis), an analysis of that collaboration, Anne Brontë and Geology: A Study of her Collection of Stones, was published in April 2022 in Volume 47, Issue 2 of the peer-reviewed journal, Brontë Studies & Gazette.\"
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Asteroid Samples Are Said to Hold Invaluable Secrets
If Only Scientists Can Pop the Lid!
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Need a Map of the Ocean Floor?
Call in the Seals!
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As I reported last June, the world is racing to find sustainably renewable, nonpolluting sources of energy to replace our carbon-based reserves of coal, oil and gas.
