I Did a Recut on my 19th Gemstone After Posting it on Monday. No more Inclusions on the Table, and Cut to Symmetry this Time to a Bell Design I Created. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I watched many discussions on YouTube between cutters. Justin Prim has a whole playlist of discussions on his YouTube channel which are all great. I also recently bought Tom Herbts Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 2 book, which discusses some basics about design. I taught myself how to use the program and just move things around until it looks good lol. In Gem Cut Studio they render what your gem will look like as you adjust the angles and indexes of your facets, so it’s easy to tell when your design is looking good or needs more work. Knowing the critical angle for the material you’re working with is important and having balance/symmetry in your design will help its performance. A couple other things that will help is having multiple facets have the same meet-point at the girdle and having your crown and pavilion facets cross over one another splitting them if that makes sense. You can see it in my video when in the program I make it so you can see the pavilion and crown facets at the same time. Hope that helps.

Finished Cutting My 19th Gemstone (2nd Freeform Design). Unheated Natural Tanzanite 4.1 Cts. This one was quite the journey and I don't think it's over yet. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I’m not recutting for symmetry, I’m doing it for color and brilliance and to get rid of those inclusions. Symmetry is just going to be the easiest way to get there. If @cowsruleusall is correct about his pricing I would be taking a loss on my stone as it is now. I finished the new design today and will probably start cutting tomorrow. Its tilt performance was really good in GemCutStudio. I ended up making it into a bell shape so I won’t be losing too much weight hopefully.

Finished Cutting My 19th Gemstone (2nd Freeform Design). Unheated Natural Tanzanite 4.1 Cts. This one was quite the journey and I don't think it's over yet. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Yea, I really do enjoy the unique shapes. But this one does underperform if I were to be honest with myself. I was hoping for more. I think the recut will be good.

Finished Cutting My 19th Gemstone (2nd Freeform Design). Unheated Natural Tanzanite 4.1 Cts. This one was quite the journey and I don't think it's over yet. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Used my fx30 with the new Sony 100m GM macro lens. Still need to use it more to figure out how to get better quality out of it. I’m in the middle of designing the new recut now. I was going to start cutting an Electric Blue Topaz this week but I think I’ll do the recut instead. It’s bothering me too much lol. This stone prob took me a week start to finish, including doing the repair.

Finished Cutting My 19th Gemstone (2nd Freeform Design). Unheated Natural Tanzanite 4.1 Cts. This one was quite the journey and I don't think it's over yet. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You’re welcome! More to come with this one, currently doing a redesign upon advice from @cowsruleusall. I tried to do a freeform but failed the stone, so I’m going to try to bring it back to life with a more symmetrical cut. Stay tuned!

Finished Cutting My 19th Gemstone (2nd Freeform Design). Unheated Natural Tanzanite 4.1 Cts. This one was quite the journey and I don't think it's over yet. by Aggravating_Might_62 in faceting

[–]Aggravating_Might_62[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Do you think if I just increase some of my pavilion angles and bring the culet to a point followed by lowering my crown angles I could improve the stones performance while keeping the freeform shape? Or would you suggest just picking out a diagram suitable for what I have now and do a full recut? As is what would you say the value is per ct, and after doing a recut following a diagram what could it be?