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Yes! Gem thread is back! I'll have to organize some things and post some pictures when I get a chance.
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Jul 28, 2019 19:07
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Bhurak posted:I've been looking at picking up a couple boules of synthetic Ruby to try and make something out of. What should I watch out for? I do a lot of metal work so files and such aren't that foreign to me. Obviously a regular steel file won't do the job but what is the basic tooling I need to make a thing? You're going to need diamond coated tools afaik. Diamond saws, dremel (or handpiece) tools that are diamond coated/sintered. Most of the stones I cut are sapphires and everything from cutting the stone down to polishing is with some form of diamond.
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Jul 31, 2019 16:34
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Joshua was beside himself when he posted those, it was obvious how much they meant to him. And if they mean that much to someone like him, they're very, very rare haha. His spinel collection is nuuuts.
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Aug 7, 2019 06:39
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Xun posted:Does anyone here use diasticks from gearloose with a water? How much water do you use and do you keep the water dripping while you cut? I don't think I like using an oil based extender and want to try something new. I've used his cutting grits (325 and 600) with water. I found they washed off quite easily but that might just be the cutting grits? Seemed like too much of a contamination risk in the end.
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Aug 8, 2019 04:33
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large hands posted:There are places in the gemfields in central Queensland where you can pay to dig up a wheel barrow of dirt from the alluvial deposits and run it through a sluice looking for sapphire. Hahaha holy poo poo you found that in a dirt bucket. Good on you, I currently have a aussi sapphire I cut (it's a parti though) that's about 2.7ct in the store I work for at $3000/ct CAD. If I was selling it loose and not through a retailer it wouldn't be quite as much but still...you made out like a bandit.
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Aug 19, 2019 22:00
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large hands posted:I know right? I spent the rest of that trip with my eyes glued to the ground expecting to trip over gems. I can see how people get the fever. In Coober Pedy they told crazy stories about people finding opalised ammonites digging new driveways, it's almost enough to get you hooked. Ain't that the truth! I'm hooked just from scouring the internet, can't imagine what I'd be like if I could dig them up. For some content (finally), here is a ring I finished a few months ago, a 7.34ct cushion cut Chivor emerald. It is shockingly clean, a beautiful colour, and easily the finest emerald I have ever worked with. I did not cut this one, because I probably would have had a heart attack doing so haha. 
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Aug 20, 2019 00:10
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Currently cutting up this unheated kenyan sapphire   Could be a bit dark, who knows!
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Sep 30, 2019 23:56
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Scarodactyl posted:*sometimes some stones (some garnets in particular) will chip off bigger sharp bits just to screw with you, and those can be a real nuisance, but it isn't that typical. This absolutely hosed with me. I got a bag of so-so garnets to practice with as my first stones, and one of them must have broken off a chunk and embedded in my pre-polish lap. Took me a while to figure that one out! Scarodactyl posted:Claes: nice! It'll be interesting to see its performance when it's done. Dark blue C with a teal cross-axis? Thanks! Yeah I'm curious, cutting it into an omni oval so we'll see how she does. I think that's it? Looks to be mostly green with some blue bits, which makes that teal cross axis yeah. Hopefully I get some representation of all the colours in the final stone
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Oct 1, 2019 18:00
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Finished cutting that stone, came out super dark. What a bummerrrrr. I've got some more rough and I think I'm going to try orienting it differently so that even though the yield is lower the stone looks brighter.
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Oct 9, 2019 16:51
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Scarodactyl posted:Even if it came out dark I'd like to see it. You can always have a maglite right out of the field of view, works for selling dark tourmaline rough. Yeah I should take some pics. Never enough time!
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Oct 17, 2019 17:42
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Scarodactyl posted:Inclusions aren't desirable in emerald (aside from trapiches but that's a different can of worms). They are considered particularly acceptable in emerald because clean stones are very rare (apparently chromium tends to mess with their crystal growth), but stones that are properly clean sell for far, far more. 100%, we have some stock of emeralds from the Chivor mine in Columbia and I find them very interesting for a few reasons. One is that they are very, very clean for emeralds, only a few inclusions here and there and relatively small, and two because they have this incredible slightly turquoise green colour that is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to photograph accurately.
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Oct 18, 2019 18:48
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Lawnie posted:Are there any jewelers willing to take a custom commission for an engagement ring, hopefully delivering in the next couple months? My girlfriend found a ring she loves on Etsy but the artisan isn’t currently taking custom orders and I would really prefer to get moissanite stones rather than diamonds. For reference, here’s the ring; she loves the dainty laurel leaf pattern, and the artist has an asking price of about $500. It’s rose gold with three tiny stones. To be clear, I wouldn’t expect anyone to make an exact copy of this, that seems a bit unethical to me. Yeah I'd be down. Shoot me a PM and I can send you examples of my work and we can talk details and timeline.
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Nov 6, 2019 03:05
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Xun posted:Thanks to advice from Claes I hopefully have achieved the shiniest non-quartz gem I've ever cut! I still need to flip it and cut the crown but I'm excited Looks great! Can't wait to see it finished 
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Nov 12, 2019 18:00
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Insane. Likely a targeted job for someone wanting these pieces (I hope). Best case scenario is they're returned, second best case is the person who paid to have them stolen keeps them intact, and the worst case is they're all melted down. Any word on if this was done by the pink panthers?
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Nov 26, 2019 00:27
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Residency Evil posted:Is there anything special about buying diamond stud earrings versus buying a diamond engagement ring? My wife has mentioned wanting a pair at some point. Is Blue Nile the way to go for something as commoditized as stud earrings? Honestly, should be fine. Diamonds in earrings are of lower quality usually because people don't get as up close to them as they do with engagement rings. I still default to custom jewellers because their work is better, but diamond earrings are pretty simple. Rorac posted:So, what is the best place/way to learn lapidary? I want to save up to take courses as a gemologist so that I can grade gems, but I also am interested in learning to actually cut them as well. Am I being dumb with wanting the initial gemologist schooling, or is that actually a reasonable career path? Not entirely sure on what gemologist schooling could do for you career wise, but as for the lapidary the best idea is to find local rock and mineral clubs in your area and see if they have classes. I took a 3 day course on cutting gems and then bought equipment and taught myself the rest. I was already making jewellery so maybe it came a bit faster to me than some, but many people are self taught and do incredible work. Tom's book "Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 1: The Essentials" is gospel and basically takes you from starting to learn the process right up to cutting your first stone.
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Dec 18, 2019 18:06
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Scarodactyl posted:Is anyone else at the Tucson gem shows? It might be fun to do another meetup if so. Wasn't there this year  Next year for sure though!
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Feb 3, 2020 18:24
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Seluin posted:I was looking for gems (particularly weird rare poo poo) and facet rough. I always love seeing the dino bones and fossils. It's like the huge crystals and...uhh...geodes? The big amethyst ones. It's not what I go for but it's always cool to see!
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Feb 10, 2020 18:02
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Xun posted:
Hah! Cut anything fun lately?
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Jul 3, 2020 21:11
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bend posted:There are some really absolutely lovely pieces in here, not sure how I missed this. That's a tough one. If they're too fragile to be touched then they won't last long in any sort of jewellery. I suppose you could encase them in resin somehow? But that might not be the look you're going for.
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Jul 6, 2020 18:17
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Xun posted:IT IS DONE BEAUTIFUL.
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Aug 5, 2020 16:53
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Seluin posted:Ha! I appreciate the pedantics Nice work on the pics! Yes in my experience, Pads are a real pain in the rear end. The BIGGEST issue I have had though, is emeralds. We have some stock of Muzo's and they've got this beautifully slight teal/blue tint to the green that is...almost impossible to get accurately.
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Aug 10, 2020 18:01
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obviously I hosed it posted:I want to swap out a stone from a bezel setting and replace it with another stone. How much should I expect to pay a jeweler to do this, roughly? I understand prices can vary. I also wonder about settings— can, say, an emerald setting that measures 11 by 9 hold a 10.5 by 9 or close, or maybe over a little bit, cushion cut stone, rectangular octagonal, squared off oval shaped stone or whatever easily? Does the stone going into that emerald setting have to be an exactly emerald cut stone or can it be an octagon shape, a cushion cut, or another similarly shaped but not exactly perfectly shaped or perfectly matched in size stone? Bezels have to more exact than prong settings, and they need to be pretty close. Often if they're different the old bezel is taken out completely and a new one put in. The new stone needs to be more or less the same dimensions +/- 0.25mm and even then the farther away you get from the original size the more jank it's going to look. Some stones can be fudged more (rounds), but emerald cuts are harder due to the differing shapes, sizes, and corner lengths. Price is going to vary pretty wildly based on the size of the new stone, if it's even possible, and the amount of metal needed. WHenever I'm redoing bezels, I cut the stone out so I usually need to remake the entire bezel itself. If you have a pic of the setting I can try to give some more advice.
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Sep 1, 2020 17:14
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obviously I hosed it posted:Sent it to you! Okay
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Sep 2, 2020 19:14
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Solenna posted:I got tree agate and seraphinite and crazy lace agate and a couple bonus cabs from wholesalerocks and they're all really pretty! (and slightly less blue than this picture, cellphone camera has crap colour accuracy) Very nice! I love those marbley textures.
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Sep 21, 2020 19:37
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Very cool! Love the colour of that cobalt spinel.
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Oct 11, 2020 21:14
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Scarodactyl posted:I just got my very first opposed bar back from the cutter! Whoa!!! Looks awesome. Did you get Jordan to do this one or someone else?
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Nov 7, 2020 21:32
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subpar anachronism posted:Thanks, is there a particular kind I should look for? You can get gem calipers from a company named presidium if you want to go full tilt. If not, any digital small set of calipers should do.
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Dec 5, 2020 23:19
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Clean Bitch posted:Hi! I'm looking to have a jeweler mount an emerald cut white sapphire on a white gold pendant (I want some cheap bling but I prefer white gold). Does anyone have any advice for how to find a white sapphire for this? Those are both lab created sapphire but if that isn't an issue then go for it! Lab created will be much cheaper and in white sapphire look almost the same as the natural counterpart.
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Feb 25, 2021 01:50
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Brennanite posted:14k, so it sounds like I'm good. Thanks. It shouldn't be too expensive! It's very dependent on saturation so a paler/lighter one should be budget friendly. Hard to nail down specifics though.
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Mar 2, 2021 02:35
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Xun posted:I've been struggling with this stupid quartz for ages. Spent 30 minutes trying to polish one facet only for it to scratch at the very end. gently caress this I'm buying a new 1200 lap for quartzes I don't cut quartz for this reason, tried it once and was like "nope, never again!"
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Mar 10, 2021 20:36
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effika posted:What's a reasonable price for a 16" 3mm domed omega sterling silver necklace? The one I got back in the 90s finally broke, and I need a replacement. Have a picture?
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Mar 26, 2021 19:43
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effika posted:It's not in great shape and I think multiple links are near failure, but here! Sorry I totally spaced on this! I'd say amazon is an okay bet. If you can get to a local place that's great, but they'll be ordering it in from somewhere else.
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Apr 15, 2021 19:17
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effika posted:I wound up with the $27 Amazon option just to see, and it's probably OK? At least for now, for what I use it for. I do wish I knew what was actually going on with the huge price spread, though! My guess is just different companies having different profit margins, you'll probably be fine! Xun posted:
Quartz can die in a fire! What kind of lap?
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Apr 19, 2021 21:19
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Xun posted:Remember that lovely quartz? I finally loving finished it!! Beautifully done!!
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Jun 21, 2021 07:32
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Yeah When people say that Alexandrites are expensive, they really mean it. The prices get wild for a good colour change in what would be considered standard jewellery sizes.
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Jan 22, 2022 04:36
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Scarodactyl posted:Today we launched a new material, a rising star in high end technical applications but previously unknown in the world of gems. Have you upgraded to making materials yourself now? Or getting them custom made to your specs?
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May 25, 2022 18:56
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Scarodactyl posted:Not yet but we're looking into it. That's awesome!
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May 26, 2022 16:37
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Scarodactyl posted:Some materials will never be in short supply, but a surprising number of companies that once sold synthetic rough to faceters are either gone or don't do it anymore (ie Chatham only sells jewelry now, Djeva's gone, The Gem Factory closed its doors, Tairus lost their Russian half a while back). Once-classic materials like strontium titanate have had very spotty availability as rough, and even some of the flame fusion sapphire and spinel colors are out of production. That said I think there will be enough interesting synthetics just from the industrial stream to keep faceters in rough for the foreseeable future. We have a variety listed on our etsy page ( https://turtleshoard.etsy.com ) and keep finding more cool stuff--lots of parcels vaguely inbound. We just got more LuAG rough in as well as a bit of old stock synthetic alexandrite (the real synthetic alex, not the V-doped sapphire often sold as alex). Really stoked I got that 8g chunk of LuAG from you. It's weird getting into the synthetic game now with things dropping out, but at least it's easier than trying to find nice natural sapphire rough 
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Jun 10, 2022 23:56
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Nae posted:Are the shortages in rough due to the current global supply chain issues hitting every other industry, or are deposits drying up, too? So much of what I know about gems is on the retail side and I want to learn more about the acquisition/cutting process, but it seems like a rough time all around. Sapphire was tough anyways purely because of demand. Any rough is going to go through a lot of bigger players before I see it, and some countries (specifically Sri Lanka) I believe have made it illegal to export rough, so the stones are cut within the country. It's a good policy that helps them, it just adds another layer to what's available. That was all pre covid, which has added even more things as others have mentioned.
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Jun 13, 2022 16:33
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Leperflesh posted:Does Costco definitively trace their diamonds from an ethical source? Does anyone? The kimberly process works as well as any system is going to, so the vast majority of stones now are going to be above board. That is solely from the aspect of human rights issues, and not from the ethics of mining for them at all, or power usage from coal for lab grown stones etc.
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Jul 8, 2022 18:43
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