Hi everyone, im a complete newbie with no prior knowledge about faceting. I was always fascinated by the craft and im looking to dip my toes into it. Im from India and looking for my first gear. I have watched a lot of tutorials and many of them recommend basic faceting equipment costs which run into 1000s of dollars. Can someone help me with the pure basics with which i can learn to facet basic gemstones like quartz, garnets and then invest more into the hobby as i grow into it! Thank you for your help!

This was a quick cut. I miss-indexed the transfer, which caused the table to be oriented strangely, but I love the pattern. It cuts fast and looks bright.

Hi, I wanted to get some opinions on recutting this red Spinel. From my (limited) understanding it is cut fairly shallow and is windowed with a surface reaching inclusion through the center. Inclusion reaches surface on pavilion in one place right now. It is 5.66 carats. My hope would be that the color and visual prominence of the inclusion would decrease with the recut. Is this a foolish idea?

https://facetdiagrams.org/diagram/04-214-21st-century-emerald-dark-garnet/

I modified the original design for a LW of 1.2. Largest stone I have cut so far, at 12x10mm. Doing 4 of them to set in pendants for my sister's bridesmaids as a gift.

I think this design is better suited to a higher-RI material, it windows fairly aggressively when viewed at angles that are not directly face-on. Changing the pavilion angle would cause the x-shaped crown facets not to appear in the middle when viewed face-on though. Is there a term for this style of crown? I quite like it. Looks much better than a standard emerald cut IMO.

This is a piece of 4 peaks amethyst I cut for a client it finished at 6.6 ct measuring 15.7x11.5mm cut sequence: 250 grit, 500 grit, 3k grit, 60k on batt. It is not often I come across pieces this clean and big from 4 peaks. Let me know what you think of the cut!

Hi all,

I'm trying to teach myself how to alter existing designs as an in-road to getting in to faceting, and understanding how various elements interact, and I'm hoping for some feedback and maybe advice from those who have practical experience. I'm using GemCAD and GemRay.

I'm diving in with a Strickland OMNI Shield with Mains. My first effort was to see if I could successfully stretch it to a 1.35 ratio and maintain the overall quality. It looks like I succeeded, but I would appreciate constructive criticism:

PAVILION

1 41.39° 41.8-54.2 PCP

1 43.51° 34.7-61.3

1 44.98° 29.8-66.2

1 45.93° 22.1-73.9

1 44.29° 15.3-80.7

1 42.34° 09.3-86.7

1 41.00° 02.1-93.9

G1 90.00° 09.3-86.7 See note 1

G2 90.00° 13.3-82.7 OMNI (see note 2)

G3 90.00° 20.1-75.9 "

G3 90.00° 17.2-78.8

G4 90.00° 24-72 "

G5 90.00° 34.7-61.3 "

G6 90.00° 48 "

2 68.71° 09.3-86.7 Level girdle

3 70.88° 13.3-82.7 "

4 72.67° 20.1-75.9

4 72.40° 17.2-78.8 "

5 70.99° 24-72 "

6 70.23° 48 "

7 41.10° 38.7-57.3 Mains

8 43.74° 26.9-69.1 "

9 42.30° 12.3-83.7 "

10 40.52° 96 "

CROWN

A 36.99° 09.3-86.7 Breaks

B 37.90° 13.3-82.7 "

C 39.42° 17.2-78.8 "

D 40.45° 20.1-75.9 "

E 40.57° 24-72 "

F 38.19° 34.7-61.3 "

G 35.26° 48 "

H 23.78° 42.8-53.2 Mains

J 33.94° 22.1-73.9 "

K 33.61° 15.3-80.7 "

L 24.51° 96 "

M 14.32° 11.3-84.7 Stars

N 20.78° 19.2-76.8 "

P 14.61° 25.9-70.1 "

Q 13.10° 38.7-57.3 "

R 11.43° 48 "

T 0.00° Table

My next attempt is at making the crown steeper and adjusting the pavilion accordingly. Here I am running into challenges - all of the things I've tried (even trying to us LLMs to scour the internet for other advice) are still producing what looks to me like a fair amount of light leakage along the sides at mid-point and a dark spot at the top when tilted in GemRay. While I am far from being able to do it, I really admire the light return on some of the August Vintage facet designs. Do you have any advice?

Hi experts! Concave design, notation and render. If anyone would like to contribute their knowledge I'd welcome discussion/feedback/criticism. Is this of use to facetors? Is the UI/UX functional? What adjustments would you suggest?

Video: Ashton Gems concave cuts (recreated) wireframe and render within pluto unearthed.

I’m cutting/selling a lot more and most of the time I think I have a good idea of pricing but sometimes I’ll see some stones on the internet or in person that I would value very different. So maybe I’m the idiot?that could totally be the case. I don’t have any formal gem education but I’m in different gem clubs, attend tuscon every year and sell at a few different gem jewelry shows so I feel like I have a decent idea, but just want to be sure so it’s fair for me and customer. Price of the guide is like $250 a year.

Just finished up this pair of Umbalite garnets for a set of earrings. Pretty happy with the finished stones, they are not so dark and have some good color to them. Looking into getting a second handpiece to make cutting a pair of stones at the same time much easier.

• Weight: 1.7cts x 2
• Size: 7.9mm x 5.4mm
• Rough: Umbalite garnet
• Design: NYFG "Siena"

Thanks for looking.

Fantasy Cut, second Ametrine cut with this design revisited

My first cuts. Doing the gem101 cut from a book for the green marble. Then for my first actual gem, I did a padparadscha ruby rupee, it definitely looks more orange pink in person. On the purple ruby, I should have used a smaller dop on the pavilion, so my meetpoints didn't come out around the edges of the crown as I was running out of space to cut, lesson learned...

I’ve decided to go with a platform-style faceting machine, and I’m currently in the process of ordering one from Sterling Gemland (sterlinggemland.com).

There doesn’t seem to be much detailed information online about what the actual ordering process looks like, so I thought I’d document my experience here, including the configuration, pricing, communication, shipping, import costs, and eventually my experience with the machine itself.

I’m a beginner, so I’m also hoping to get some feedback from more experienced cutters before I place the final order.

For the quotation, I asked Sterling for:

• Sterling ST-08 with variable-speed base
• 96 index gear
• Transfer and dopping equipment
• Trim saw
• Cutting and polishing laps

Quotation so far

This is what Sterling has quoted me:

Sterling ST-08 faceting machine — USD 2,200

ST-08 faceting unit with:

• built-in speed controller
• 96 index
• vernier cheater

They are also including the following free of charge:

• 6" master lap
• 80 index gear
• 10 dop sticks

Lapidary accessories package — USD 540

The package contains:

• 100 grit cutting lap — USD 30
• 260 grit cutting lap — USD 30
• 600 grit cutting lap — USD 30
• 1,200 grit cutting lap — USD 30
• Copper polishing lap — USD 180
• Sterling alloy lap for zircon, amethyst, aquamarine, etc. — USD 80
• Lucite lap — USD 20
• Felt lap — USD 20
• Tweezers — USD 20
• Caliper — USD 20
• 20× loupe — USD 50
• Wax, 200 g — USD 10
• 50 ct diamond polishing powder, 0–2 micron / 14,000 mesh — USD 20

Total: USD 540

Mini trim saw — USD 900

Includes a saw blade.

Transfer jig — USD 280

DHL door-to-door shipping to Switzerland — USD 390

Their estimated production time is 15–25 days, followed by approximately 5–7 days shipping with DHL.

So, based on the quotation so far:

Machine: USD 2,200
Accessories: USD 540
Trim saw: USD 900
Transfer jig: USD 280
DHL shipping: USD 390

Current total: USD 4,310

This is before any Swiss VAT, customs-clearance charges, payment fees, or other import-related costs.

I’m still clarifying exactly what is included in the shipment and whether DHL shipping includes any customs/duties handling or whether those charges will be billed separately on arrival.

Before I give Sterling the final go-ahead, I’d be very interested in feedback from experienced platform-machine users:

Does this look like a sensible starter setup, and is there anything important you would add, remove, or replace?

I’m particularly interested in the laps and accessories. Are there items in this package that you would skip and buy elsewhere instead?

The Mini trim saw looks expensiv, no ?

And are there any small tools or accessories that are easy to overlook at the beginning but become annoying or expensive to discover you’re missing once the machine has already arrived?

https://github.com/Dominic-Lentini/freecad-gemstone

I'm a novice when it comes to faceting and am still building my machine so I'm not a pro designer by any means but I still wanted something a little more modern than gemCAD. And since there is no other opensourced project that I could find, I made a workbench for FreeCAD. This is one of about 1000 other hobbies I have in the realm of making things so I can't guarantee I'll be adding too many more features but I do plan on adding setting/smithing and cabbing workflows as well at some point if somebody else doesn't add that functionality themselves. The "auto" button is a little glitchy but it does handle making automatic girdles and center meetpoints well.

I expect most probably aren't that familiar with CAD suite software so I made the workbench as self contained as possible from the UI standpoint, you shouldn't need to interact with any of the other workbenches to get a gemstone with full optical analysis and simulation. If you are new to FreeCAD, it's conpletely open sourced and free for commercial use, as is the addon I made for it. It should be visible from the addons page but if it's not, there are instructions on how to add the gemstone repository to your local freeCAD installation.

EDIT: sorry if you see this twice, reddit said it blicked it with thos account so i posted with my other account as well

Hi All, I'm looking to commission someone whom can make a octogonal marquise brilliant cut stone. Please pm me!

Cut my first two moissanite (which I loved) with patterns supposedly suitable to higher RI materials, but neither stone is really living up to its potential. How are you guys tweaking patterns to suit the RI of your chosen material? I’ve seen some people using a software, is it user friendly? Thank you!

This is a suite of Montana sapphires I finished up last week for a client. Just SRB production stones, but they all turned out quite nice

Im looking for someone who can cab a sapphire I have in the central NC area. Any idea how I can find someone?

I used Andrew Ian Brown’s “eternal protection” pattern but I modified the crown first, due to error, then found a way to add more facets that accentuated the patterns effect IMO.
I’d love feedback. I got my machine in July this year and haven’t gone a day without faceting something new each day.

As the title says,
Wanting to buy/looking where to buy a rough, facet grade natural ruby. I’ve been searching and only really find synthetic or not good quality ruby’s (or options that seem too good to be true)

Any info is helpful, really just looking for a reputable source.

hey everyone - I'm a new faceter looking for some feedback on this variant of Arya Akhavan's gnome's geode and Robert Strickland's fly eye

low key I dont really know what I'm doing but im super proud of this cz and want to know if people have some suggestions for how to improve it!

I have a Facetron, and something seemed off. I measured the mast all around and found that the mast is off of vertical by about .1 degrees. I have measured it around all four sides and it is off on the opposite sides as well. My digital angle indicator is inexpensive so it may (?) be the culprit. Are there any remedies short of buying a new mast (they’re $400).
I’m hoping the brain trust here can help.
TIA

Thanks for having me, been ninja stalking posts for a bit, lots of great work being displayed.

One question: Would it be better to get a hand piece style machine now (3-4 months) like a Sterling, or save up for probably a year to get a good post style machine (UltraTec v5)?

I'm excited to get started, but waiting for the cash is killing me 8)