u/vanguard1256

Void Reaver by Arya Akhavan
Amethyst from Brazil

I quite liked cutting this. P3 and C4 facets cut very quickly. I may have overcut some of the P3 facets and probably should have cut them with my 1200 LL. Because of this I ended up cutting C4 and C5 on the LL. I did enjoy cutting this design and the tilt performance on this design is phenomenal. I also used a gemolight for the video/photos this time which is apparently better than all my other lights.

Aperture Science by Arya Akhavan
Ametrine from Bolivia

Second attempt cutting this design. It helped a lot knowing the speed the different tiers cut at. It let me optimize my lap sequence quite a bit. The color is not quite as strong in this parcel, but the tilt performance is really amazing. You can see it from so far away! I also didn’t leave a flaw on the pavilion and didn’t have to overcut the table, so there’s that. Of the three rectangle cuts I’ve done, this one I like the best so far.

Until I get an upgrade to my photography capabilities it seems like videos perform slightly better, so here we are! I think I’ll try Arya’s Void Reaver on a piece of amethyst next, and maybe trying out some aquamarine after that.

Aperture Science by Arya Akhavan
Santa Ana Madeira citrine from Brazil.

Trying to see if videos are a bit better than pictures from my phone. I found this cut a lot of fun for a rectangular piece of rough. However, I somehow missed a flaw on the tip of the pavilion, or I induced the damage when prying the stone off the dop. I also intentionally overcut the table because there was a fairly deep flaw on the table. I figured sacrificing those meets was worth not having a gash across the table.

In terms of cutting the design, I mostly used 360 plated to preform, 600 sintered for the rest of the cutting, 1200 LL for prepolish followed by CeOx. I cut C3 with the 1200 LL due to how quick they are to overcut. I opted to cut P3 this time, and I think it helped mask the pavilion flaw. I may try this one again in ametrine. I think it could look interesting with the color split.

Gamma brilliant by Jeff Ford

This piece of lab padparadscha was kind of a nightmare for me.

For one, I decided to do the polishing with only lightning laps as I have a full suite of them and don’t have a BATT yet. My lap progression was 360 plated (preform)>600 sintered>3k LL (prepolish)>8k LL>50k LL (final polish. The table is a bit hazy, and I may try to repolish it on a BATT later, but for now it is what it is.

The stone also popped off when I was on my second to last facet with the 50k polish. I made the executive decision to forego the last facet since I couldn’t tell which one it was that I didn’t polish yet anyway. Mounting in the cone dop was nerve wracking. I used to flat dop from the other side to make sure the stone was as centered as I could get it. I had to tweak all the crown facets by 2 indices up and -.125 on the vernier adjustment to get the crown facets to line up. And I think I managed that part pretty well. Meetpoints seemed the best I’ve done so far, so that’s good. Probably took about 10 hours of cutting with all the extra problems I had. I’ll probably try it again when I have my BATT.

Treforze by Arya Akhavan, peridot of unknown origin (gem club’s stash)

Did a test cut on a small piece of peridot, first material change for me since I started on quartz. It cuts with a lot less effort than the quartz family, which surprised me a bit. I’m not sure I did the polishing appropriately, as I went from 600 sintered straight to alox. It seemed smooth, but maybe I should’ve added a 1200 or 3k in between. I don’t think I ran into any lily pads but I did miss a fracture. Pictures still suck but I think my kitchen lighting is better.

SRB in Brazilian amethyst

This stone had a much deeper color than the other parcel of amethysts I have, and that was very evident during cutting. I think I overcut one of the main crown facets a smidge but it’s pretty hard to tell from the pictures I think. Every time I take these pictures reminds me I probably need an actual camera or at least a phone upgrade.

Treforze by Arya Arkhavan, .935 ct

Second time cutting this design. It is a fairly quick cut and doesn’t have that many facets, but the geometries are really quite nice. I think I did a better job polishing this one, and the clarity of this parcel of amethyst interacts quite well even though it’s a much lighter shade of color than I’m used to seeing.

Rand’s cut corner rectangle

2.14 ct Brazilian amethyst

This one was quite challenging. I think it probably works better on larger pieces since things were getting tight trying to fit all the crown facets on such a small area. Also I think I overcut the table making it too large and maybe causing some windowing. At some angles the stone looks good, but the pavilion features kind of phase out at a lot of oblique angles. I may have to try cutting this one again on a larger piece of rough.

4.565 ct left and 1.73 ct right

Standard round brilliant cut (SRB)

Stones #10 and #11 for me were done on some Madeira Citrine I had lying around. I decided to try my hand at the next step up from the simple brilliant cut I had done on the amethysts. Funny enough, the bigger one was cut first and took me a long time because I had to recut the pavilion as well as the girdle. I accidentally started cutting on the wrong index for the girdle making me redo all the girdle facets. When I cut the pavilion break facets, I didn’t finish cutting to a center point because I thought cutting the main facets would bring it to a point. Turns out cutting the main facets barely moves the center point. I narrowly didn’t have enough room for the table. I didn’t even cut the table and went straight to 1200 LL and cerium oxide as it happened to be at the exact height to meet the star facets. Funny enough this was probably my best yield at around 30%.

The next one ended up much smaller, but I did have to go through all the steps. I probably could have dopped better, as it ended up too close to one of the edges forcing me to cut away much of the rough. Much quicker to cut taking me only 2.5 hrs of cutting time, but I lost 90% of the weight as waste. Still working on getting consistently better yield.

I did enjoy cutting the SRB even though it feels like the PSL of the hobby.

Alpha brilliance cut by Jeff Ford

1.38 and 1.4 ct natural amethyst

I tried to challenge myself to cut a matched pair. I think I made a decent effort, though there was a .2 ct weight difference and a .2mm diameter difference. Also one has a larger table, and that seems to be the biggest deal as far as I can tell. This version of the round brilliant cut was pretty easy since all the cuts are basically the same depth. It is simplified from the SRB in that the crown star facets and pavilion break facets are omitted.