r/faceting

Very happy with the result of this tourmaline cut. My teacher suggested this design which he didn't have a diagram for, so I took his notes and had a look at some of the stones he completed and made a diagram in GemCad which was a fun experience.

I’m glad I finished the Wakefieldite! It has tons issues, but the sparkle really distracts from them, luckily. Thanks u/cowsruleusall for advice!

Lab Wakefieldite from Turtle’s hoard in Twinkle Triangle by Henrik Prins 2016

Open to any pointers on how to photograph these things! Photos and videos never do them justice.

After what feels like an eternity at the bench, I am finally finished with this project. I haven’t hit the final scale weight yet, but it’s definitely over 10 carats—my guess is somewhere in the 10-12 ct range.
I decided on a custom-modified emerald cut for this one. Instead of standard corners, I went with a three-facet break to soften the look, topped with an antique-style crown.
Honestly, this stone was a battle from start to finish. I started with a rough piece that had a nasty feather/crack running through it. I really wanted to keep the weight, but I eventually had to make the hard call and grind the inclusion out entirely. The pavilion was a nightmare—I ended up re-cutting it three times. Just when I thought I was in the clear, a bit of pitting occurred during polishing, followed by a chip that forced me to re-cut the pavilion again.
The crown was a smooth ride by comparison, though it still required a ton of fine-tuning to get the meetpoints perfect.
This is hands-down the longest I’ve ever spent on a single stone. But looking at it now, the color and the depth are insane. It’s an untreated Tanzanite with a crazy natural color shift—I’ve seen some call it "tri-color"—and it’s absolutely staying natural. No heat, just pure crystal.
I’m incredibly proud of the precision on this one. Cut on my Sterling ST08. Definitely the most rewarding piece I’ve ever worked on.

This is a design is shared in the USFG Newsletter from March 2023, called "look at all the pretty lights." Cut here in a yellow cerium YAG. Go check out that newsletter issue and cut it for yourself! It's a fairly straightforward design, and looks great from the R.I. of Spinel all the way to the highest R.I.s possible

(if you're not a USFG member, go and join already)

Hi everyone,
I am currently working on a beautiful, untreated Tanzanite, cutting it into a custom-modified emerald cut. As it stands, the stone would finish at over 10 carats—possibly even up to 12.
However, I have encountered a small "feather" inclusion located right on the edge. It is only visible from one specific angle. Before I proceed to the polishing stage, I am at a crossroads and would appreciate your input:
Option A: Should I polish it as is, see how it looks finished, and decide then?
Option B: Should I grind the inclusion out completely, even though it will significantly reduce the final carat weight?
Option C: Is a feather inclusion in this position generally considered negligible, especially once the facets are polished and the light refraction/total internal reflection is fully active?
For those of you with experience working with Tanzanite: would you prioritize the final weight or the "cleanliness" of the stone in this scenario? I am curious if the finished facets typically hide such a peripheral inclusion or if it remains a distraction.
Thanks in advance for your help!

I am already at my wit’s end with this stone, and I haven’t even finished the pavilion.
Lab Wakefieldite from Turtle’s Hoard
I pre-polished with 13k PCD pandimonuim on a phenolic lap, and moved on to a cerium oxide ultra lap for final polish, and I polished a good number of facets before coming to this one, and suddenly a whole chunk of the facet came off? It was right at the beginning of polishing this one facet, so I don’t think it was too much friction or from pressing too hard, but I could be wrong. Anyone know what causes this and how I can prevent it?
I already had a user-error issue with putting the stone to the lap on the wrong index gear at one point, and that set me back quite a bit.

Attempting the Twinkle Triangle cut by Henrik Prins 2016

There is no topaz one. I just needed to make that joke.

This is my most recent finished stone: a 4.65ct, 10.3mm electric blue topaz in a modified standard round brilliant. The modification is a slightly shallower pavilion and a much shallower crown to enhance brightness at the cost of some weight, but I'm not too concerned about size. It's all about making the stones look nice, and I think I did a decent job on this one.

Learned a lot about adjusting speed and wheel rotation direction to combat smaller issues, and there was a lot of trial and error on polish, settling on 100k to clean it up. Topaz is interesting to work with, but not my favorite. Oh, and NFS, because rules, haha.

Wow, what an adventure that was!

Just finished my first stone on my Sterling ST-08 handpiece machine :)

I've been following along with Justin Prim's Faceting Apprentice online/distance course and I can't imagine attempting to learn to cut on this machine without it!

I decided to start my journey on the Sterling half due to relative affordability, and half because Justin's videos sold me on the promise of a more agile and intimate approach to cutting. I'm a super tactile person that values flexibility over rigidity so I drank deeply of that kool aid lol.

Not shown:

'Stone 0' which got scrapped because my index wheel wasn't marked the same as his and I totally mucked up the crown breaks.

*and*

Chipping the culet off the bathroom tile wall while I was trying to dry the handpiece after cleaning it off post-pavilion cuts. WOW did I feel like an idiot!

I recut the pavilion to remove the chip, but there must have been more subsurface damage because a tiny flake still came off during prepolish. At that point I was done splitting hairs and just finished the thing.

Thanks to everyone in this subreddit for the constant inspiration and generosity sharing their knowledge <3