Design is Star Cut by Justin K Prim, but adjusted for the absurdly high RI this stone has. Pretty chuffed with how this came out!
Tiny orange zircon. I cut this once and was super unhappy because only a few facets would take a polish. Bought more lightning laps to give me more prepolish steps, and suddenly everything is happy. Design is Square Princess Cut by Justin K. Prim
Design is Fusion Seven Oval 1.43. Got some finer grit lightning laps and now I'm getting a finish I really like on tourmalines.
Design is Emerald Cut by Justin K Prim. Probably a bit too much colour mixing on the ends of the stone, but I'm happy with the effect
Simple little stone to start off my year. Design is Asscher-Cut by Justin K Prim.
Oh damn that's pretty! Nicely done to the both of you!
Design is Trifectancy, by Andrew Brown. This was much larger but the culet decided to stay behind in the cone dop, forcing me to start over. Still, I love how affordable this stuff is, and it always looks nice.
Stunning work, and a lovely story
Cheap bit of tourmaline but I'm happy how it turned out. The c axis didn't look this closed when I picked the design, but I probably should have done something to hide that, whoops. Design is Emerald Cut by Justin K Prim.
I've got several very pale, quite long aquamarine crystals, and wanted to do something interesting with one of them. The design is Blue Ice, by Jeff Graham. Long facets are a pig to polish, I don't know why I keep picking them. I'm pretty happy with this, although I mistakenly overcut a facet by quite a bit, making me lose most of the girdle.
Woah damn, I need to step up my game
To celebrate a year of doing the most expensive hobby ever, I tried my hand at doing a Portuguese cut. Sadly the veils weren't obvious until I started cutting, but I hate throwing things away so I just followed through to the end. Design is Round Portuguese Cut by Justin K. Prim, in amethyst
Ice clear polish, and perfect meetpoints too! Fantastic!
I've used the AlOx lightning lap because powders hate me
Quartz is definitely a bastard. The only thing that helped me was getting hold of a couple of lightning laps - https://lightninglap.com/ - the 3k resin bonded lap polishes like an 8k, and then a CeOx resin polishing lap from them.
I've never figured out how to get a satisfying polish with anything I have to apply to a lap, it just becomes scratch city.
Stone looks lovely though!
Fantastic work! It took me at least 6 months before I could get a finish like that!
My first scapolite, in Trioptic Blast by Andrew Brown. I was expecting a lot more trouble with this, due to cleavage planes, but it was actually a joy to cut
Bit of an experimental one, in my own design. Chunky bloodstone, cut from my stock of cabbing stuff. This guy decided to yeet off of the dop, but I managed to save it with superglue. Still, it's made the table a touch wonky.
Another £1 special, a super cracked bit of topaz that actually polished up real nice. Design is Round Brilliant by Justin K. Prim.
I can imagine getting a good polish on that was also an arse, I always struggle with long facets
Woah how many facets is that on the pavilion?
I can thoroughly recommend his book on commercial facet designs!
The stone I cut this from was half a £2 tumblestone I picked up from a gem show, so it's a great way of using up uninspiring quartz group stuff
Oh I love the richness of the colour there
"Fat girdle habit" is a great name for a band