Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:21 am Posts: 421 Location: Australia
I got my hands on some tourmaline pieces a while back. The pieces were heavily included mostly with dirt patches in them. I wanted them fro the interest value as they were mostly bi/multi-coloured. There is one piece that i sawed out of one of the crystals that will facet. The A B axis is a light almost pastel pink with a slight overtone of yellow and presents a quite attractive colour. The C axis is open and is a vivid pink/red.
What would the best way to facet this rough?
_________________ It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:23 am Posts: 71 Location: Brisbane, Australia
It is very difficult to say for sure without holding the stone in hand, or seeing photographs, but for me it would come down to the shape of the stone.
Decide what shape you would cut on the C, and then decide what shape you would cut on the AB.
Would you prefer a larger pastel stone, or a smaller vivid stone?
Here's a picture of one cut by L. Bruce Jones. It was yellow on the C axis and more of a gold on the A-B. It was cut on the A-B axis. Notice how the color changes by the quadrant? That's the bleed-in of color from either the C axis or the A-B one. This kind of illustrates that the the color you see in the rough will probably be modified in the finished stone.
Pete
_________________ Pete (AKA Ruffysdad) http://www.westerngem.com
Be careful that the c-axis isn't too dark, or you'll end up with a stone that's got fantastic hue but so much saturation it's dead dark.
That happened to me - fantastic rubellite with deep purple-pink on the c-axis that turned into one black stone that only shows the great colour under intense light. *sigh* I should have gone for the a-b axis with it oriented so the c-axis was on the long dimension.
When I get some time I'll snap a pic so you can see what I'm talking about.
-Allan
_________________ Allan Aoyama http://www.omnifaceter.net <- Omnifaceter is back online!
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:21 am Posts: 421 Location: Australia
Thanks for the replies. After looking at the rough I think i might go with the vivid pink/red c axis. The colour is bright but not saturated. Orienting the rough this way will also give me the greatest return. This is fortunate as the rough is only 1.5 ct to begin with.
_________________ It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
If there's one person that knows tourmalines, it's probably Bruce Fry. Take a look at the pictures of his tourmaline collection on the Gemology Project. Maybe send him a PM, and ask if you can send him your rough to see what he thinks?
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