Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:06 am Posts: 40 Location: South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA
I've had my faceting machine for about a year and a half and I've been practicing on cheap, low-grade stones like bulk amethyst, clear quartz, marbles, and fluorite. It's been going pretty well, but the finished product has been...large. Most jewelry utilizes gems that are much, much smaller. I want to practice cutting tiny stones, like 1ct or less, but most of what I have is far too large. The few smaller stones I currently have aren't things I'm willing to throw away as practice chaff (quality Montana sapphire, some very clear aquamarine, garnets, etc) or are very poor quality (unworkable shapes, cracks, nearly opaque.) What I'd like to know is if there's some type of stone or material that I can get cheaply and in somewhat large quantities that I can use to practice cutting smaller gems. Thanks in advance.
1ct cut weight, I hope? It's not too hard to find small rough. In fact, it's a lot easier than finding large rough. eBay can serve you very well on that front. Sunstone is also a great option though--one thing you can do is order a belt run from the Spectrum mine for 300 bucks, it will give you enough material for quite some time, and the ones we've picked up have been great deals.
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:06 am Posts: 40 Location: South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA
$300 is a bit steep for me. I just bought a sizable load of chipped and cracked gems off ebay for a song. Some of it looks too small to do anything with, but the majority of it looks to be in the 6-12ct range, which is pretty good for what I want my end size to be. Thanks for the suggestions.
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