The most interesting thing about the material is it is singe oriented crystal. If you look at the backlit rod and rotate it. the color changes from a light magenta to a peach/pink color. Some stones cut from this often show both colors. This one does. A simpler cut would probably show the effect more strongly.
Gearloose, you gave me a piece of your material a few years ago. I have been holding onto until I get better at faceting. I have been looking for a good design to start practing on, in the hope of cutting it some day.
When you say a simpler cut would show off the effect more strongly, can you give an example of a design that you would recommend?
Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:16 pm
Moderator: Lapidary Arts and Tools
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:41 pm Posts: 5534 Location: Massachusetts, USA
Usually the simpler designs do not mix the two axis colors as much. One color is magenta and the other is a sightly peachy red. A trillion type mixes them:
But the two colors show a little better in this.
A lot depends on what axis you choose for the table, of course.
Hold the rough up to a light source and rotate it. You will see the color changes as it rotaes. In the C axis there is none.
Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:40 pm
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Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:08 pm Posts: 381 Location: Lyon, France
Someone sent me laser ruby to cut. My question is how is this produced. Obviously not flame fusion becasue it’s not split. I looked online but hadn’t been able to find out. Anyone know?
Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:20 pm
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Joined: Fri Dec 25, 2015 8:31 pm Posts: 276
justinkprim wrote:
Someone sent me laser ruby to cut. My question is how is this produced. Obviously not flame fusion becasue it’s not split. I looked online but hadn’t been able to find out. Anyone know?
It would probably be made using the Czochralski process wouldn't it? The other single-crystal pulling methods seem to be used for thin fibers or substrate material. Hard to tell the exact method unless you have an offcut rather than a drilled rod.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't a fair amount of the Czochralski ruby used for faceting sourced from military surplus boules? I think I read that here. I have an end cut from a boule that is fairly neat.
Post subject: Re: Question for Gearloose on his laser rod material
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:09 am
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Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
Yup, a massive amount of it is military-surplus Czochralski pulled ruby, from laser experiments in the 80s or from other sources. There are a bunch of modern growers doing it for jewellery purposes too. You can also find some material grown via the Kyropoulos method - both are single-crystal pull methods.
Oddly enough you can also find growers using floating zone methods or horizontal directed growth methods.
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