I can't seem to use the search function being new, so I'm sure this topic has been brought up. What light source(s) are folks using for faceting? I'm using a 10K LED bulb but I'm not sure if there's a better source to pickup scratches.
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:32 pm Posts: 1747 Location: Florida, United States
kensington wrote:
I can't seem to use the search function being new, so I'm sure this topic has been brought up. What light source(s) are folks using for faceting? I'm using a 10K LED bulb but I'm not sure if there's a better source to pickup scratches.
For diamond cutting I a use a 3000 kelvin 8 watt LED bulb with 10X and 15X power corrected loupes.
The room I work in is lit by full spectrum halogen lights, and has a large North West facing window for natural light.
On my cutting bench I use two light fixtures that give me 4 choices of lighting. The first fixture holds a GE full spectrum incandescent 60 watt "Reveal" bulb in the center, and a daylight balanced fluorescent ring light surrounding the center bulb. The other fixture has a standard incandescent bulb at 60 watts. Each bulb is on its own switch, and each fixture has swing arms for varying light angle as needed. Very bright, even, light when all are on. Excellent for seeing details of polish. When each is used individually I get different textures, angles and colors of light. Very useful for seeing and dealing with color, inclusions, textures, and polish in stones while working on them.
Like Thomas, I keep a 10X loupe on the bench.
For me lighting is super important part of working with stones.
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:51 am Posts: 755 Location: South Africa
Here is my main faceting bench. It has two dedicated lights. The one is a cheap fluorescent desk lamp. The other is a shaded, clear, incandescent 60 W appliance globe with a visible filament. The fluorescent illuminates the machine, so that I can see what I am doing. The 60 W globe is used to check the facets in oblique light with a 10x loupe. Grazing incidence with low intensity shows up scratches and other surface imperfections better than a dazzling mirror reflection from a brighter light. The two different light sources also show any colour change that may be present.
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Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 2:51 am Posts: 755 Location: South Africa
steve5542 wrote:
Duncan, can you put the 60 W globe light in the position you would have it to look at facets? thanks
It's not so much a matter of moving the light as moving the quill holding the stone. I raise the quill until the light shines obliquely across the facet, moving it around a bit so that the image of the filament of the globe travels across the facet, and looking at the edge between illumination and darkness. Often I flip the stone around to the opposite index to look at a facet, particularly the table or girdle, rocking the quill up and down a bit while looking through a loupe. It is the equivalent of inverting the loose handpiece of a platform machine like a Raytech-Shaw or an Imahashi. It is all about getting grazing incidence of the light. It's a mistake to flood the facet with light to get a bright mirror-like reflection. You see the scratches best at the moving line between light and dark, as the light reflection just skims the facet. The light is stationary. You move the quill and your head and loupe up and down. (Of course, you also have to focus on the facet, which means moving your head and the loupe closer or further.) It sounds far more complicated than it is.
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I raise the quill until the light shines obliquely across the facet, moving it around a bit so that the image of the filament of the globe travels across the facet, and looking at the edge between illumination and darkness... ...You see the scratches best at the moving line between light and dark, as the light reflection just skims the facet.
Said lines can also be multiplied with latticework screens, the natural light I use is filtered through one and makes any curved surfaces very obvious during polish.
looking for scratches is kinda intuitive...think of it as a big dining room table with a gloss finish to see imperfections you would lower you eye towards the table and see that 2 week old gravy spot.....well ok at my house you would
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