Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
Hey guys, I just wanted to run this by you all to see what you think. I'm in the middle of cutting a blue zircon, and it turns out that what I thought to be a superficial veil was a slightly deeper (maybe) crack. When I was cutting the girdle, part of the inclusion came to the surface.
My stone's a square, at 6.5mm right now. If I cut it down to around 5.8mm, I could eliminate the crack, but I would lose a lot of weight.
Should I shoot for a flawless small stone, or a flawed larger stone?
Post subject: Re: Leave inclusions, or lose weight?
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:16 am
Moderator
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:42 pm Posts: 4091 Location: the Netherlands
That all depends on the species you're cutting. Are zircons typically included? No. Are zircons really tough stones? No. Are you getting paid 1 buck/ct? No.
Zircs are typically flawless, known to chip easily and the only extra quality western cutters add to the mix is perfection.
Leaving that crack in there might lead to a customer coming back with two half stones in a while after having bad-mouthed you to all of her friends... So it isn't so much the loss of weight but more the loss of certainty/service.
Post subject: Re: Leave inclusions, or lose weight?
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:13 am
Moderator
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice! I'll take the embarrassingky large hit to my percent yield stats...went from a 9.2 ct rough to a soon-to-be 0.5 carat stone...but at least it'll be flawless.
Don't worry, I think we all have had a stone cause some sort of problem that turns it into a much smaller stone.
My latest recovery error was my own fault. I got distracted and cut a facet to meet and it was taking a while and then I realized my eye had drifted and I was meeting the wrong facet!
At that point my lovely large rectangle became a square and my recovery dropped to miniscule. The final stone turned out very nice though. I actually prefer a previously unknown or miscalculated fracture or inclusion to my own stupidity.
Post subject: Re: Leave inclusions, or lose weight?
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:32 pm
Moderator
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:06 pm Posts: 2267 Location: Chapel Hill, NC / Toronto, ON
Thanks for all the advice guys. Thankfully, this wasn't too expensive of a stone (but still, for a med student, $60 is a lot of money). I was going to sell this and use the money to get my mom a Christmas gift, but I sent her a picture of this and she loves the color, so I can just give her the stone directly. SAVED!
Also, the W went from 6.33 to 5.33. BUT, it turns out that I can scale up the crown and still not run into the cracks, so I ran some renders and scaled the crown up. A lot. It'll be almost as tall as the pavilion, but at least I'll save some weight (and get more dispersion out of the rough too!).
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum