Hello, All!

I've just joined the Discussion Forum, and I have a few things to say - and most of them probably don't fit just this one area alone. I hope you'll forgive me.

Rockhounding and Lapidary Arts have enjoyed periods of popularity. I remember the huge boom back in the mid-70's, again in the 90's, and I hope for a fresh revival because of shows like Treasure Hunter. It certainly doesn't hurt that Kirsten Gum is very attractive - thankfully, she is also very smart, savvy and athletic. All very positive traits that I hope kids out there will copy (instead of some of the dangerous stunts they do on other shows; I'm sure you know which ones I mean...)

I could not recommend a better hobby or profession for kids to get involved with the that of being a rockhound, or a professional Geologist. Rockhounding is something you can grasp in a moment, but will stay fresh and new for your entire life; there's always something new to learn, and many times you can take your finds and make pretty things out of them - specimens, jewelry, whatever.

It is an amazing world out there! On a recent show, Ms. Gum went looking for aquamarine near Mt. Antero, and found HUGE smoky quartz crystals instead. There is so much more in that area! I had some friends with a claim near Colorado Springs, about a 6 hour hike from the trailhead. They had to climb over a 6' giant Beryl crystal to get there. That's right - a 6 foot thick crystal! When they got to their claim, they pulled out beautiful Amazonite and Amethyst. They had to clean "trash" out of the Amethyst vugs - handfuls and handfuls of half-inch shark's teeth!

Here's where rockhounding got me:

A close friend got me interested. Family vacations with my wife and daughter became eagerly anticipated prospecting expeditions, where I learned that a VW van can carry 600 pounds of rocks, gear and water for three persons for a week, and still scamper up mountains at 45 mph! I went to many courses at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, GA, and had a blast every time, especially while hunting for Ruby and Olivine/Peridot on Chunky Gal Mt. nearby. I began faceting, cabbing, beading, tumbling and silversmithing as a hobby, but these were so much fun that I took the next step.

I had a rock shop in the 90's, and I was an active member in both of my local rock and gem clubs - something I highly recommend for anyone wishing to become a rockhound like Ms. Gum. Through my shop, and club activities, I began faceting $5,000/carat Burmese Ruby (Mogok Valley/Mong Hsu), Kanchantaburi and Ceylonese Sapphire, Brazilian "Water Opal", Padparadshah Sapphire, and Muzo Emerald, among other things. I came across Australian Opal so precious that a single cut with the thinnest saw I had in the shop wasted $3,000 in sawdust. I went after aquamarine from the Ural Mts. in Russia, and Charoite from Siberia. I saw and found some of the rarest and most beautiful stuff this world has to offer.

Because of rockhounding and my business, I learned enough Russian to get by. Same goes for Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and French. And I'm nobody special - anybody in fairly decent shape can go prospect, and those too frail to hunt can facet, cab or whatever - it's a huge area of interest, with something for everybody!

Now imagine some kid watching "Treasure Hunter", dreaming of doing the things he or she sees on the show! Maybe hunting for the original Ruby strike somewhere near Gold City and Franklin, NC (the Ruby was - in 1895 - far better than the finest Burmese Ruby!) while on a family vacation. Or perhaps looking for Rhodocrosite near the ruins of the old Sunnyvale Silver Mine in Colorado. Or panning for gold near Dahlonega, Georgia (most of the original strike is still there!)

I had school kids visit my shop, and I put out 20 tables of wonders at shows (at least three of those tables were covered with books, though). I always told the kids in my shop and folks at my tables that rockhounding was about as close as you could get to actually being Indiana Jones - except you didn't need the hat and the whip!

America needs "Treasure Hunter", and Kirsten Gum is exactly the right spokesperson for this show, which is highly entertaining, educational and, hopefully, the right vehicle to get our kids off of the streets and out into the field. I wish it had been around when I was out digging!

In fact, the show is so great that I have only ONE major complaint - I'M NOT THERE ON LOCATION!

Thanks for your patience, everybody. In my opinion, "Treasure Hunter" is the best thing to come down the pike since sliced bread!

Gemcuttr,
AAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!
I hope everyone interested in rockhounding, geology, and the lapidaey arts joins a local club. The good people there will keep you alive & out of trouble while you learn what to do.
I enjoyed reading of your Russian exploits. My baby sister is visiting me in California from St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida) and she occasionally brings baikal jade or charoite.
Enjoy. Baka.
-Rocky.

Hi gemcutter,

what a great read. I am envious of your adventures, rocking and lapidary work. I am a very new to faceting, reading what you have cut is amazing. I have rough I know that is good stuff but I am still to unsure of myself to cut them. (I am saced to cut them. lol)

Have you checked out the cash and treasures wiki? It is full of info and your skills and knowledge would definately be a real addition to the page. As a matter of fact there is a on going thread talking about gemstones that you would be very welcome to share you knowledge. Here is the link to the thread but while there be sure to check out the other info. This is a very active site and more input is always welcome. http://cash-and-treasures-wiki.travelchannel.com/thread...e+on+Chrome+Diopside

Hope to see you on the wiki.

Paul

Hey, Rocky!

Well, I started this thread, and I hope you don't mind if I hijack it, and thanks for the tip on the wiki - interesting!

I also used to get charoite and jade, and am glad your sister can get it to you. Is the charoite rough or finished? Good stuff either way! Largest piece of charoite I received and sold was about football size (rough, and approximately 6 kg), and given the export restrictions at the time (1995-6) I always wondered just how my "agent" smuggled it out (good source, although he was caught later - don't know what happened to him and not sure I want to).

Paul -

I know the feeling about cutting expensive rough - just take it slow; you know, "Cut A Little, Look A Lot". Frankly, I'm the slowest faceter you'll ever meet. I know some folks can turn out a nice gemstone in 4 hours or so, but I'm not at all into that.

See, my gemstones are my legacy. They'll doubtless outlive me by quite a few years. Somebody, somewhere in the future isn't going to wonder how quickly I cut, but only how well - and I try to consistently cut to investment grade standards - about 95 out of 100 points in a graded competition. Girdles are my weakest area - I cut them too thick with a 5 degree taper towards the pavilion because too many jewelers have ham-handed setters; my policy is that a setter may crack a gemstone once (accidents happen) - the second time, and I will likely never sell to that firm again. I'm in no particular hurry when I cut - I usually take around 32-40 hours to finish a gemstone. I know others who churn them out quickly, and some of them do fine work - I'm just finicky.

Although I really can't say I am as good as I used to be - I sold my beloved Ultra-Tec and bought a Fac-Ette Gem Master II, a fine machine, and very accurate, but not for me, as I trained and worked on mast and platform machines (Ultra-Tec, Graves, Raytech)and am finding the protractor arrangement a little strange. I use an 8" true ceramic lap (less than .002" runout at the edge) as a master lap and use diamond films for cutting and sometimes "polishing" (quotation marks because it is impossible to truly polish with diamonds - the best you can do is achieve a surface with successively smaller scratches, which is nothing like the Beilby Layer flow you get with oxides). I prefer polishing Corundum, though, with 14k and 50k diamond paste on the ceramic lap, followed by a thorough clean-off and a spit polish with graded Cerium Oxide on the ceramic lap.

The Ultra-Tec was a little "looser", but I found it very easy to recalibrate and tune up between stones. I invented a three-sided upper pivot pin (as opposed to a round pin) and came up with the original second-generation Down Light Stop Indicator (the box mounted one, not the tiny one mounted directly on the machine). Between these two devices, and using a trued lap for calibrating, I was able to keep my machine incredibly accurate - I miss it! I even wrote and submitted a 10 page User Manual on maintenance, re-calibration and performance tips to Ultra Tec.

Out of curiosity, what kind of machine do you have, what are you interested in cutting, and what cutting solutions (diagrams) are you using? And do you tangent ratio any of the angles?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Steve

Hi Steve,

Man. Sorry for the delay in replying. I read your post several days ago and told myself I better reply, but did I do it then? NoooOOOooooo then I forgot about it. lol

I wish I had the patience to cut one stone for that long I can cut a stone in 4 hours but it isn’t perfect by any means. Most stones take 6 to 8 hours to cut most stones however I recently worked for 6 hours polishing the table of the last stone I just cut. It was a 10 mm faceted cab if you will. Using just the crown angles and cut. It weighted in a 6.5cts This was a stone that was dopped up when I bought the machine. I finally decided to do something with it. Man it took a long time to cut and was the source of some frustration. I think is was a piece of Yag but not certain.

I am very new at faceting. I bought my first machine a year and a half ago. It was an old Sapphire machine made by the Arrow Profile Co.. It needed to be turned up but not to many folks work on these old machines. Though I did find a gentleman in MI who works on the machines. He has made some after market parts as well. New hand pieces, electrical stop indicators etc. He tuned it up, trued everything and now it works great. I recently bought a used Facette Machine with the electronics, an early Gemmaster. I like both machines but still actually work more with the Sapphire. Just because it is on a higher table and is a right hand machine. The Facette is a left hand machine. I bought for my son to use as he showed interest in faceting. But he yet to use it!! lol So I use it off and on.

I haven’t had any training or schooling in faceting, self taught. I learned mostly with books and talking to fellow facetors. I live in a smaller city and only know of 2 other people that facet. I am sure I have some bad and poor habits. But I can cut a stone that sure is pretty and shiny when one looks at it. But take a loupe to it, well it would not look very good. My reward right now is taking a rough stone and producing a beautiful shiny stone. They look at 100 different points in competition? Egads, I probably wouldn’t score in any of points and you go for 95. WOW! lol

Polishing by far is the most frustrating to me. I’ll get there and then I will get a scratch. Then it is working on getting that scratch out. I too use ceramics laps. I have 2 but really only use one. I do the same thing with diamond 50k and 100k as you do, but not the cerium oxide. I am assuming you use optic grade material. I do use cerium oxide for some gems as they seem to polish better then with the diamond. But a lot of my stuff is trial and error. You mentioned girdles. They are tough too. Getting them round or even for one thing, but thickness is always tough to get right. Sometimes to thin, most often for me is too thick. I like the think girdle just cause I make more of them then the thin ones. lol But they mount just fine.

And for patterns of cuts I use the general basic cuts listed in most books. I have a John Sinkankas cutting book, several Glenn and Martha Vargas books plus a bunch of others small books but I can’t think of the names off hand. I have some older newsletters sent out by Sapphire that has a featured cut in the as well. I have downloaded some design software and puttered making my own design, but nothing worthy yet. I have been given different cuts designs was well. But pretty much I cut various round patterns with some square and emerald cuts in there as well. Though I am going to start cutting ovals and puttering with those.

You mentioned a tangent ratio of the angles. Nope sure don’t. Frankly I really don’t know what it means. lol Don’t tell me I missed it in the books?? LOL I pretty much use the RI guides and recommended angles. But depending on what I am cutting, for instance, a dark garnet I will flatten the pavilion angle a bit to decrease the thickness and darkness of the stone. I would like to go to some classes or back East to the Holland school and really learn how to facet. But for me, it is good therapy, sometimes relaxing, many times very frustrating but I love the final products. I do have favorite stones to cut as I imagine you do as well. I really like cutting Sunstones, Tourmaline and Emerald. But I do have a lot of different rough. I probably cut more quartz’s, amethyst and citrines, than anything else. Lately I have been cutting agate for some folks. Not really my cup of tea, but people want them so I cut them for them. Of course free of charge. I like those clear and colored clear stones and not the agates which have no depth but do polish well.

Man I think about you taking 32 – 40 hours to cut a stone. Yikes if I took that long I would take a 5 ct stone and end up with a .25ct stone. lol Though I must admit now that I have cut some stones and know some of the basics, I am becoming finicky as well and trying to make more consistent cuts and it is taking long to cut stones. One thing that is hard to figure out is if I make a mistake, how to clean it up without having to cut the whole stone again. I have so much to learn. :-)
Paul