Let’s cut a Montana sapphire!

Comments · 477

• TA

  @tayraegems · 4 months ago · pinned

  Want to see some more gem cutting? Check out my faceting playlist here!<br><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjiZQYgSA0yoY2DbEh-JY9Y5eDU-OoeAc">https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjiZQYgSA0yoY2DbEh-JY9Y5eDU-OoeAc&amp;si=1uao7TM7xZnDpkZJ</a><br><br>&amp; feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you want to see next :)

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• TH

  @There-Goes-the-Neighborhood · 4 weeks ago

  I knew a friend of a friend (both lapidaries) who passed away at about 60 years old. He passed because of liver failure (he didn’t drink). He would cut several gems a day. His doctor determined that he destroyed his liver by dipping his hand in a jar of acetone several times a day. He used super glue for his initial dop and epoxy for the transfer. He would put the gem and dop sticks in the jar with acetone to dissolve the super glue from the first dop. The doctor told him your skin soaks up acetone like a sponge. After 40 years of faceting his liver was destroyed. That is also the reason they now make acetone free nail polish remover.<br>You don’t use an acetone bath but you do touch it. I used to do the same but now I avoid touching it and breathing the fumes. Alcohol (isopropyl) is also absorbed but not as readily as acetone so I avoid it as well. <br>Please feel free to share this info on a video if you like. I don’t want anyone to find out they are going to have health issues or die because they were doing something they thought was harmless! <br>I have never used wax for dopping gemstones. I use it for cabbing but always thought it wouldn’t hold a gemstone. I will give it a go. I use a cotton swab to put a small amount of acetone on the superglue to release the crown dop.<br><br>Shine on!

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• PD

  @pdt4918 · 1 month ago

  As a jeweler, I’ve also experienced joint pain in my hands from time to time. What really helped me was gradually strengthening my hands using a hand grip, along with various strengthening and mobility exercises for my fingers, wrists, and forearms. I found that regularly strengthening the muscles and tendons in my hands helped me handle the demands of my work better and reduced the strain on my joints

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• MA

  @MarcusAurelius-y9k · 1 day ago

  I really love watching a skilled craftsperson working on their chosen craft, no matter what it might be. &nbsp;I am not a gem person but this was a fascinating watch. &nbsp;Good luck with your career.

• ST

  @stephenfoster2112 · 3 months ago

  Maybe someone could engineer a ‘wand’ attachment where you are sitting and holding it in a completely different way. &nbsp;This definitely looks like an ergonomic problem- easily solved. Would love to give it a try. :)

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• DR

  @DRitter-v5t · 1 month ago

  &quot;After my shoulder started hurting from splitting rounds of firewood for many, many years, I became ambidextrous with the splitting maul out of necessity.&quot;

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• BF

  @Bfdyr69618 · 4 months ago

  Your fans in Montana really enjoyed this. Me being one of them. Different colors and heat treating in a educational format, would be my next video request i suppose.

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• SA

  @sadpanda9455 · 2 months ago

  I watched a bunch of your videos since I started watching them about 6 or so months ago, but this was the one that got me wanting to go find my own gems. I had heard Montana had sapphires but I hadn&apos;t really cared until I saw this one, then I had to go find one myself. Man did I love digging through that gravel getting so excited finding all the small ones and then just floored finding a big one. The best part for me was seeing everyone around me get so excited when they found a big one, and how happy everyone was when someone got to ring that bell. I may never cut a stone myself, but finding them brings me so much joy. Thank you for sparking an interest I didnt know I had!! It was definitely worth the 5 hour detour! Now the long wait for the heat treatment and cutting to be done.

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• HY

  @hybridgoth · 4 months ago (edited)

  I can&apos;t help but notice that everyone seems to be using pretty much the same standard round brilliant faceting diagram when cutting sapphires, at least the one you&apos;re using has the lower pavilion angles, albeit still optimised for quartz as is the norm.<br>With quartz the minimum pavilion angle is about 40.5⁰ hence the angles chosen on the diagram. <br>With corundum the minimum angle is about 34.6⁰ so there&apos;s plenty of wiggle room if you need, i tend to just pick an angle that suits the rough I&apos;m working on rather than sticking to diagrams to strictly anyway.<br><br>I have noticed however, that you tend to cut a lot of Montana sapphires, and, with their tendency to be rather flat and tabular like many umba sapphires, cutting such stones a little closer to the critical angle could well be useful to maximise the width of your final stones;<br>Generally speaking you should be able to cut the pavilion facets in at anything above 35⁰ without any significant windowing occuring, many people suggest 38⁰ &amp; 40⁰ respectively for a s.r.b.<br><br>Personally speaking, i tend to err on the side of caution myself, and, thus i typically add at least half a degree above the minimum pavilion angles for whatever gem type I&apos;m cutting.<br><br>Having said that, there is an obvious trade off when reducing the pavilion angles, that trade is between colour saturation and light return, so with pale stones i tend to find myself sacrificing light return for depth of colour, however, in most cases a step cut will do considerably better at maximising the colour saturation and weight retention than a s.t.b. would.<br><br>No doubt you probably already know all this and I&apos;m just typing to hear myself think in a way.🙄<br><br>Whilst I&apos;m on a rant i may as well mention that there seems to be a wealth of information/free software/faceting diagrams available now.<br>Not sure if you use gemcad or GCS for faceting diagrams yourself or not, but, as far as I&apos;m aware gemcad for windows is free now, and, failing that &quot;The Gemology Project&quot; has a few hundred different faceting diagrams that are free to download, however, it&apos;s important to check the authors&apos; footnotes before cutting them as some are only offered for non-commercial cutting purposes.<br><b>After having typed this last paragraph i just happened to notice that the faceting diagram you&apos;re working off was a gemcad .gem file</b> where&apos;s the face-palm emoji when you need one.<br><br>The stone turned out beautifully, as if there were ever a doubt it would. Definitely a good result indeed, good size, good colour saturation, and, quite good light return considering the inclusions. Thanks for sharing it.

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• RO

  @robertbluni9373 · 3 days ago

  I have never seen that process before. &nbsp;Very informative and interesting. &nbsp;Nice result!!!

• WA

  @watrgrl2 · 8 days ago

  Such a gorgeous color! Love that pale blue.

• MR

  @MrLostpaladin · 3 weeks ago

  Just found your channel. You have a very relaxing way of explaining things. Some helpful tips. 1) Always wear gloves when dealing with Acetone(or any chemical). Skin absorbs then and they end up in your bloodstream. 2) Wear a mask, chemicals,micro dust etc. Protect your lungs. 3) Train your fingers,wrist and forearm. There are plenty of exercises you can do while sitting/relaxing and you will see great improvement in the long run. Love your work. :)