Cuts for Tourmaline

[Lowjiber]

A little more information would help.

How long is the C-axis and is it open?

How wide is the A-B axis?

[Richard]

Here are pictures of the rough. I’m thinking the center looks best / clearest. I’m not worried about retaining weight. I’d like to get the prettiest stone possible.

[Richard]

I put the ends on the lap at 1200 so I could see the color difference between the 2 axis. Might be hard to tell with my pictures but the long axis is more yellow kind of muddy looking. The color on the other axis seems better.

[brellan217]

If it were my stone I might do a square bar cut. Simply because I think a bar cut would help that c axis.

But a Portuguese round might be fun. I have cut Portuguese on stones as small as 4mm. It’s hard on smaller stones.

I did a round checkerboard once too. I think I got the design from Bob Keller’s site. That one would probably look good in the tourmaline.

You could also try a honeycomb cut. I don’t personally like honeycomb, but that’s preference.

A whirlwind might be nice too.

Just my two cents for what it might be worth 🙂

[Richard]

I decided to cut 90 degrees to the long axis because I think the color is better that way. The stone is not as clear in the center as I hoped but it will still be nice.

[brellan217]

Looks nice! Upload a pic when it’s finished?

[Lowjiber]

Looking nice. Please post some pics of the finished stone.

[Richard]

Here’s the finished tourmaline. I got it at the Spectrum Mine in Oregon but it came from the Himalaya mine in California.

[brellan217]

That’s a great looking gem!

[brianf]

A Portuguese or step cut could look great on a 7mm green tourmaline. Since tourmaline can be brittle, using the right blade helps achieve clean cuts – this guide gives a good overview: https://ukam.com/diamond-lapidary-blades/

ukam.com

Diamond Lapidary Blades

Diamond Lapidary Blades, for cutting precious & semi-precious stones. Made with SMART CUT technology for lapidary precious & semi-precious stones.