Cut one large stone or several smaller ones from a big piece of rough???

[mikesassaman]

I doubt that anyone will have a perfect answer for this but I’ll ask anyway. I purchased an awesome piece of Spanish Sphalerite, one of my favorite stones to cut, It is large nice red/orange color and super clean. I could cut a round stone about 25mm in diameter and I believe it would make an awesome collector stone or I could cut several smaller stones. I would like to sell it/them after cutting so what would you do??? I value your opinions.
Mike

[Rick_Brooker]

If you are going to sell it then the question is will one big stone sell for more than 3 smaller stones. Without seeing the rough I can’t say what the best way to go is. If you cut it into 3 pieces then you are likely to lose more weight on your finished product.

[DavidRilling]

In my limited experience cutting multiple pieces from one stone dramatically improved the yield…but its twice or three times the work. Smaller stones typically don’t bring as much per carat. I have only done it when the rough obviously needed to be divided.

[gailbumala]

I’d check in with Wayne Emery, Mike. I think he would have a good idea of the chances of selling a really large stone over the smaller ones. I would think that there would be a market for a large sphalerite, but that’s just based on my gleanings through the years.

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