Cutting tourmaline

[davidholmes23]

Good morning from Hawaii!

I may have found a jeweler who sets tourmaline and I’m thinking of jumping in with him. Does anyone have good resources or material I can study that will make me successful at cutting tourmaline. I have zero experience cutting it.

Thank you and Aloha

David

[mikesassaman]

My experience is to not use heat to dop your stone. I have had tourmaline fracture with heat from my alcohol lamp when dopping with wax. Now I make an impression with warm wax on a cold stone and then use superglue. Tourmaline cuts nicely and polishes fairly easily. Don’t buy rough with a closed “C” Axis unless you are using patterns that have steel ends like the Smithsonian Bar Design.

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