6 years, 3 months ago-
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Didn’t know where to ask this, so I put it here, admin move it if there is a better spot.
I like square cushion cuts. I have a box full of cheap citrine for practicing different cuts. Looking thru facetdiagrams.org, I picked out cut number 09.037, Square Semaphores.
Now, I understand Long and Steele revised some of these cuts to make them “meet point” designs, or to make them easier to cut, or whatever.
I started cutting the pavilion this morning, and soon ran into trouble with the cut sequence. Step 3 cuts the break facets. It then jumps to step 5 to cut the main facets, then goes to step 4 to cut the remaining break facets.
I normally follow the cut sequence exactly as written, figuring there is a probably a reason for it
The problem is, step 5 tells you to cut to meetpoints p1-P1-P3-P4, and the P4 break facet is not cut yet.
About the only way to locate the P5 main facet (without P4 being cut yet), is to go by the width of the P5 facet, making the shoulders of the kite meet the tops of the P3 break facets. Then cutting P4 to remove the tail on the kite.
Seems a lot easier to me to cut P4, then P5, cutting the P5 main to end at the girdle.
Am I missing something, or is this a misprint, or what?
Hopefully we’ll get a more definitive answer from someone, but it’s certainly legitimate to modify the cutting sequence so that it makes sense to you. Have you tried stepping through it with GemCad replay?
Gemcad?!? I don’t even have a computer!
It’s making a little more sense to me now, I think the idea of switching P5 (main facets) to go before the P4 break facets is to ensure even lengths on the girdle segments. Kinda scary to start laying in the main without knowing when to stop, as the break facets P4 and the girdle facets g6 cut away a lot of girdle to bring the bottom of the P5 main to the girdle of the stone. I’m just more accustomed to cutting the main to stop at an existing girdle, but in this case, the girdle is cut in after, to end at the bottom of the main. It works either way.
I just finished polishing the pavilion, and transferring now. Will cut the crown in the morning.All is good. The first (practice) stone I cut from lemon citrine ended up at 13mm, on this one I changed the cutting order to cut the center breaks before the center mains.
For the second stone, I cut a 10mm Four Peaks amethyst of really nice Siberian color and followed the sequence exactly as written.
Overall, it’s probably easier to cut exactly as written, but when you’re cutting in the center mains, it’s hard to convince yourself you’re not overcutting them.
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