3 years, 7 months ago-
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I have some citrine, quartz and amethyst rough. I would like to cut two sets of stones for earrings from each material.
How do I achieve that. Thank youAssuming you’re going to cut a round design, earrings are a snap to cut. Once you’ve decided on the diameter, just free-wheel the quill and make both pieces the same size… cut and polish one and then put the other on the machine with the height of the mast the same. That will give you two identically sized, smooth girdles… I don’t facet the girdles on earrings, just polish them both.
Then just go ahead and cut ’em. They’ll come out exactly the same.
BTW: Quartz polishes great with CeOx.
Lowjiber gave pretty much the best way to do it. I still facet and polish my girdle. I just cut the W of each to the same size. I dop both stones and cut each tier on both as I move through each tier. You can set up a pretty smooth “assembly” line for SRB’s if you have enough Dops.
You can best make the stones identical if you cut them identically tier by tier. If you have a stable Mast (or hand piece), you can do the following: Dop each stone and fully cut the tiers on all stones without changing the mast height for each tier until all the stones have been cut. This is one of the times having keyed dops is a big help. I would do this for all the cutting and pre-polishing of the tiers. Polish each stone separately as this should not change the size for mounting as ear rings.
What I do is dop both stones on different dops. I then cut the first stone to the size and basic shape that I want and them I take take the dop out and put the second stone in the quill and cut it to the exact dimensions, without making any changes to the depth of the cut. I even go as far as cutting all of the crown facets the same way, setting up one tier, cutting it and then changing out the dops and cutting the same facets on the other tier before going onto the next tier.
Thank you all for the advise. I am going to start cutting the rough first. If I am using two cops at the same time, how do I keep the stones correctly aligned with out changing the mast.
Well, if you have identical keyed dops, each one drops exactly onto the keying method at the same depth and angle. Without keyed dops, you need to put the stone in the quill deeply and gradually bring it down to the lap and rotate it to the correct position and lock it in place. One thing that you can do is to put a locked holder on each stone that sets the exact depth into the quill. Getting the stones synchronized to the same rotation isn’t as easy, but if you always return to the Zero index and put the new stone in using the Zero index position to help you set the rotation, you can then go back to the index value for the tier you are cutting and complete the new tier. I am lucky enough to have an indexed quill and haven’t had to worry about getting the stones aligned for many years.
One trick I’ve used a couple times for long crystals (like tourmalines, beryls, or even quartzes) is to dop the entire crystal, then cut the pavilion and girdle onto one end. Dop the new pavilion as you would for a transfer, but instead of breaking the first dop bond, saw the stone in half! Be careful that you don’t vibrate your stone so bad that the dop bonds break.
Now you have two dopped crystals with the exact same girdle size. On one, your pavilion is already cut and transferred. On the other, you have your set girdle size, so just cut the pavilion tiers and transfer that one too. Obviously the crowns follow.
Use a cutting diagram or write down the angles you use. Assuming you’re using a meetpoint design (as opposed to an emerald or other cut where your tiers float), about the only possible variation is if you cut your girdles to radically different width. And you’ll have a (near-) perfect match for color, since they came from the same crystal. I say “near” perfect because if you’re working with a zoned stone like a bicolor tourmaline, I can’t help you when one turns out green and the other red hahaha.
–Eric
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