tucsonbear 8 months, 2 weeks ago-
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Another source many people ignore is native cut gems for recutting. I often buy handsful of native cut garnets at the Tucson shows for just a few dollars.
I just bought a Swiss blue topaz on eBay this last week. The cutting is poor, the polish is worse, but it is 29 x 17mm, and weighs a little over 41 carats. VVSI, and plans are to recut to a smaller and more standard size. The price? $33 delivered.
You will have a hard time finding a piece of rough big enough to cut this stone at this price. BONUS: it’s already preformed!Trying to load pic,…
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@tucsonbear are you sure it’s topaz??? 😉
Pretty sure. Go to eBay and look at item 372044453004. Look closely at the third pic, up near the top edge of the stone, left and right of center, and you will see what looks like 2 faint scratches. They are not scratches, they are internal, and I believe they are incipient basal cleavages. There is another one, harder to see, down in the lower left hand area of the stone.
About buying native cut stones…You get what you get. People who cut these stones are not striving for perfection, they are trying for maximum size. Correct angles? Nope. Inclusions? If they can be hidden. I’m even watching some cut citrine’s on eBay that have fractures so bad and so visible, he calls them “glitter” cut, and “crackle” cut.
BTW, this same seller has decent citrine, and some fantastic smoky quartz (“champagne” quartz), but stay very far away from his amethyst and opals.
And back again! I just used the girdle of that stone to scratch a piece of quartz, and the quartz wouldn’t scratch the blue stone, so I’m pretty sure it is topaz. I’ve searched that sellers other items, and he doesn’t have any more right now.
Update, this seller has at least 4 more of these blue topazes listed now, ranging from 35 carats up to 150 carats. They look to be more included than the last batch. Check out auction number 401395495268, then check out his other items to see all of them.
This has been bothering me, due to the huge amounts of synthetic quartz out there. So, this morning I rigged up Tom Herbst’s little specific gravity gizmo and came out with a SG of 3.404, putting it solidly in the topaz camp. (A little finessing of the weighing gizmo would increase that figure a wee bit). Ok, I’m relieved I didn’t get taken, but still haven’t decided how it will be recut. Present dimensions are 18.5 by 27mm oval, with a depth of 10.3mm. It also has what looks like an incipient cleavage about 3.5mm in from one of the long sides.
After finessing the “stone holding basket”, I’m coming up with a specific gravity of 3.571. yay! it’s topaz!
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