San Francisco Bay Area Faceters Frolic 2016
The San Francisco Bay Area Faceters Frolic is coming to Hayward, California, March 5 & 6, 2016. The Frolic is being co-sponsored by the Mineral and Gem Society of Castro Valley (MGSCV) and the United States Faceters Guild and it is taking place in conjunction with the Mineral and Gem Society of Castro Valley’s 68th Annual […]
2016 USFG Single Stone Competition Announced
Full details are available at our new competition page! Good luck!
Welcome to the New USFG Web Site!
We are thrilled to present our new Web site to our members and to the world. This article will familiarize you with the new features of the site. Existing members already have accounts on the site. You can gain access to your account by requesting a password reset. Click on the “password reset” link, highlighted in green in […]
USFG Tucson Faceters’ Frolic 2016
The second annual USFG-Tucson Factors Frolic will be held at the OPLC clubhouse February 4, 5, and 6, 2016 leading up to the annual OPLC Hob Nob on Saturday evening.
USFG Faceting Dictionary
Jan. 15, 1994, by Fred Van SantRevised Sept. 15, 1999 (Note: For terms dealing with crystal structure, geology, and other such technical subjects, see a textbook.) Adjacent Facets:Two facets on a stone which form a line between them. If facet A shares a line with facet B they are adjacent. Top of Page Alignment: The […]
Cutting by Ear
by Bob Keller, Old Pueblo Lapidary Club I learned to facet on a Facetron in an Old Pueblo Lapidary Club faceting class. I also worked in class on an Imperial outfitted with a dial indicator. The machine that’s been may favorite for several years now is well used Mark I Graves that I acquired cheap. […]
Gemstone Design Conversion Using the Tangent Ratio Method
Background and Primer for the Online Tangent Ratio Converter by Bob Keller, Old Pueblo Lapidary Club A mathematical procedure known as tangent ratio conversion or translation is frequently employed by faceters to optically optimize or tweek a gemstone design’s pavilion and/or crown angles to work with materials of differing refractive indexes (critical angles) and degrees […]
Sequencing the Crown
by Fred Van Sant In the most recent issue (82) of FACET TALK is 4-page article by Alexandre Wolkonski for beginners on cutting the round brilliant. After cutting the pavilion he sequences the crown in the order Breaks->Mains->Stars->Table. This article is about a different way to do the crown; it applies to all crowns which […]
Sequencing Facets
by Fred Van Sant (reprinted from the December 1994 issue of the USFG Newsletter with permission from the author and the USFG) In our last newsletter I said that the sequencing of facets is determined by the order in which points on the stone must be made, and that the two most common starting places […]
A Method for Sequencing the Crown
by Glenn Klein This is my usual handling of the cutting of the crown facets. Prior to working on the crown, the pavilion has already been cut and polished. The girdle has also been polished. I begin the crown by cutting the breaks, then work on the mains, and then cut the star facets. All […]