Being a well-informed customer when buying natural gemstone rough for faceting will save you time, money, and aggravation. Before I started faceting gemstones, I worked primarily with opaque gemstone material, creating cabochons and carvings. I had very little understanding of the criteria for purchasing good faceting rough and found limited educational resources.
It did not help that my initial sources and experiences for facet-grade rough were less than stellar. It was very frustrating to get an order for a faceted gemstone from a client, place an order for a facet-grade rough gemstone with a broker, and then receive a very included gemstone unsuitable for faceting. This situation put me in a difficult position between the client wanting their faceted gemstone promptly and arguing with the rough gemstone dealer that their piece of rough was unsuitable for faceting. It was then that I decided to educate myself on the aspects and terminology of quality facet-grade rough gemstones.
Like every industry, the gemstone industry had a lexicon all its own and levels of expertise, which meant I had to start at the novice level and teach myself. I began by reading several gemstone books and earlier published faceting books, and I also took several gemstone classes, which were offered online by the Gemological Institute of America. What I learned could be distilled down to the four main categories that have the most significant bearing on the quality of gemstones, both rough and finished. These are the four C classifications:
Clarity - the level of transparency for a gemstone
Carat - the weight/size of the rough and finished gemstone
Color - the available and desirable color of gemstone types
Cut - the design in which the gemstone is faceted
Esta historia es de la edición August 2020 de Rock&Gem Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 2020 de Rock&Gem Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Rockhounding Ohio's Lake Erie Islands
A short ferry boat ride three miles from Ohio’s Lake Erie coastline is South Bass Island, better known as Put-in-Bay or the “Key West of the North.”
Iowa's Hidden Treasures
Exploring Keokuk Geodes: How They're Made & What's Inside
Agatized CORAL
Florida's Collectible State Stone
Rockhounding Florida's Beaches
Beachcombing serene stretches of Florida can reveal fascinating finds like fossilized shark teeth, sea glass, quartz, agate and even coral fragments.
Collecting Staurolite
Hot Spots In Virginia & Georgia
Pecos Valley Diamonds
New Mexico's Ancient Attraction
12 Tips for Rockhounding Tucson's Greatest Shows
Tucson in February becomes the international hub for buying and selling colored gems, rocks, minerals and fossils.
Turquoise in the American Southwest
A Water & Sky Souvenir
Touring Colorado's MINERAL BELT
It's a Showcase of Mining History & Minerals
Geology &Colorado's Taurish Traiks
Most of Colorado’s tourist trains today were originally constructed in the late 1800s to serve the state’s lucrative mining operations.