Stone Cutting

 

    

 

Our roots in this business are as miners and stone cutters. The forces of business helped guide us through
 the natural evolution into jewelry making but our beginning was stones. Here you'll find some information
about stone cutting and the types of cuts available. Remember this only scratches the surface
(no pun intended) of what is available in the stone cutting world.

  
     
  Faceted stones:
 Think of a diamond and all the small flat surfaces that reflect light. They are called facets. Faceted stones can come in all shapes and sizes though some shapes are more prevalent in certain stone types ( emerald cut emeralds for example ) you will be able to find any shape in any stone. For a stone to be faceted it should display some degree of transparency so light can be reflected back to the eye. Although with stones like faceted black onyx or marcisites they are opaque and depend on light reflecting off the surface of their facets for effect. Keep in mind there are no rules governing what can and cannot be faceted, only ones imagination.		  
     
  Cabochons:
A stone that is usually flat on the bottom with a smooth, flat to rounded top surface. Most opaque stones are cut into cabochons (cab-a-shons) or "cabs". But it is not unusual to find Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby cabs along with many other stone types. Remember that with faceted stones it is desirable to have a transparent or translucent material, cabs can be cut from most anything. When we think of stones that are generally cut into cabs we think of black onyx, turquoise, and lapis to name a few.		  

 

        
    When would I use stone cutting?    
  Diamonds:
Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man but they are also brittle. What most people don't understand is the difference between hard and tough. Hardness is the resistance to scratching (nearly impossible to scratch a diamond), toughness is the resistance to breakage (jade, though soft, is difficult to break). So it is very possible to chip a diamond and depending on the chip they can be re-cut.

 

  
  Colored Stones:
Re-polishing colored stones is an area that keeps us very busy. Most colored stones will abrade when worn in a ring and someday will look dull. In older jewelry many people assume that an old ring with a dull stone is junk jewelry when in actuality some of the finest colored stones we have worked on have come out of old dull looking pieces of jewelry. Softer stones (tanzanite, opal, amethyst) will abrade fairly quickly when worn everyday on an active hand. Don't worry, they can be re-polished. I thought is that if you worry about scratching your stones you won't enjoy wearing them. So if you know that when you do scratch them, we can re-polish your stones, you will enjoy them more.

 

  

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