Nine times is a charm

Finally! After eight unsuccessful attempts to get the tiny amethyst transfered, I finally got it to stick on the ninth. Of course, getting it to transfer was only half the battle. Next came the task of aligning it back up properly. Since the stone was so small, I was unsure of how to proceed. It was nearly impossible to determine that I had a facet perfectly level with the cutting plane of the grinding lap. At first, I tried to line it up by eye looking for a small gap or angle between the facet and the lap, but that proved less than accurate. After I had lined it up by eye, I ran the stone in a small arc along the dry, unspinning lap. I figured that if I had lined it up properly, the resulting scratch along the edge of the facet should run along the length of the facet. The first scratch told me that I had been way off in my initial assessment. Instead of the worn area extending along the length of the facet, it was instead right in the middle of two facets. At that point I was very glad that I had not started cutting yet. After making several adjustments to my cheater, I was finally able to get the worn area I was scratching to run the length of the facet and I was ready to cut. Next another dilema faced me: Since I had such a hard time getting the stone to adhere to the transfer dop, this successful transfer required me to use a cone dop bigger than I indended. The result of that was that the adhesive (it was a wax/glue combination that finally worked, by the way) came up to and slightly past the girdle. This meant that I could not accurately see where the girdle actually began and I had to cut the crown girdle facets by feel and intuition. I guess I got lucky with it all because I finally finished the little trilliant on Saturday. Its final stats are:

Weight: 0.2 carats
Width: 4.3mm x 4.3mm x 4.3mm from apex to the center of the base
Height: 2.6mm

Here it is in all its pristine glory -






I am now working on another amethyst. I really like the way amethyst cuts and polishes. This one will be a teardrop type of design. It started out as a 6.52 carat piece of rough. I finished polishing the pavillion last night and transferred the stone. I intend to cut and polish the crown tonight. The pics below are after I cut the pavillion girdle facets but before I cut the girdle.







Of course, I will post the results when I have completedd this one.