1The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico Faceters Guild

January/February 2004

2The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

TheNew Mexico Faceters Guild

Guild Officers 2004-2005

President: Dylan HoutmanVice President/Programs: Ernie Hawes

Secretary/Treasurer: Bill and Ina SwantnerGuild Gemologist: Edna AnthonyGuild Mineralogist: Paul Hlava

Workshop Chairman: Ernie Hawes

Newsletter Editors:Carsten Brandt

Newsletter Production:Wild Rice Press, Inc.

P.O. Box 1355Cedar Crest, NM 87008

(505) 286-4785

Purpose of the Guild: The purpose of the NewMexico Faceters Guild is to bring together personswho are interested in faceting or faceted stones. Wepromote the art and science of faceting and providea means of education and improvement in facetingskills. Finally, we provide a means of communicationbetween those persons involved in or interested infaceting as a hobby.

Guild Membership: Dues are $20.00 per calendaryear (January through December) for newsletterissues sent by e-mail. Hard copies of newsletter issuessent by US mail are $30. Please see the membershipapplication/renewal form on the last page of thenewsletter.

Meetings: The Guild meets now on the secondMonday of odd numbered months at 7:00 p.m. at theNew Mexico Museum of Natural History, 1801Mountain Road N.W., Albuquerque, NM. Workshopsare generally held in even-numbered months. Date,time, and place are given in newsletter. Also, anychange in guild meeting times or dates will be listedin the newsletter.

The New Mexico Facetor is copyrighted © 2004 byThe New Mexico Faceters Guild. Permission to copyor reproduce material originating in this newsletter isfreely given so long as credit is given the author andthe source. Authors retain all reprint rights and/orcopyrights to their articles. Newsletters will beexchanged with other guilds at no cost.

The next meeting of the NewMexico Faceters Guild will beMarch 8, 2004.

NMFGShow and Tell

Dylan Houtman presented a varietyof gemstones (shown on the coverpage), a description of most can befound in the Show and Tell column onpage 4. To the right is another pictureof his Mexican Bytownite in a modi-fied Portuguese cut.

Pine cone earrings and necklace madeof sterling silver by Elaine Price. Elaineis inspired by the beauty of nature andexperiments in casting plant materialsin silver.

Scott Wilson continued on his Halite crystal during the Feb-ruary workshop. The pictures show the pavilion in pre-polishand the polished result. Scott used antifreeze with alumina ona wax lap for polishing.

A Hummingbird bail made by Steve Attaway. Nancy Attawaycut the beautiful kite shaped aquamarine set in this bail. Theadjacent pictures shows the Hummingbird design before it wasscanned and transferred onto the bail design (note bail waxesfor size comparison).

3The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

The New Mexico Facetor

Vol u m e 2 4 , N o . 1 , January/February, 2004

The Prez Sez:by Dylan Houtman

Hello,at the last guild meeting I was asked about faceting

Kunzite. A couple of weeks ago, while watching my favoriteTV channel, they were showing some large production cutKunzite. I noticed something about how the stones were cut:The girdles are cut and polished as one surface, with a cam orsomething similar. Then the girdle line was defined: pavilionand crown will be cut at a slightly greater angle than thepavilion and crown girdle facets.

From my experience cutting material with perfectcleavage, the most difficult part is to form the girdle and thepoint of the culet. Using the above technique would leave onewith just the culet to worry about. With the spindlefreewheeling, the dynamic of how the stone cuts changes andreduces the chances of planes cleaving. This would relegatemost of us to cutting round stones, though.

On a different note, watching the same channel, I saw astone cut using a freewheeling spindle, resulting in only oneflat facet on the pavilion. It was very beautiful so I tried it ona piece of aquamarine, except I put a flat facet on both thepavilion and crown. This is fast and easy and creates a veryinteresting stone.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to facetwhatever material you can find or afford. I cut a piece ofagate that I found in my driveway! Every faceting machine onthe market has the ability to produce a beautiful gemstone atyour hand, so cut away!

In the words of Glenn & Martha Vargas, happy faceting.

Dylan

In This Issue:The Prez Sez by Dylan Houtman.........3Minutes of the NMFG Meeting.............4Program Speaker.......................................5Facet Designer’s Workshop....................9Faceting Designs.................................10In the News..............................................12Email Addresses..................................13Membership Application..........................14

New Mexico FacetersGuild Official WebsiteWe invite everyone to visit our website at:www.attawaygems.com/NMFG for inter-esting and informative articles on gem-stones and faceting techniques.

NMFG President Dylan Houtman

4The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Minutes of the NMFG MeetingJanuary 12, 2004by Nancy L. Attaway

President Dylan Houtman called the meetingto order at 7:10pm and welcomed all members andvisitors. Everyone introduced themselves to thegroup so that we could all meet our guests.

Old Business:

Paul Hlava was to be the featured speaker atthe Fall 2003 Texas Faceters Symposium, but hehad to cancel the festivities due to his footaccident. The Texas Faceters Symposium re-scheduled their symposium for January 23, 24, and25 so Paul could attend and present several of hisinteresting and informative gemstone talks.

New Business:

In the last few years, several Guild membershave met many times at the Church Street Café inOld Town for dinner before the Guild meeting.Starting in 2004, New Mexico Faceters Guildmeetings are now held on a Monday, but theChurch Street Cafe is closed on Mondays. ScottWilson has been searching for another restaurantwhere we could meet for dinner before the Guildmeeting. La Placita in Old Town may become ournew place to meet. Guild members meet at 5:30pmfor dinner before the Guild meeting. Therestaurant where we shall meet will be included inthe e-mail that announces the Guild meeting forMarch 8. Please let Scott know if you plan toattend the dinner before the Guild meeting inMarch.

A board meeting of the New Mexico FacetersGuild officers is scheduled for February 21between 9:00am and 10:00am, the morning of theGuild workshop at Scott Wilson’s home inCorrales.

The Guild Workshop will begin at 10:00amand run until 4:00pm. Workshop Chairman, ErnieHawes plans to have Guild members facet theirstones most of the day. He will address facetingproblems and offer solutions.

Many Guild members will be attending theTucson Show in early February. Please contactPaul Hlava or Nancy Attaway for informationregarding the party that Paul has scheduled duringthe show.

Refreshments:

Nancy Attaway baked a lemon cake fortonight’s refreshments. Gourmet coffee was alsoserved. Thank you very much. Jennifer Galbadonand Mark Price volunteered to bring refreshmentsto the Guild meeting on March 8.

Show and Tell:

The Show and Tell Case held many glitteringgems and lovely items of jewelry. Moderator SteveAttaway led the discussion surrounding tonight’sdisplay.

Dylan Houtman displayed numerous stonesthat he recently cut. He showed a chatoyantmalachite nodule, several small Mexican fire opaldoublets, and an Australian opal triplet. Heshowed two absolutely gorgeous kunzite emeraldcuts, a tricky gem to facet. Dylan showed a smallemerald from the Ural Mountains of Russia, wherethe gem had been the tip of the large emerald cutstone that he showed at the last meeting. Heshowed three imperial precious topazes, anemerald cut, a lozenge, and a square. He presenteda small round tanzanite, a round Arizona peridotwith a nice green hue, a small pearshape tsavoritegarnet, a lovely spessartite orange garnet, and ayellow spessartite garnet. Dylan presented a hugeround labradorite that he cut in a modifiedPortuguese cut that was very impressive. He

5The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Program Speakerby Nancy Attaway and Carsten Brandt

Paul Hlava presented an updated version of hisvery interesting talk on “Synthetic Gemstones”.Paul began by defining terms and then discussed thehistory of gem synthesis. He explained the manytechniques used over the years for making syntheticgems. Paul included a new section on synthetic dia-monds and discussed synthetic yellow diamondsfrom Apollo and Gemesis.

The following pages give a summary of Paul’stalk with additional information taken from refer-ences on this subject. Books and websites used inaddition to Paul’s presentation are listed at the endof the article.

showed a suite of blue sapphires from Ceylon, agreen sapphire, and a lavender/pink Montanasapphire. Dylan also displayed a small roundtriphylite, a lithium iron phosphate. He remarkedthat the gem was heat sensitive, and that hepolished it on a tin lap with Linde A.

Elaine Price displayed several very interestingitems of jewelry that she recently made in hercasting and jewelry-making class. Looking for anature theme, Elaine selected sections of apinecone and made a master mold. She then castmany pieces in sterling silver and assembled thesecast links into a necklace and bracelet ensemble.Each piece was given a satin finish. The beautifulnecklaces and bracelets that Elaine rendered in thelost wax casting method were most graceful andquite unique.

Nancy Attaway displayed four stones that sherecently cut, a square Barion African aquamarine,a brilliant triangular African aquamarine, anemerald cut teal-blue Nigerian tourmaline, and ablue Nigerian tourmaline.

Steve Attaway displayed several items ofjewelry that he recently rendered in gold. Heshowed two handmade rings, one set with anemerald cut dark pink Nigerian tourmaline and theother set with an emerald cut Ukranian yellowberyl. With his new tool, a Roland MDX15, Stevecan now scan in the irregularly shaped stones thatNancy has cut, like the kite shapes and the non-calibrated emerald cuts. The new machine probesand scans objects to create numericalrepresentations of the model and then mills out theobject. Steve has made (and then cast) manysetting parts for Nancy’s stones with this machine.Look for more of these items at the Marchmeeting.

Steve made two new bail designs for hispendants. One bail design shows a raisedhummingbird in gold on a gold bail, and the otherhas a raised orchid in gold on a gold bail. Steveshowed examples of these bail designs. He

displayed a gold pendant that held an emerald cutrhodolite garnet with the orchid bail design. Healso showed a gold pendant design that held alarge kite-shaped aquamarine with thehummingbird bail design. He will show more ofthese pendants at the March meeting.

Steve recently rendered a CAD/CAM designand cast for Guild member Bill Wood a uniquependant, a large shield-shaped pendant in gold thatincorporated the dragon from the Welsh flag. Thedragon was raised on the shield at the top, andSteve set Bill Wood’s large round synthetic rubyunder the dragon at the bottom of the shield. Steveshowed an example of this pendent in sterlingsilver.

A piece of color changeCZ (the color extremesdid not reproduce to thefull effect here, but theywere quite amazing),one of many demonstration pieces brought by Paulfor his presentation.

6The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Gemstone Synthesis

A gemstone is by definition “beautiful, rare anddurable enough for adornment”. These features makesuch an item desirable and valuable. Not everyonecan afford the gemstones they would like to have.Since ancient times, humans have figured out waysto imitate natural gemstones with the use of morereadily available materials. The early Egyptians andGreeks produced simulants (see definitions below).The technologies for creating manmade syntheticsdid not emerge until the Age of Enlightenment.

Gemstone Terminology:Naturals - material mined from the earth (ruby).Synthetics - identical to naturals but made in the lab(synthetic, created, or lab-grown “ruby”).Invented - no natural equivalent (CZ, Cr-YAG,langasites).Simulants - any material with the wrong chemistryand physical properties masquerading as a gemstone(plastic, glass, other minerals).

Until early chemical analytical skills weredeveloped, most gemstones were categorized by theircolor. For example: emerald, green sapphire, peridot,tourmaline, etc. were all named smaragd/smaragdus;sapphire was originally the name for lapis lazuli. Bythe end of the 18th century many chemical analyticaltechniques allowed gemstones to be identified bytheir elemental composition (diamond, 1797;emerald, 1798; ruby, by 1800).

There are some key requirements for gemstonesynthesis: Heat is needed to be able to melt or fuseraw materials. Ruby and sapphire synthesis oftenrequires temperatures around 2200oC. Pressure isrequired for most methods, and many diamondsynthesis processes require very high pressures (inthe range of 60,000 atm). The raw materials mustbe very pure, tiny amounts of impurities give thegemstone its color. Too many impurities may makethe gemstone dark and cause cloudiness orinclusions. Geological processes are re-created inlaboratory settings in order to produce synthetics.

The Frenchman Gaudin in 1837 created rubiesusing a torch, alum, and Cr-salt, but didn’t realize it.He thought they were a glass because the crystalswere cloudy and had a low specific gravity. In 1877,Frémy used large crucibles with Pb-oxide flux toobtain small but commercial quality rubies, but thesewhere too expensive to compete with naturals.

Verneuil, a student of Frémy, perfected a specialfurnace to make ruby, and later sapphire between1888 and 1891. Commercial mass production beganin 1902. The technique is called Flame Fusion, orthe Verneuil Process. The Verneuil process producessingle crystals of corundum and spinel in almostany color desired. Worldwide, thousands of furnacesproduce millions of carats of synthetic gemstonesevery year at low cost (pennies/carat).

A variation of the Verneuil process is theCzochralski Crystal Pulling method, whichproduces large high-quality boules: A small seedcrystal on a rotating rod is dipped into a pool ofmolten ruby. The rod is then slowly pulled up as thecrystal grows. The resulting crystals are expensive,huge single crystals, reflecting the difficulty of thetechnique and the cost of special iridium cruciblesrequired.

Emeralds cannot be made by Verneuil orCzochralski methods, because emeralds melt andcrystallize incongruently (i.e. they decompose intoother compounds before they melt or form these uponcooling from a melt). They have to be crystallizedfrom solution or flux (Flux Growth method). J. J.Ebelman in 1848 used boric acid flux and powderedemerald to grow tiny crystals upon cooling of theflux. A number of researchers found that the bestfluxes were lithium molybdenum oxide with extramolybdenum oxide and/or vanadium oxide.

The German company IG Farben was one of thefirst to create synthetic emerald in 1934 under thetrade name Igmerald, but the flux growth methoddid not become viable until Carroll Chatham refinedit with homogeneous nucleation. In 1935 (at age 21)he reported growth of his first crystals, in1938 herefined is protocol, and in the following year tried tosell his emeralds to jewelers, but had troubleconvincing them that he had made the gems.

7The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

By 1964, Gilson developed this method furtherand created emeralds grown by heterogeneousnucleation, using seed crystals. The flux growthmethod is more complicated, as it requires long times(about one year, give or take a few months) atcarefully controlled temperatures. The long time atelevated temperature and platinum crucibles makethis an expensive process, but the product is ofexcellent quality.

Humphrey Davy experimented with quartzsynthesis in 1822, but his first crystals had manyinclusions. By 1851, Sénarmont created microscopiccrystals; between 1898 and 1908 Gergio Speziarefined his hydrothermal technique to growmacroscopic quartz crystals. He published manypapers about his research and his reactor design isstill used today: His process involves placing naturalquartz seed crystals and a sodium silicate solutionin a silver-lined vessel under a temperature gradient(320-350°C at the top, 165-180°C bottom).

Today’s reaction vessels reversed the temperaturegradient (hottest at the bottom). Around WW2,Richard Nacken further developed the massproduction of quartz crystals by using an isothermalgrowth process to take advantage of a supersaturatedsolution with a vitreous silica supply. During WW2the US and Britain investigated this process as well,but it was not commercialized until after WW2,taking advantage of German developments.

The hydrothermal growth method requires analkaline (NaOH), aqueous solution, kept at relativelylow temperatures (just a bit over 300°C) andpressures (1700 bars), a modest temperature gradient(~40°C) across the reaction vessel and pure feedmaterial. Crystal growth takes about one month. Theworld production is in the millions of pounds peryear range; most quartz is used in the electronic andoptical industries. A fraction of the synthesizedmaterial is smoky quartz, citrine, and amethyst forthe jewelry industry.

Cubic Zirconia is another important man-madegemstone. It has been used to imitate diamond, butis now desired just for what it is – a beautiful stone,not a low cost imitation of one of the most precious

stones. Creating CZ requires a different technique,as CZ’s melting point is too high for platinum orother containment vessels used in the above-mentioned methods. CZ is created by heating theraw materials (Zirconium oxide and a stabilizer –usually Yttrium or Calcium) using a microwaveoven. The material in the center melts first, leavinga crust of zirconium oxide around the melt,containing the liquid. Upon cooling, the CZ crystalremains within a “skull” of zirconium oxide, thusgiving this method its name: skull melting.

The synthesis of diamond followed a difficultroad from creating tiny crystals that are only ofindustrial interest (for abrasives) to making stonesof large enough size and quality for use as gemstones.

The first successful synthesis was done in 1950by a Swedish research team of the Allmanna SvenskaElektriska Aktiebolaget Laboratory in Stockholm.This team did not advertise the results until GEpublished its success in Nature in 1951. Manytechniques have been developed to create diamondssince the 1950s: A variety of compaction methodsincluding special presses, explosives and modernpressure chambers have been used.

Today two companies have come into thespotlight for high volume production of high qualitydiamonds: Apollo and Gemesis. Both creatediamonds of a quality that is very difficult todifferentiate from natural diamond.

Gemesis uses high pressure, high temperatureprocess chambers roughly the size of a washingmachine to create large yellow diamond crystals.Processing conditions are around 58,000 atm and2,300oF to convert pure graphite into diamond overa period of about three days.

Apollo uses a CVD method, decomposingmethane through a microwave plasma into itshydrogen and carbon constituents. The processingconditions couldn’t be more different from Gemesis’technique: the process chamber is evacuated to 1/10th atm and the temperature in the chamber is rathercool, but within the plasma itself, temperaturesaround 1,800oF are reached. Once the gas has beenbroken down, the carbon deposits on a wafer seedlayer. The growth rate is only about half a millimeter

8The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

per day, but the resulting diamond is ultra pure andcrystal clear (by adding dopants colored diamondcan also be made).

While not a technique for the synthesis ofdiamonds, Diamond Anvil Cells (DACs) arenonetheless very interesting: they have beendeveloped to study geological processes andbehavior of materials under extreme pressure andtemperature conditions. DACs use two brilliant cutdiamonds with flattened culets facing each other,between which the material of interest is placed.Pressure applied to the tables of the brilliants ismagnified onto the sample due to the much smallersurface area of the culets (pressure=force/area).DACs can achieve pressures as high as 3.5million atmospheres at 6273K – similar to conditionsat the center of the earth. Because the diamonds aretransparent, the sample can be observed easily whilebeing exposed to extreme pressure and temperature.

References:“Gemstones Synthesis” presentation by Paul F.Hlava, 2004“Gem Identification Made Easy”, Matlins andBonanno, 1997a variety of websites – please see below.

Websites about Gemstone synthesisPlease note that many webpages disappear over

time, move to new location, or change from beingfree to a fee. At present these sites are freelyavailable. Keep a hardcopy of useful info for futurereference.

Compilation of Verneuil, Czochralski and a few othermethods. Includes additional theory on melting/solidification of materials:http://www.cmat.uni-halle.de/~hsl/PoM-files/Physics%20of%20materials%205%20Phase%20transitions.pdfVerneuil Fusion method – schematic and picturefurnace:h t t p : / / w w w . h a w k a n t i q u e s . c o m /hawkantiques205.htm

Henri Hureau de Sénarmont:http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/senarmont.html1911 encyclopedia on artificial gemstonesh t t p : / / 8 9 . 1 9 11 e n c y c l o p e d i a . o rg / G / G E /GEM_ARTIFICIAL.htm Hydrothermal Growth of Quartz Technical Brief:h t t p : / / w w w . s a w y e r r e s e a r c h . c o m /Hyd_Growth_qtz_Tech_Brief.htmSkull melting technique (basic):http://www.ilpi.com/inorganic/glassware/skull.htmlSkull melting (in-depth theory, 2 parts):http://www.crystalresearch.com/crt/ab34/319_a.pdfhttp://www.crystalresearch.com/crt/ab34/329_a.pdfGemstone inclusion library (emerald):http://www.cigem.ca/inclusion/em01.html Tairus created gems:http://www.tairus.com/index.html Ramaura cultured ruby (includes their recipe):http://www.ramaura.com/Chatham created gems:http://www.chatham.com/Wikipedia on skull melting and CZ:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia“Your Gemologist”:http://www.yourgemologist.comBerkeley Geology lecture:h t tp : / / soc ra tes .be rke ley.edu /~eps2 /wisc /Lect3.html#hydrothermalEmporia State University - Gems and GemologyClass material:http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/go340/syllabus.htm

Diamonds:American Chemical Society – History andbackground on Diamond Synthesis:h t tp : / /pubs .acs .o rg /cen /covers tory /8205/8205diamonds.htmlWired article on Diamond Synthesis:http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

9The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Diamond Anvil Cell:http://www.llnl.gov/str/pdfs/03_96.2.pdf h t t p : / / u n i c o r n . m c m a s t e r. c a / b e a m l i n e s /CHESS_newsletter_2000.pdf http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/tactics.html American Museum of Natural History – The Natureof Diamond:http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/index.htmlGemesis Cultured Diamonds (Company featured inWired and ACS article):http://www.gemesis.com/home.htmApollo Diamonds (Company featured in Wired andACS article):http://www.apollodiamond.com/ Lifegems (A new take on cremation):http://www.lifegems.com/ De Beers (for reference):http://www.debeersgroup.com

Facet Designer’s WorkshopKeep It Simple Usually Works

By Ernie Hawes

Several times in pastcolumns I haveremarked that fewerfacets on a design oftengives a better overallresult than a complexpattern that may lookgreat on paper, butfrequently results in a stone that shows nothing morethan a bunch of tiny pinpoints of reflection withoutreally showing off the design. This is especially truewith stones smaller than eight millimeters indiameter. An artist friend once told me that it had todo with having a balance of positive and negativespace. To me, it simply means having reasonablebrightness along with an interesting pattern of goodscintillation. It should not end up looking like anautomobile headlamp. I believe that both of thedesigns presented in this issue meet that goal.

Kevin Schwebel is a fairly new faceter who hasjumped head first into all aspects of faceting. I wasvery pleased when he sent me a design he had workedout in GemCad for cutting a garnet that he had.Kevin calls his design Seeing Stars, and when youcut it, you’ll see that more stars become apparentthan the design on paper shows. For me, the patternhas an elegance that is frequently missing in designsthat have many more facets. In his email to me,Kevin says “I came up with this because I had agarnet that was pentagonal and I wanted to try myhand at cutting for weight retention (which has beena failure due to lap troubles….). It seems to be adecent design for dark material, but I’ll know betterwhen the crown is done. The numbers show goodlight return at least. I have 150cts of nice, clear,bright red Tanzanian garnet, so I think I’ll get plentyof practice.”

10The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Seeing Stars By Kevin Schwebel Angles for R.I. = 1.730

41 + 5 girdles = 46 facets

5-fold, mirror-image symmetry

120 index

L/W = 1.051 T/W = 0.499 U/W = 0.475

P/W = 0.417 C/W = 0.115

Vol./W³ = 0.194

Average Brightness: COS = 82.1 % ISO = 92.3 %

Designed for dark garnet

PAVILION

G 90.00° 012-036-060- Set stone size

084-108

P1 63.70° 012-036-060- level girdle

084-108

P2 40.60° 006-018-030- cut to center point

042-054-066-

078-090-102-114

P3 36.00° 012-036-060- cut to meet P1, P2

084-108

CROWN

C1 48.20° 012-036-060- establish girdle

084-108 thickness, level

C2 22.00° 004-020-028- cut to center

044-052-068- point, meet C1, G

076-092-100-116

C3 12.10° 012-036-060- Meet C1, C2

084-108

Table 00.00° Table Meet C2,C3

6 12

18

24

30

36

42

48 54 60 66

72

78

84

90

96

102

108 114 <120> 6

12

18

24

30

36

42

48 54 60 66

72

78

84

90

96

102

108 114 <120> 6

12

18

24

30

36

42

48 54 60 66

72

78

84

90

96

102

108 114 <120>

C1 C2

C3

Table U W

G

P1P2

P3

P1 P2

C1

T

L

P

C

11The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Old Mine Variation III By Ernie Hawes Angles for R.I. = 1.540

45 + 8 girdles = 53 facets

4-fold, mirror-image symmetry

96 index

L/W = 1.000 T/W = 0.540 U/W = 0.540

P/W = 0.508 C/W = 0.173

Vol./W³ = 0.274

Average Brightness: COS = 75.2 % ISO = 81.6 %

PAVILION

girdle 90.00° 03-21-27-45-

51-69-75-93

p1 55.00° 03-21-27-45-

51-69-75-93

p2 41.00° 10-14-34-38-

58-62-82-86

p3 41.00° 96-24-48-72

CROWN

a 45.00° 03-21-27-45-

51-69-75-93

b 29.50° 12-36-60-84

c 37.00° 96-24-48-72

d 17.30° 09-15-33-39-

57-63-81-87

Table 00.00° Table

6

12

18

24

30

36

42 48

54

60

66

72

78

84

90 <96>

6

12

18

24

30

36

42 48

54

60

66

72

78

84

90 <96>

6

12

18

24

30

36

42 48

54

60

66

72

78

84

90 <96>

a

b

c

d

Table cU W

girdle

p1

p2p3

T

L

P

C

12The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

In the NewsTrue Blue beryl: Canada’s New BerylSource: Professional Jeweler; January 2004.

True North Gems, a Canadian Mining company,announced that the discovery in Canada’s YukonTerritory last August of a new gemstone find isactually a unique gemstone in itself. The new gem,described as a deep blue beryl, closely resemblesaquamarine. The company also compares the gem,now called True Blue beryl, to the rare beryl calledmaxixe. The deposit lies in the Lake FinlaysonDistrict of the Yukon Territory. Powder X-raydiffraction determined the new gem to be a memberof the beryl family, and a scanning electronmicroscope determined its trace analysis to containunusual amounts of sodium, aluminum, and iron. Theunique iron content may explain the saturated colorseen in the gem, a color that resembles blue sapphire.The material shows a slightly higher refractive indexand specific gravity than aquamarine. The new gemis also dichroic in two directions, much like maxixe,but it has been tested to not fade. The deep blue hueof maxixe fades in sunlight, so maxixe must beirradiated and stored in a dark place for the color toremain intact. For that and other reasons, the gem isa new type of beryl.

From Kevin’s remarks, I assume that the garnetsaren’t huge, so a design with relatively few facets isa good choice. And I’m sure that for Kevin, it willbe doubly exciting when he shows someone one ofhis cut garnets, and can say that not only did he cutit, he designed the cut as well. I look forward toseeing his garnets, and to more of Kevin’s designs.The only caution I would have in cutting this designis to be very careful cutting the star facets on thecrown. At 12.1 degrees, the lap should be run veryslow and the stone touched gently to the lap. At thislow angle it’s all too easy for the moving lap to jerkthe stone, or worse, cause the stone to be jammedinto the lap, and possibly knocking the head out ofalignment.

When I first began faceting over thirty years ago,after cutting several round brilliants, one of the firstdesigns I cut was the Modified Old Mine. It was anice change from the rounds, and I liked the design,especially because it was easy for a beginner to cut.Some years later when I began creating facetingdesigns, I often practiced learning this aspect of ourhobby by creating variations of existing patterns.Over the years, I’ve come back to this practice fromtime to time, usually for inspiration in creating anentirely new design. Occasionally, my doodling withan existing design results in something worth sharingwith others. Such is the case with the Old MineVariation III. It’s not much different than theModified Old Mine design found in variouspublications. However, there are changes that, inmy opinion, make this a better design. I was nevertoo pleased with the Modified Old Mine’sconsiderable crown height caused by the high angleof the crown girdle facets. Second, I learned fromFred van Sant that when you have pointed cornersin a design, it’s best to split any facets coming out ofthose corners in the pavilion. Another thing I’velearned is that large tables result in some loss ofbrightness. The Modified Old Mine didn’t have ahuge table, but the row of facets I added makes it alittle smaller, and I think gives a more flowingappearance to the design. By lowering the crowngirdle facet by five degrees, and consequently theremaining crown facets, there is a significant

improvement in optical performance. The split mainsin the pavilion corners help with both scintillationand brightness.

The design is easy to cut and should offer fewchallenges to the beginning faceter. Without anyangle changes, the design is suitable for any stone inthe quartz, beryl, or feldspar varieties. Mexican opalis another good choice as long as the cutter is carefulabout not chipping the corners. Some cutters maywant to raise the pavilion main angle a bit, especiallyif you’re not absolutely sure of the accuracy of yourprotractor. Forty one to forty two degrees will stillwork well, although I personally would want to staybelow the traditional forty three degrees often givenfor quartz.

13The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

Pezzottaite: Madagascar’s New Dark PinkBerylSource: Colored Stone January/February, 2004.

The unique dark pink beryl found recently inMadagascar now sports a new name, pezzottaite. TheInternational Mineralogical Association voted lastAugust to name the new mineral after Dr. FredericoPezzotta of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale inMilan, Italy. Dr. Pezzotta is a well-known expert onminerals from Madagascar. Pezzottaite containscesium and has a much higher refractive index andspecific gravity than morganite. Nearly all of thepezzottaite found in Madagascar was chatoyant,resulting from tiny fiber-like tubules of water foundin the rough. Continued research hopes to discoverwhat causes the material’s unique color, a deep pinkhue rarely seen in beryl.New Disclosure on Beryllium SapphiresSource: Colored Stone January/February, 2004.

The newly formed Thai Gem and JewelryManufacturers Association released a newdescription for their controversial corundumtreatment. The association and eight of Bangkok’sten gemological laboratories agreed on the followingdefinition: Disclosure code HTLE, heat treating withlight elements. The new treatment differs fromtraditional heat-treatment in that the new treatmentinvolves high-temperature heating and inducementof a light trace element, such as beryllium, into thegemstone.

New Hawaiian PearlsSource: Lapidary Journal January 2004.

After years of research and development,Hawaii’s only pearl farm has produced its firstharvest. The pearl farm, owned by Black Pearls, Inc.,lies next to the Honolulu International Airport. Theoperation is still in the early stages, but the oystersare currently producing a variety of colors, includinga distinctive gold shade.

Dichroic Emeralds from MadagascarSource: Gems & Gemology Winter, 2003.

A French mineral dealer obtained a parcel ofemeralds from an undisclosed location inMadagascar. The lab tested the gemological

E-mail Addresses:Edna Anthony .................... eba@bwn.netNancy and Steve Attaway.... attaway@highfiber.comCarsten & Margaret Brandt...brandtmeister@comcast.netErnie Hawes........................ ehawes7@comcast.netPaul Hlava........................... hpf1@qwest.netDylan Houtman....................dhoutman9@aol.comMariani Luigi ...................... ENVMA@IOL.ITMerrill O. Murphy ............... momurphy2@juno.comGary Peters .......................... albpet@msn.comKevin Schwebel.....................kschwebel@zianet.comJim Summers: ...........................commish1@worldnet.att.netBill Swantner.........................WSwantner@Comcast.netHerb and Maria Traulsen ..... htraulsen@mycidco.comStephen and Linda Vayna ..... Vayna@transatlantic.comElaine and Al Weisman ........ almgtcons@aol.comScott Wilson......................... swilson@copper.net

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properties of five of the stones. Most remarkable wasthat the gems exhibited a very strong dichroism fromyellowish green to dark blue.

Guatemala’s New Blue JadeSource: Colored Stone January/February, 2004.

Miners unearthed a large deposit of deep bluejade in the Motagua Valley of Guatemala, home tothe historic jade mines of the ancient Mayan Indians.The jade deposit has yielded mostly green stonesand some green-blue stones. This mine now producesthe first blue jade known in the world. VentanaMining owns the deposit that now produces blue jadethat compares in hue to that of blue sapphire. Thejade is translucent to opaque, and it is thought thattitanium gives the jade its blue color.

14The New Mexico Facetor, January/February, 2004

The New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors GuildThe New Mexico Facetors Guild

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