I finished cutting and faceting my gemstone. I turned a hunk of old TV screen, scavenged from BLM land not too far from Mountain Home, into a pretty amazing looking gemstone. Not that I didn’t have any help or guidance from Michael Stoecker and Kelly Willis during the process. Faceting stones isn’t something easily understood for someone who failed basic geometry in High School.

Gemstone Unveiled

• Design Cut: NoviMMX
• Facets: I cut 57 facets into this stone.
• Number of Days: 4 days to go from rough to gem.
• Machine Used: Selectra-Matic Faceting Machine

Turning it Over – Gemstone Transfer Jig Process
I began the lesson with the Pavilion already cut and polished during Lesson 3. Basically the bottom portion of the stone was cut and it was time to start working on the “Crown”.

The problem here is trying to find a way turn the stone over and getting it attached to a new Dop Stick in a manner so the angles will be precisely the same. The way to do this is by using a “transfer jig” and Kelly thought it best that he accomplish this delicate task.

Video of the Dop Stick Transfer Jig

It much easier to understand the transfer jig process by watching the 2:00 video.

Cutting the Crown and Table

In the above picture you can see how the transfer jig process gave me access to the top part of the stone so I could start cutting the Crown and Table.

The cutting of the Crown and Table went much faster than I thought. I cut the eight “C1” facets at 30º rather quickly and this narrowed the girdle portion of the stone significantly. Then I polished these facets to a high sheen. Next I moved on to cutting the eight square C2 facets at about 28º and polished them up.

The only thing left was to cut the flat part of the top of the gemstone called the “Table”. This process took a little more time as high precision is required to cut right down to the “meet points”. After a few pointers from Kelly, the Table was nicely faceted and polished.

Thanks to Michael and Kelly
As you can see by the above picture, I am now the proud owner of a really cool gemstone that I cut almost completely by myself. I wish to thank Michael Stoecker and Kelly Willis for giving me this opportunity and opening up their shop to me.

But I was told that these guys are not finished with me yet. They seem to have some evil plans for me in the coming weeks. I certainly hope those plans don’t include “hot wax”.

PS: A hardy congratulation goes out to Michael Stoecker for recently being chosen as the new President of the “Intermountain Jewelers Association”.