This time of year is when the Toveco crew spends a lot of time cutting gemstones and cabochons. For gem stones there are different styles and techniques. The techniques that I like to use are concave & flat faceting. This style is known as combination. Combination Gemstones can also use other techniques as carving, flat, concave and so on.
Why concave faceting: As the stone shown above illustrates that the cutter has more design options. The concave facet reflects the light over a greater surface area increasing light retention. Also not being flat, it gives the cutter more latitude to working around the gem material’s reflective index. Concave facets work very well with light colored gem stock buy increasing the color saturation. Also because of the design freedom, it is easier to cut out imperfection in the gem material.
The down side is that it takes me 3 times longer to cut a concave or combination stone per a classic flat faceted stone. A concave stones carat weight will be less per a classic flat faceted stone. However, having the wider design freedom to design the stone for the future jewelry piece is well worth the down side. In addition, it just works well with beryl.
Well that’s it for now.
Later
Jim