Beginners Cut

Design by Norman Lenz

Novice stone for 2006 USFG competition

I used a very light Citrine Quartz for this cut and pretty much followed the diagram. I roughed it out with a 360 (only the breaks and Girdle) and sized it to 11 mm. Put a 600 on and re cut bringing the size down to 10.3 mm. I then put a 1200 on for pre-polish and got serious on putting the breaks to a perfect center point. I then cut the girdle by following the line around and had a perfect line meet and the stone was now at 10 mm. At this time I polished the girdle, the whole stone was polished with a ultra Spectra lap over a ceramic. I now went back and cut the four mains in using a 600 but left a good 1/8 th inch from the girdle so I could bring it up to the girdle with the 1200. After I made meet point on the mains I then cut in the four floaters with the 1200, make sure they are all the same size as there are no meet points on the floaters but you could get marked down for unequal facets. I now polished the breaks, mains and floaters with the Spectra lap. Make sure your four culet facets all meet.

I transferred the stone, the crown is very easy as there are no star facets. The only thing that could give a novice some trouble is a very large table. I roughed out the crown with a 360 leaving ¼ inch girdle line. With the 600 I left a 1/8 inch girdle line, cut the mains in and also at this time I cut the table in with the 600 to get rid of the excess on the crown, I cut down to just touch the first meet. Now I put the 1200 hundred on and cut my girdle line to .3. HOW? I use a piece of jewelers saw that is .3, you could use a round or square wire that measures .3, just hold it against the girdle and look at it with your 10X loupe. Follow the breaks around to meet, you should have done this with the 600 when you cut the breaks to see how your transfer worked out, if the line don't meet you need to make the correction with your cheater. OK you have the breaks and mains cut in with a 1200, now cut your table in and just over cut the points of the breaks (because you have no star facets) and polish the table while it is still in the table dop.

Now drop down to your breaks and polish them, when you polish your mains in you can use your cheater and micro adjuster to make perfect meets on the table and girdle line. I spent 4 hours on this test cut, the stone is very nice looking, I would guess for a novice to cut this for competition it would take about four days.

Art Kavan