Browsing Archive: July, 2015

An unconventional Way of pre-forming “Doorstops

Posted by Site Moderator Webmaster on Thursday, July 23, 2015, In : Faceting

I have an unfortunate tendency to cut “doorstops”, which in the faceting world means cutting a mighty big gem, such as the 50 carat amethyst shown here.

When a piece of rough asks to be cut into a gemstone, I always feel that I would like get the maximum-sized stone from the rough, regardless of a few inclusions, as they always add a bit of interest or a few additional flashes to the finished result.

BUT…….. cutting big pieces of quartz and not having any kind of pre-forming grinding wh...

My new View of Mineral Specimens

Posted by Site Moderator Webmaster on Thursday, July 23, 2015,

by Dave Hawes

A few years ago I purchased a microscope from Rolf with the view of exploring my specimens to a greater depth. Like so many good intentions the microscope languished in a cupboard for a year or two before I found the time to put it to use and realise what I had been missing out on. Not only were there minerals in different habits, but also species that I did not know I had and also ones that I did not even recognise. It was a whole new fascinating world of discovery!

After a while...

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Browsing Archive: July, 2015

An unconventional Way of pre-forming “Doorstops

My new View of Mineral Specimens

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