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FACETIPS – A GEM CUTTER’S NOTEBOOK

by
Duncan Miller


The faceting articles published over the past few years in the Mineral Chatter have been compiled into a single 128 page document, available for download for those interested in saving all the articles together. To download the pdf file click here.

A 29,18 ct cuprite from Onganja, Namibia, cut by Duncan Miller and now in a private collection in Germany.


Browsing Archive: June, 2016

Selecting Rough

Posted by Site Moderator Webmaster on Saturday, June 25, 2016, In : Faceting 

By Duncan Miller

If you are going to facet, you need to learn something about mineralogy because you need to know what stones you should obtain, how their characteristics affect their behaviour while you are cutting and polishing them, and how they affect the optical properties of your finished gemstone. The easiest material for beginners to cut and polish is common red garnet. It presents no problem with cleavage or orientation for colour, and generally behaves itself well during ‘cutting...


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Skorpion Mine, Rosh Pinah, Namibia - some rare and recent minerals

Posted by Site Moderator Webmaster on Saturday, June 25, 2016,

By Gisela Hinder, Rosh Pinah Geo Centre


The Skorpion non-sulphide zinc mine in southwestern Namibia has always produced interesting and rare minerals. To name only a few amongst the great variety of zinc carbonates, phosphates and silicates discovered at Skorpion, the skorpionite, hemimorphite, smithsonite and tarbuttite crystals are probably the best known. Nevertheless, Skorpion mine has an area where copper values in the host rock are higher, and minerals like malachite, chrysocolla, zincol...

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