[Jewelry making - Article 00203] - [Orchid] Primitive Faceting/Lapidary Techniques/Tools?

[Douglas Turet]

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>         my question is this: aren't there less expensive alternative
>     to faceting at home other than modern faceting machines? They
>     easily cost $1000!  I asked around for cheaper alternatives at the
>     club and they all just recommended facetrons/ultratecs/etc... Don't
>     many people use primitive methods of faceting, like the device seen
>     on http://www.rockhounds.com/rockgem/articles/laplap.html ? Its
>     basically a simple device thats held by hand over a lap, used much
>     like sharpening gravers.  What did people use like 100 years ago?
>     500 years ago?!  What do those in the third world use?  Are there
>     any good books covering primitive faceting/lapidary?  I simply
>     refuse to believe that the only way for me to start faceting at
>     home is to shell out a painful some of money. I understand that
>     'manual' faceting would be a lot less efficient and I'm fine with
>     that... " 


    Hi Asa, I'm glad I caught your posting, today... welcome to the world
    of faceting! Actually, it's kind of funny that I should read this
    question, today; I've been involved in a "rather passionate"
    discussion of just such a scenario as the one you describe on one of
    the other listserv's, where I serve as a mentor to the global
    faceting community. Anyhow, _yes_, Asa, there _are_ a few
    alternatives available to you, right now, and if you can wait for
    another 30-45 days, I'll be able to offer you yet another of them.
    As for the possibilities you've just mentioned, each one has its
    pro's and con's, and I'd suggest you take a deep breath and think
    them through before taking that first big leap. The reason I suggest
    this is that, in addition to the initial costs of equipment (of
    whichever type) there are also the costs of materials and
    supplementary supplies to contend with, and I'd hate to see your
    current passion for faceting decimated by an unpleasant string of
    "unexpecteds". So, before we go any further, let's take a good look
    at what's _really_ involved, here, okay? 

    For starters, it's important to keep in mind that faceting, by
    definition, is really a progressive set of grinding and sanding
    steps, performed upon a material, so as to creat flat faces. We
    start with coarse grit and work our way through medium and fine
    steps, until the scratches are too small for the eye to see them; at
    that point, we've created a polish, of one sort or another. (I know
    that that sounds almost foolishly basic, but bear with me, Asa: I'm
    restating the obvious for a reason.) The degree of completeness of
    the answer to your questions depends on the degree of excellence you
    want your finished goods to exhibit. Translation: if you really
    don't care what your finished products (your gems) are going to look
    like, then it really won't matter which equipment you use to get
    there. If you do care, though, and you're a stickler for quality,
    then your options narrow, somewhat, and, if you're _really_ anal
    retentive and tend to obsess over that one fleck of white dust on a
    yard of dark velvet, your options narrow considerably further, down
    to only the most exquisitely accurate machines. (For what it's
    worth, I have one of each: an Ultra Tec, a Lee, and one of Jeck
    Lahr's "LapLaps", to cover whichever bases I need to, on any given
    day.) 

    The most basic unit you can have is what's called a "freehand" unit
    which consists simply of a flat lap, which spins around, and a
    dopstick, held in the hand (much as you would if you were cutting a
    cabochon). These are what were commonly used in India, Myanmar and
    Sri Lanka to do much of the so-called "native cuts", years ago (even
    today, in Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma), and the results are generally
    asymmetrical, with rounded facet-surfaces. If you want to, you can
    build one of these by yourself, using an arbor, a pair of pulleys
    and an old washing-machine motor, all for well under a hundred
    bucks. This is how most colored gems were cut, prior to the middle
    of the 19th century. 

    Next up is the "jam-peg" machine, so named because the back end of
    the dopsticks (which often look like artists's paintbrushes, sans
    bristles) are literally "jammed" into a receiver-block riddled with
    holes, while the stone attached to the front end of each dopstick
    rests on the surface of the spinning lap. Although it can take a
    cutter anywhere from six months to a few years to get the hang of
    cutting anything not 'butt ugly' on one of these, good quality
    craftsmanship can very easily be achieved, here, once the fine motor
    skills have been developed and, since this method is inherently less
    precise than those which follow, the setup time between facets is
    greatly reduced, so cutting _can_ proceed more quickly, for an
    experienced hand. The trade-off? Since each of the dozens of facets
    on an average stone is created as the result of two random
    placements of the dopstick (one, of the front end's position on the
    surface of the cutting lap, and the other, of the back end's
    placement in the jam-block's holes), finding and repeating the
    correct angle-positions (both radially and vertically), so that
    successive grits and the polishing steps can occur, can be a
    nightmare! 

    Next-up comes Jack Lahr's "Lap-Lap" hand-held facetor. (I actually
    had an ancient one of this unit's 45-yr.-old predecessors, which I
    traded to Jack, last year, for the current model.) The great thing
    about the Lap-Lap is that it very inexpensively mimics the basic
    geometry of a Diamanteer's "sled", and does it cheaply. The
    "not-quite-as-great" thing about it is that it's still not very
    repeatable.In other words, since you can't accurately reset the
    handpiece to the last position you'd had it at, the only way to
    accurately cut reasonably flat facets is to grind, sand, prepolish
    and polish each facet, one facet at a time, all the way around the
    stone. Yes, it's true that this is done much the same way that
    gravers are cut, but there's a pivotal difference between the two:
    you don't necessarily need a graver's face to be flawlessly
    mirror-polished, while a faceted stone's, you do. If you're
    primarily after the feeling of triumphing over the obstacles and
    creating something that's an historically accurate rendition of what
    cutters were able to create, 100 years ago, I'd wholeheartedly
    recommend that you order a Lap-Lap. As a hobbyist's first foray into
    faceting, they will provide ample experience in the challenges,
    pitfalls and triumphs of this art and, after all, produce faceted
    stones of one quality or another. (The key, though, is that last
    line.) Since neither end of the dopstick is truly stationery, and
    one end is subject to the lateral arcings of the wrist that's
    sliding the other end side-to-side against the grit-laden metal
    sheet, the facets it produces aren't usually completely flat, and
    therefore, the polishes upon those facets are not usually flawless,
    either. (By the same token, I can attest to the "cheap thrill" of
    faceting part of a 1/2 Ct Montana Sapphire's pavilion on top of an
    ordinary masonite clipboard, while sitting on a sand dune on San
    Francisco's Ocean Beach, last summer, so I can speak to that
    element, too. Again, it all depends on what you're after.) 

    And, finally, there are the two most prevalent kinds of faceting
    machines, those based on removeable handpieces which sit atop
    adjustable-height platforms, like the Raytech-Shaw and Imahashi, and
    those whose handpieces are attached to vertical masts by rotating
    protractors, like the Lee, Graves, Ultra Tec, Facetron, Fac-Ette,
    etc. The great thing about these, as a group, is that even the
    cheapest among them will enable you to produce gems that are
    literally world class, and the vast majority of them will enable you
    to duplicate anything you'll find, anywhere in print, right up to
    the latest designs created on GemCAD or macGEM, the two leading
    faceting-CAD packages. 

    An even better thing about these more substantial units (for both of
    us, actually) is that a friend of mine recently began producing the
    newest and least expensive of them (which remains unnamed, but
    should hit the market by Valentine's Day), overseas. This new
    faceting machine will feature a complete mast-type setup, with
    coarse, medium, and fine cutting laps, a polishing lap, a set of
    dops, dop wax, polishing compounds and a small selection of gem
    rough to get started with, all for somewhere between $600 or $650.
    I'll have the final numbers together within that 30-45 days I'd
    mentioned. 

    In the interim, there are actually several good books you can pick
    up on the subject... The first, and cheapest, of these is the old
    paperback "Facet Cutter's Handbook", by Edward J. Soukup, GG, FGA;
    you should still be able to get this through the Lapidary Journal
    Bookstore for under $10. Another good one (though you may have to do
    a bit of searching for it, since I'm pretty sure it's out of print,
    at this point) is "Faceting For Amateurs", by Glenn and Martha
    Vargas. Although the choices of angles they'd suggested will produce
    decidedly different face-up appearances from those recommended in
    Soukup's tables, either or both will stand you in good stead, while
    you're still getting your feet wet, as a cutter. Additionally, if
    you'll email me, off-list, I'll be glad to turn you onto a whole
    gamut of on-line resources available to faceters of all ages and
    skill-levels. 

    I hope this's helped! 

All my best,
Doug
Douglas Turet, GJ
Lapidary Artist, Designer & Goldsmith
Turet Design
P.O. Box 162
Arlington, MA 02476
Tel. (617) 325-5328
eFax (928) 222-0815
anotherbrightidea AT hotmail.com



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