[Jewelry making - Article 00605] - Re: [Orchid] Cab calibration problems

[Derek]

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    As a stone cutter, I find this discussion quite interesting. Let me
    be so bold as to suggest that it seems what folks are talking about
    here is not really making something, but assembling finished
    products from other people's manufactured work. I'm also going to
    suggest that, while, as has been stated in this thread, there is a
    problem with stone cutters and metal workers not understanding each
    other's work. But a far larger problem is that the people who are
    buying these products are looking for the lowest price they can get
    as a primary criterion. I suspect that customers for these products
    could easily get exactly what they wanted were they willing to pay
    the price for that accuracy. Here's why in terms of stone cutting. 

    It's the last part of cutting and polishing a stone that takes by
    far the most time.  The tolerances you're talking about here are
    probably in the range of 1/4 of a mm or less. The calibration time
    and polish is probably about 1/2 of the time spent on cutting. Cut
    it too small and you can throw it away. The eye is very acute in
    seeing something out of round or even out of oval. So when you're
    cutting this stuff, it has to be done very very accurately. If it's
    not cut quite right, every time you scratch up the surface of a
    stone, you have to go through usually at least 5 separate steps to
    get it back to polish again. And when you go through these steps you
    have to estimate how much you're going to lose to make sure it's not
    going to be too small. It simply all takes time to do both well and
    accurately. 

    And what's the seller about with 4mm and 6mm material?  Dumping it
    on the market as quickly as possible.  Often you the user are buying
    it for pennies a piece and getting it from some of the poorest
    countries in the world whether it's hand or machine cut. Most
    American cutters cannot possibly compete with that labor market so
    we don't. The people who are doing the cutting are being paid
    practically nothing, by our standards, and they're probably being
    paid by quantity produced not quality of the product. Truthfully, a
    4mm stone takes nearly as much time to cut as a 12mm stone and is
    truly a pain to work with in that size. I wouldn't be surprise if
    1/3 are wasted. 

    I have little doubt that the pre-made setting that you are buying is
    produced in a similar way.  At least metal, however, can be more
    easily machine made because it is a much more consistent and
    predictable material than stone. 

    All of this is to say, you get what you pay for. If you want to pay
    what accurate cutting is worth, I'm sure you can find well
    calibrated stones. The truth is too, adjusting your stones to fit
    you settings is not that hard. 

Derek Levin
www.gemmaker.com

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