Question about tiger eye

dreamrocks If you want the "cats eye" to go along the long azis of the stone cut north and south and if you want the axis to go across the short axis of the stone cut east and west. That said there is one more thing you need to look at. That is the edge of the slab to see how the fibers are moving. What gives Tigereye the chatoyance is caused by fibers that were originally asbestos and then it is metamorphosed and more silica is cooked in and the silica replaced the asbestos ("fossil" asbestos if you would). So how the fibers zig and zag through the stone is what causes the "eye". this is where a template on top and bottom work well because the back where you mark the stone may not be the same fiber configuration as the front. Usually the fibers are at an angle and you have to take that into account for the front of the stone. The second thing is your cut, by the look of it, it is a typical dome cabochon. Due to the continuous arc from the top of the cab to the girdle of the stone you will be cutting through fibers that zig-zag. That is what is causing the "z". To get a ore straight line you may want to go to a buff to cab where the top is a low angle and the sides are 10-15 deg angle off of 90 deg ( as in / \ ). Beyond that it is just playing with it till you get it right. One more thing diamond wheels cut faster than Silicon Carbide (SiC). Tigereye is one of those stones that is hard to get a good polish on at the very top of the stone with SiC if you cut across the fibers. This is due to the slowness and dullness of the SiC cutting. This is where diamond out shines SiC big time. It cuts faster with less pressure and does not pull the fibers of the tigereye. This is a bigger problem on low dome and larger stones. The stone in the image appears to be 14x10 to 18x13 so SiC does good on this size in a nice dome like yours. BTW nice stone. Hope this helps.

dreamrocks If you want the "cats eye" to go along the long azis of the stone cut north and south and if you want the axis to go across the short axis of the stone cut east and west. That said there is one more thing you need to look at. That is the edge of the slab to see how the fibers are moving. What gives Tigereye the chatoyance is caused by fibers that were originally asbestos and then it is metamorphosed and more silica is cooked in and the silica replaced the asbestos ("fossil" asbestos if you would). So how the fibers zig and zag through the stone is what causes the "eye". this is where a template on top and bottom work well because the back where you mark the stone may not be the same fiber configuration as the front. Usually the fibers are at an angle and you have to take that into account for the front of the stone. The second thing is your cut, by the look of it, it is a typical dome cabochon. Due to the continuous arc from the top of the cab to the girdle of the stone you will be cutting through fibers that zig-zag. That is what is causing the "z". To get a ore straight line you may want to go to a buff to cab where the top is a low angle and the sides are 10-15 deg angle off of 90 deg ( as in / \ ). Beyond that it is just playing with it till you get it right. One more thing diamond wheels cut faster than Silicon Carbide (SiC). Tigereye is one of those stones that is hard to get a good polish on at the very top of the stone with SiC if you cut across the fibers. This is due to the slowness and dullness of the SiC cutting. This is where diamond out shines SiC big time. It cuts faster with less pressure and does not pull the fibers of the tigereye. This is a bigger problem on low dome and larger stones. The stone in the image appears to be 14x10 to 18x13 so SiC does good on this size in a nice dome like yours. BTW nice stone. Hope this helps.