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Post by perkins17 on Jul 26, 2021 20:29:37 GMT -5
I know this is a funny question but is faceting enjoyable? My local rock club has a medium faceting are that I could learn in and I was wondering if it would be enjoyable. Thanks in advance and sorry for the weird question.
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Post by Pat on Jul 26, 2021 21:00:07 GMT -5
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Post by perkins17 on Jul 26, 2021 21:08:17 GMT -5
Ok!
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agatemaggot
Cave Dweller 
Member since August 2006
Posts: 2,195
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Post by agatemaggot on Jul 26, 2021 21:41:31 GMT -5
Faceting becomes a form of self hypnosis , you start out and begin to concentrate on what you are doing and soon you have become soo engrossed in what you are doing that time, space and surroundings are lost. The Navajo rug weavers get caught up in their weaving the same way. Before they finish a rug they intentionally make a mistake in the weave so their soul isn't trapped in the rug ! Thread art on the butt end of fishing rods can have the same effect, many nights I would grab a glass of ice water and go down in the basement to my shop and start working and then I would hear one of my roomies bumbling around in the kitchen upstairs. Taking a drink of water I would realize the water was room temperature . I had been sitting in front of my project for 8 hours straight ! An old friend of mine in the rock club here was into faceting and when he was in the zone you could walk into his shop and speak to him and not get any reaction what so ever, he was in his own special place !
Weird answer this was, escape from the real world you will !
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jul 26, 2021 22:07:19 GMT -5
Faceting is very enjoyable once you know what you're doing. If you have faceters in your club who are willing to teach you, you can try it and see if you like it. It takes a lot of patience and isn't an instant gratification hobby. The gratification comes when you cut a real sparkler. 
It's also very expensive if you do decide to get into it fully. Faceting machines are about $3K and up and then there's the laps. There's so many different ones now, it's hard to keep up. Finally, faceting rough (depending on what you want to cut) can get REALLY expensive if you're cutting natural gem grade stones. If you're cutting quartz or lab created rough, it's not too bad though.
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Post by perkins17 on Jul 27, 2021 11:11:54 GMT -5
Thanks hummingbirdstones! Right now I will finish my cabs and then maybe move over to the faceting branch. |
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rivarat
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 140 
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Post by rivarat on Jul 28, 2021 3:06:06 GMT -5
addictive, time consuming, hypnotic, satisfying, challenging, frustrating, fun - can be all of these in just one stone  |
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Post by perkins17 on Jul 28, 2021 10:18:21 GMT -5
rivarat thanks! Those are some very nice creations!
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Post by Starguy on Aug 2, 2021 10:55:32 GMT -5
perkins17I’ve faceted some lab created ruby and some CZ. It’s very fun. My inherited facet machine is old and pretty inaccurate. It still turns out a pretty attractive gem. CZ rough is reasonably priced, it comes in many colors and it sparkles more than a lot of natural rough. I’m looking forward to seeing some photos.
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Post by perkins17 on Aug 2, 2021 12:14:53 GMT -5
perkins17I’ve faceted some lab created ruby and some CZ. It’s very fun. My inherited facet machine is old and pretty inaccurate. It still turns out a pretty attractive gem. CZ rough is reasonably priced, it comes in many colors and it sparkles more than a lot of natural rough. I’m looking forward to seeing some photos. Thanks! I'm not sure when I'll have time to but hopefully soon. |
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Aug 6, 2021 23:52:40 GMT -5
If you like cabbing, you will probably like faceting. Trick is to find a good teacher, and then spring for a good machine. It is VERY time consuming... your first stone might take an entire day... or two. And the frustration can be immense. Cutting a stone is simply following a recipe of angles, but polishing a stone can seem impossible. Faceting attracts a different breed, some very interesting people. Everything about it is expensive, so if $3k for a machine seems like a lot... think twice. And it is highly repetitive. Simple cuts might have 30-50 facets. You have to hit each with 3 or 4 laps... that’s 120 to 200 steps for a single, simple stone! Pretty boring! (And a single mistake can mean you get to start all over, if you’re a perfectionist.) Polishing a big table can take hours. Simply getting a machine to cut accurately can take days. I don’t think there is any other form of lapidary more frustrating. The learning curve isn’t just steep...it’s vertical. Getting better and faster is very slow, it takes years. The payoff, though, makes it worthwhile. I particularly like the hunt for weird things to cut, cutting unusual things and odd patterns keeps it interesting. And at the end of the day, you have produced a superbly beautiful thing, of value.
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Post by pauls on Aug 10, 2021 3:35:32 GMT -5
Faceting is a peculiar hobby and it takes a special breed of person to enjoy it. If you have endless patience are meticulous and a perfectionist then you will really enjoy it, if for example you spent hours gluing plastic planes together and painting them when you were a kid it will be good for you, If you get bored with things quickly then faceting will be a nightmare.
I taught faceting at my club until recently and some people were just naturals, instantly got it and were soon turning out brilliant stuff. Others struggled and gave up before they even finished one stone.
A couple of things to think about for your first stone, they will probably try and get you cutting a piece of TV screen glass or a piece of Quartz, you will be thinking fantastic I am going to cut the Cullinan Diamond, it will be a huge stone.
Don't. If you cut a piece of glass when you have spent 12 hours or so cutting your first all you will have at the end is a fancy piece of glass. Quartz can be a pain to cut, it just is. Buy yourself a nice piece of gem, Topaz is fairly cheap Cubic Zirconia is cheap and is stunning. Same with being a hero and cutting a huge stone, don't, the bigger you go the bigger your mistakes will be. Cut a stone no bigger than say 6 or 7mm for your first, the facets are smaller, they cut and polish quicker and are small enough that the inevitable mistakes are small too.
Enjoy yourself, you will be absolutely blown away by the sense of achievement when you finish your first gem.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Aug 10, 2021 9:51:28 GMT -5
Faceting is a peculiar hobby and it takes a special breed of person to enjoy it. If you have endless patience are meticulous and a perfectionist then you will really enjoy it, if for example you spent hours gluing plastic planes together and painting them when you were a kid it will be good for you, If you get bored with things quickly then faceting will be a nightmare. I taught faceting at my club until recently and some people were just naturals, instantly got it and were soon turning out brilliant stuff. Others struggled and gave up before they even finished one stone. A couple of things to think about for your first stone, they will probably try and get you cutting a piece of TV screen glass or a piece of Quartz, you will be thinking fantastic I am going to cut the Cullinan Diamond, it will be a huge stone. Don't. If you cut a piece of glass when you have spent 12 hours or so cutting your first all you will have at the end is a fancy piece of glass. Quartz can be a pain to cut, it just is. Buy yourself a nice piece of gem, Topaz is fairly cheap Cubic Zirconia is cheap and is stunning. Same with being a hero and cutting a huge stone, don't, the bigger you go the bigger your mistakes will be. Cut a stone no bigger than say 6 or 7mm for your first, the facets are smaller, they cut and polish quicker and are small enough that the inevitable mistakes are small too. Enjoy yourself, you will be absolutely blown away by the sense of achievement when you finish your first gem. I probably would skip topaz as a first stone. The perfect cleavage plane makes it a little tricky. Cubic Zirconia would be good, though. |
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Post by perkins17 on Aug 10, 2021 10:42:13 GMT -5
Thanks so much! It's good to know that.
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 4,059
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Post by gemfeller on Aug 10, 2021 14:46:51 GMT -5
Maybe this just repeats some of what's already been posted, but whether faceting is "fun" depends on how your head is put together. It helps if you're strong in geometry and have a perfectionist streak. Apart from the initial expense (it's EXPENSIVE!) and learning curve, nearly anyone can learn to facet from diagrams. But to extend your own wings and create unique personal designs requires special talent. I don't have that talent and while I can turn out well-cut stones from other's diagrams, I can't "fly on my own." And that diminished my enjoyment of faceting. I find I much prefer cabbing and exploring "the art of the curve."
My first 4 stones (round brilliant, emerald cut, trillion and oval) were all made from optical quartz and I keep them in a special "keepsake" box. I'm glad I chose it because it's a natural stone and I learned some good lessons in polishing it. I'm not a big fan of synthetic stones but it's "cutter's choice."
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