Y'know a lot of people in the trade talk about garnet with a sort of contempt, but I find that garnet is still popular as ever in society. They can be such possessing gems. I think the problem is largely due to over-supply in the trade (and therefore a low perceived value) Beauty and variety are still essential value points though, and I think that is what will keep garnets popular over the ages. Cheers and thanks for the comment Thoralf.

You should see them cut. Jeepers. Even some of the golden opportunities and below look like a chaotic hurricane under the loupe as i'm cutting them, but when they take an acetone bath and towel off... I'm like... you're a keeper. It's a problem. I should probably sell more of them, but i'm a draconic hoarder XD

@@GemologyforSchmucks I hope to in the not so distant future . Yeah I have too many things I need to sell but have not for various reasons. .

You might be surprised~ there are lapidary clubs that have been formed just for this purpose.

​@@GemologyforSchmuckscome to find out, there's a gem society, and lapidary club 7 miles down the road from my house. They even offer classes

Ah Dreams, what a blessed place between the veils. That said, we know your dream was fiction because I don't really own any quartz aside from chalecedony and agates hahaha. That said, Catherine the Great of Russia's favourite stone was amethyst, and i've found that she was not mistaken. There is some excellent amethyst from Afghanistan. I don't want to cut it myself though... XD

Thanks for your kind words and comment~ regarding the watch, I'll first say that I haven't spoken with Rolex representatives and/or their suppliers, so my perspective can be shifted over to the "rumour and hearsay" department in the grand scheme. Rolex has exacting standards when it comes to the cutting of the gems that go into their watches and the tolerances are near-inhuman as I gather from conversations with cutters of the Swiss tradition (historically "THE" watch gem cutters). That out of the way ~ often times the cutting for this type of project costs more than the gem material itself. I share a similar suspicion with you, as most of that variety of colours available in the market now (particularly in the yellow orange red hottt but cheap colours) come from beryllium treated sapphire. Perhaps at some point i'll get interviews with representatives of these companies and can tell a more compelling and fact based story. In the meantime, i'd follow your gut instinct and ask those questions directly to the sellers and brands and see how they respond. Otherwise, it's fair to assume that a large part of the value of these pieces is built into them via branding and an excellent story. Why is the American dollar so great? Why is the Rolex so great? Folks decided, and thus it was so. (Again, thats my perspective and not objective fact)

better than the opaque stuff~ but still... not by much.

Send me an email at thegemshepherd@gmail.com and we can talk about how many sharks fit in the tank that needs graveling. We'll do some calculating we can go from here XD

thats revenge for your ending pun muahhahah

@@cocopufer5667 bwahaha - I was about to ask if you had progeny, because that was parent-grade pun.

OoOo~ we have goals!~ I think some topaz shall will be a good "gateway drug" to the world of cleavage. Fortunately the colourless and blue varieties are cheap and plentiful and you can learn a lot before you go to other often-cleaving stones. Tanzanite kind of terrifies me. (PS) responding to your email shortly ~ thanks for following up ;)

Hi Phoebe ~ I myself have so far only used a handpiece/ platform type machine, so that's what i enjoy. The Sterling (of Sri Lanka) is a workhorse and is substantially less expensive than many of the other super-high-tech mast machines popular with many cutters worldwide. sterlinggemland.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=20&search=facet&description=true

As far as for beginning cutters? Every lapidary I have spoken to, and my own experience says RUN the other direction. Quartz (all those you've listed above are types of quartz) is deeply unpleasant to polish.

@@GemologyforSchmucks ok , i know it be more expensive but wouldnt be more forgiving to work with very hard stones to learn to join end point? If availlable and if one can afford it.

@@Schtroumpsolis Quartz family is generally not more expensive by carat than these others. Its cheapness in rough is part of what draws so many people to it. That said, the reason most of us discourage trying to learn on quartz is because its is a nightmare to polish. Cutting a stone with nice meet-points is not difficult, but polishing it and keeping those meet-points is the major challenge that we have to learn to accomplish.