Thank you for your continued support~ and in your favour, i'll say that knowing about how gemstones flow into the market is the closest step you can get to seeing enough volume of stones to have real practical knowledge.

I'm glad that she loved the gift~ and yes, the inconsistent cuts of many cabochons can take a little extra "love" to set.

@@GemologyforSchmucks absolutely, but, now I'm confident in my ability to set such stones and stay profitable.

Let's keep our eyes on the prize, and hopefully we will get there. Cheers, and thank you for your encouragement.

Thank you for your vote of confidence!~

@@GemologyforSchmucks You're welcome. The smallest star ruby from my latest buy is above the quality I thought I would own any time soon. Great centered star, basically transparent, and eye popping color.

Sorry to hear about the passing of your great aunt. I'm glad that you had a chance to bond with her though, and it's an honour for me to have been some small part of creating a context for that.

Fellow jew here! Had no idea Peter was of the tribe, but the "schmucks" might have tipped me off! I've been thinking of going over there, maybe taking some gemology courses. And of course, meeting the Gem shepherd! Lmk if you decide to go! I feel like I'm gonna be that old aunt in a mumu any day now, watching this with my nephew 😅

Thanks for your continuing encouragement and support, William. This is definitely a work in progress, but I do agree with you that we're starting to go in the right organic direction for healthy growth. On the star front, I'll consider a "show-down" of the stars and see what I can do. Black is such a fantastic colour, and the high contrast is indeed impressive with a star. That said, transparency in the black stars isn't really a thing, so im quite conflicted. Food for thought indeed. Thanks again~

Thanks Rog~ We can thank Lisa for her great taste in classic designs. I'm glad you enjoyed our display of stars aswell.

Thanks very much~ it was a great project to organize.

@@GemologyforSchmucks indeed!

I'm glad to be of service~ and I hope that my work helps you on the way to where you want to go.

Thanks ~ I hope its useful.

Thanks very much~

My pleasure, Stuart

My pleasure - thank you~

There’s definitely a lot of info to wade through. Hopefully bite by bite it will become more digestible for you.

Hi Greg, Rough is a tough circuit, for sure. Evaluating rough is something i consider myself to be a neophyte at, though i'm keen to grow and learn. As you've found though, finding quality rough in small enough parcels to even buy, subdivide and learn from is a massive challenge. What I usually see is that the big fish in the pond come and sweep up whole parcels, which pleases and accommodates the middle-men from the mining locales, because they have to get some cash back to the community just to continue operating. As a natural result, most of the gem market never even sees the rough until its already cut and available for sale. That's something i'll probably need to flesh out when I write my book XD Cheers from Bangkok~

@GemologyforSchmucks yes I totally agree with you about the big fish leaving nothing for the minnows, but you never know until you ask. And I still love your channel and will be a long term fan your friend greg

He is actually a really honest actual gem dealer that is extremely good at what he does, he does give good prices on gems. Now, I Never and you should Never expect amazing deals and be extremely weary of them, also the larger weight of a gem rough parcel, usually is going to save you money. But always ask why is someone going to sell you something for $1,000.00 that everyone else is charging $5,000.00 if he was in a rush to sell he could go from $4,000.00-$4,500.00 and sell it quickly, and in my experience be very careful in those situations. Also purchase gems that have a high yield for cut and greater pricing for rough to cut percentage like emeralds are not worth much difference in rough to cut stones usually only 25% different. He is fair honest straight forward telling you if he thinks good time to buy and what you should consider and will be good pricing. Just figure out your budget and what is it you want and want to do.

Thanks~

Hi Jona, Thanks for your question. I've got a video on the pen type testers discussing some of the extent that they're useful and where they're totally not useful, which i've linked below. Loupes are also another common question for me, so I have a review on 3 popular loupes. (2nd link below) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pdOWnM9jus2npHk.htmlsi=xp-k0OBEBv-1QkP0 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e5aVjdiK3ZPIh2w.htmlsi=mCIbeXs5tJ4pJsgl

PS. I'm waiting for you to write a book. With all the info that you have presented and the images with unique presentations. Looking forward for your autograph :)

That is high praise indeed, thank you. I have something cooking on the back burner, but I want the full flavour to develop before I serve it to my guests. ^_^

A great suggestion. Hopefully i'll be so lucky as to visit some star mines before too long and if im EXTRA lucky i'll get access to rough. Cheers

Hi Maxim - Star sapphires need a cabochon top to act like a lens and focus the star effect. If you put flat facets such as a diamond or octagon shape etc, it will look more like a sheen such as we see in moonstone or labradorite.

Congratulations on your collection~ and yes, Thailand is a bit far away from Connecticut.

Curiosity is a good thing. I'm not sure what looking at a picture of these stones would accomplish though, as we cannot identify or accurately value a stone from photo and video.

Thank you ~ If you'd like to purchase one of these star ruby, then you're welcome to visit gemshepherd.com and contact me.

I've seen cats-eye emeralds in person, but the mechanism that causes the cats eye effect isn't always the same as what causes stars. I've not heard anything about stars being possible in emeralds, but I would certainly be interested in hearing more if they showed up somewhere.

Excellent~ I hope you enjoy your stone.

If only the labs could agree on that one too... but they don't. This is a pretty subjective call, and each lab stands to be different. This is a massive problem between the trade, labs and customers that naturally are suspicious of trickery.

@@GemologyforSchmucks I was afraid that was the case. If violet is on the spectrum, purple is a mixture of blue and red, then in my mind, you have to have some ruby mixed in to make purple. What is typically responsible for the violet color in a sapphire? Different valence titanium?

Vanadium. 👍 ​@@GemologyforSchmucks

Certainly not advisable to get cursed and or haunted by exotic fauna.

Everyone is welcome to test their might XD

Interesting ~ Im not sure that i've seen one actually. Have you heard of natural ones before?

@@GemologyforSchmucks I live in Alabama. Its our state gemstone but I have looked everywhere. Cabbed a bunch I thought might be it. I can get chatoyant ones but no star yet😂

@@Algoldprospecting the quest continues~

In California our state gem is benitonite, it's found in a single deposit and the mine hasn't produced anything worth talking about since the first pocket found. You can pay to go there and dig for yourself but people find very small not facet grade stones and that's all you can get without buying the old stock that's i think $20k+ a CT. States tend to choose rare varieties for the state gem like Idaho star garnets it's only place really that has star garnets, or Montana sapphires they have this particular shade of green, they try choosing something rare and only found there.

@@davidariamirroarkyoung the blue is more like a grey blue. I think I might have found some. I cabbed a piece it has 4 rays

I have regular access to many natural gemstones, and nearly always buy them in person.

Email is best: thegemshepherd@gmail.com

Currently in Bangkok. Who knows about tomorrow, as the world is my oyster.