3,76ct Sapphire, re-cut, keep as is or sell?

[katharath]

Dana is a he - just to clarify

And he is incredibly helpful, talented, wise, kind - etc etc. Dana please do not feel unappreciated! We really love you over here

 

[lovedogs]

Dana is a he - just to clarify

And he is incredibly helpful, talented, wise, kind - etc etc. Dana please do not feel unappreciated! We really love you over here

Ugh, I knew that! Commented too early before having coffee. Sorry, Dana!

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Thanks Dana for the reply to the OP. An objective comment from a cutter was a wonderful bonus for the OP. Yes, we can use more of this.

OP, I like the blue of your first shot, but the muddy color in the after shots do not appeal to me. If its the blue, go for a recut or at least ask jerry if it will work. Good Luck.


Annette

 

[minousbijoux]

I will go back to my wheels and just keep cutting and not answer questions worthy of a cutter to answer; Thank you Ms. Chrono for your kindness and sense of forum etiquette...

I am sincerely humbled and thankful;

Most Respectfully;
Dana Reynolds
ASG Certified Supreme Master Gem Cutter
#96CGE42

Really, Dana?!! Etiquette?!! Come on! I have been supportive of your time spent on this board and your cutter perspective - as I welcome and encourage the perspectives of other cutters such as Roger Dery, Lisa Elser, Ryan Quantz, AussieJamie, and others I'm obviously overlooking. But when a poster has a new stone and is not sure she will keep it, it warrants a reminder that cutters should tread lightly in case they are discussing another vendor's stone. There was nothing discourteous about my response and your comment about etiquette is hurtful. Your reply above is the equivalent of taking your ball and going home when I was just pointing out the downside of making comments.

Note to all cutters: please carry on! Your comments are invaluable to this board and offer excellent insights and perspectives into the fabrication, and inherent limitations, of faceting stones. I have a tendency to try and protect those I know and respect, but it clearly backfired in this instance! Cutters: I promise that if you provide comments in the future, I will try really hard not to say anything!

OP: sorry to have created such a threadjack! Let us know what you decide about the stone.

 

[natascha]

Hi again

Chrono is correct in that I bought the stone at auction so a return is not possible. My main question was if a recut would be possible / advisable to fix the issues with this stone and what the effect might be. Or if it was not advisable and I should just cut my losses and sell it

Maybe I should have clarified that I wasn't really worried about the colour (the more time I spend with it the more I love all the different colours it shifts to ) The second set of photos do NOT show the actual colour of the stone, I was trying my best to take photos of the facets and as you can see from the background the photos came out really grey looking (the background is actually crispy white sheets however the colour they have in the photos is a murky grey). I found a photo taken for the auction that on my screen shows the exact colour I often see and is the colour that makes me I am also attaching the closest I could get to its daylight colour

Now I know it has a bit of grey in it but the truth is I don't actually want a super saturated stone. The examples of trade ideal for blue sapphire that we see here leave me cold even though I can objectively see that they are stunning. For example Im the type of girl that that never liked hot pink colours and instead always wanted the dusky rose, and never been tempted by the amazing paraibas and mahenges shown here. Instead stones like Freke's lavender and grey spinels make me gasp

Now I have been in contact with Jerry regarding a recut and based on the photos and discussion he thinks it would be a good candidate so I will be sending him the sapphire. I figure I love the colour and hopefully this will solve the cut issues. My only worry is that it might darken the colour as I personally prefer pastels

 

[natascha]

Howdy All LOL

Just going off the pictures; it has the depth and if the color is decent and the inclusions are a minimum; you could be amazed at what a simple tweak in the pavilion/culet area can do. Price would be the biggest consideration and if the price is right on the gem as it is; I am sure many cutters would be game for the task !!!

Color is unusual but I have seen and cut much worse...

I try not to chime in on things on the forum such as this but the more I looked at it; the more I saw potential???

Most Respectfully;

Dana Reynolds, csmg
ASG # 96CGE42

Hi Dana!

Thank you for chiming in, really appreciate you adding your take based on your experience. I' happy with the colour so very exited to see what can be done to improve the cut

Based on your experience do these recuts usually end up with a stone darker in tone or intensity or is it completely case to case dependent?

Thank you!

 

[mastercutgems]

Hi Natascha

I hope you are happy and well...

In my 15+ years of re-cutting sapphires I have found on gems similar to the ones you are showing they will brighten up considerably; they only tend to darken slightly in those tones; but nothing that will be significant as the body color is not so saturated as to concentrate the color or tone. I find the medium to darker or more saturated gem sapphires to be the dilemma as the step cut opens and usually holds light where in my experience the brilliant or 8 main brilliant cut will concentrate the color and darken the appearance.

I held off answering your question until I saw side views etc. of the said gem. But in all honesty these are the gems to me which are the sleeping beauties and will give you the best return of brilliance in the western style of cutting...

Normally on gems with that depth and a good symmetry and good crown cutting and polishing I leave the crown alone as if nothing is wrong why fix it??? But in turn on the pavilion I will do an 8 main brilliant cut and put in side steps like a barion to bring up and even the girdle. Many times I have taken a gem like that in the 3.7 ct. range and come out with a 3+ gem that is brilliant and very eye pleasing. But they too are like people; each has its own inner beauty.. I do the 8 main pavilion facets to help eliminate the blinking of say a 6 main and shallow longer end facet mains; no one seems to like a gem winking at them

I will be very interested in seeing your finished gem as I do think your gems have potential; you just have to weigh your options; depth to width ratios etc. as the normal rule we know you want 75% depth to width ratio like 8mm wide and 6mm deep to get good return on the re-cut.

I am sure the cutter you choose will do a professional job and make your gem a much lovlier creation !!!

Anything I can do to help; just ask... Knowledge is free but wisdom you have to work for

Most Respectfully;

Dana Reynolds
ASG Certified
Supreme Master Gem Cutter
#96CGE42

 

[Ella]

To clarify our policies, if a stone belongs to a vendor no comments are allowed by trade members. Why? To prevent trade members from sabotaging other vendors and prevent fighting among vendors from eclipsing the helpful advice of forum members.

If a stone is owned by a consumer outright and that customer asks for thoughts, that is fine as long as trade members don't promote their own businesses in their comments.

If a cutter comments on whether it could be recut hypothetically, that is fine. If a cutter offers to recut it, promotes their own cutting business, or tells the OP to call them, not ok.

I hope that helps clarify.

 

[ilovegemstones]

Dana, I love reading your professional input here. You are one of the most kind and helpful people I know. Thank you!

 

[mastercutgems]

Thank you Ella for the clarifications;

Oh and to make it perfectly clear...

"Anything I can do to help; just ask... Knowledge is free but wisdom you have to work for "


The "anything" only pertains to questions on this forum and not a solicitation to do any work or private email conversations ... Just wanted to make that clear in case someone took it the wrong way...

It is a CYA world in which we live now !!!

But I truly love helping if I can... It costs nothing and makes friends... And I have been so fortunate to have made so many on this forum... I truly am humbled and thankful for so much kindness so many have showed towards me...

Most respectfully;

Dana Reynolds
ASG Certified
Supreme Master gem Cutter
#96CGE42

 

[minousbijoux]

Natascha: It sounds like you are in excellent hands with Jerry. He has worked magic on so many stones. With Dana's additional viewpoint, you now have two cutters saying it will be vastly improved. I can't wait to see the before and afters. Oh, and btw, I like the color a lot more in your two most recent pics - it actually looks like it has a bit of violet in it as well. Good luck!

 

[natascha]

Hi Natascha

I hope you are happy and well...

In my 15+ years of re-cutting sapphires I have found on gems similar to the ones you are showing they will brighten up considerably; they only tend to darken slightly in those tones; but nothing that will be significant as the body color is not so saturated as to concentrate the color or tone. I find the medium to darker or more saturated gem sapphires to be the dilemma as the step cut opens and usually holds light where in my experience the brilliant or 8 main brilliant cut will concentrate the color and darken the appearance.

I held off answering your question until I saw side views etc. of the said gem. But in all honesty these are the gems to me which are the sleeping beauties and will give you the best return of brilliance in the western style of cutting...

Normally on gems with that depth and a good symmetry and good crown cutting and polishing I leave the crown alone as if nothing is wrong why fix it??? But in turn on the pavilion I will do an 8 main brilliant cut and put in side steps like a barion to bring up and even the girdle. Many times I have taken a gem like that in the 3.7 ct. range and come out with a 3+ gem that is brilliant and very eye pleasing. But they too are like people; each has its own inner beauty.. I do the 8 main pavilion facets to help eliminate the blinking of say a 6 main and shallow longer end facet mains; no one seems to like a gem winking at them

I will be very interested in seeing your finished gem as I do think your gems have potential; you just have to weigh your options; depth to width ratios etc. as the normal rule we know you want 75% depth to width ratio like 8mm wide and 6mm deep to get good return on the re-cut.

I am sure the cutter you choose will do a professional job and make your gem a much lovlier creation !!!

Anything I can do to help; just ask... Knowledge is free but wisdom you have to work for

Most Respectfully;

Dana Reynolds
ASG Certified
Supreme Master Gem Cutter
#96CGE42

Thank you for your extensive comment. I will be very happy if it brightens up a bit, as you said the body colour is not that saturated so crossing fingers. I tried the foil test of surrounding the stone with tin foil and happily it maintained nearly exactly the same colour without darkening

I have to admit I currently spend way to much time walking around to see what it does in different lighting and squealing like a mad woman when it does the perfect periwinkle ha ha

Interesting that you mention length to width ratios. I think I will have to wait and see what is feasible in terms of the recut, might be that we only do the pavilion and clean up the girdle but leave the crown intact. Part of me wants to go a bit nuts and do a full recut giving it clipped corners and a bit less width. Guess most people would think that is crazy talk though...

I will definitely post photos once it is done

 

[natascha]

Natascha: It sounds like you are in excellent hands with Jerry. He has worked magic on so many stones. With Dana's additional viewpoint, you now have two cutters saying it will be vastly improved. I can't wait to see the before and afters. Oh, and btw, I like the color a lot more in your two most recent pics - it actually looks like it has a bit of violet in it as well. Good luck!

Thank you!

And yes the stone does have a bit of violet, especially when in strong incandescent lighting. Will have to see if Jerry can take a couple of photos once the recut is done to show you the actual colour since I have proven to be dreadful a it ha ha

 

[natascha]

Bit of a question in case anyone knows, can one actually find periwinkle stones (light violet blue) that maintain that colour in all lighting situations? I ended up giving up on that since I didn't seem to find any that kept the same colour inside and outside. Stones that were a lovely periwinkle outside went purple inside and those like mine go more blue in daylight

Bonus photo of the sapphire together with the planned OEC sidestones (again ignore the colour, seems like my phone camera decided to make everything peachy today, e.g. the OEC's are a G and face up white white)

 

[Niel]

Bit of a question in case anyone knows, can one actually find periwinkle stones (light violet blue) that maintain that colour in all lighting situations? I ended up giving up on that since I didn't seem to find any that kept the same colour inside and outside. Stones that were a lovely periwinkle outside went purple inside and those like mine go more blue in daylight

Bonus photo of the sapphire together with the planned OEC sidestones (again ignore the colour, seems like my phone camera decided to make everything peachy today, e.g. the OEC's are a G and face up white white)

Oh how would you set it?? I have a cushion with plans of a three stone and I can't decide if I should go round, I'll be interested to see what you do.

 

[ilovegemstones]

I love the colour Natascha! My periwinkle sapphire is also shifty.

 

[minousbijoux]

Hmm, some of the most saturated periwinkle sapphires I've "seen" belong to NKOTB. It would be good to hear what she has to say about it.