Color shift sapphire help

[RSargent]

I just purchased a purple shifting to pinky violet color shift sapphire. It's 1.9 carats. The stone is pretty heavily included when louped but looks nice with the naked eye. The stone was removed from a setting and there is a small chunk missing from the oval where a prong would have been. My question is can you recut a stone and not lose too much carat weight or should I just have it polished?

 

[chrono]

There are many points you brought up that makes this stone an unlikely candidate for a recut.
1. Heavily included
2. Large girdle chip

A large chip at the girdle means even if it is possible to recut, you are likely to lose a lot of the face up diameter. I would just have it repolished if the meet points look worn and hide it back under a prong.

 

[endless_summer]

I would think it would depend on how large the chip is. I'm obviously not a cutter or in the trade, but in either recutting it or polishing the chip out, I would think it would take in the circumference of the stone by the 'length,' for lack of better words of the chipped stone. I recently did a re-cut of a yellow sapphire with Jerry Newman of Gemart Services, and he is great to work with - you could always email him about the stone, telling him about the inclusions, and send him some pics to see what his impressions of what can and cannot be done are, understanding that one can only discern so much from pics. Once he, or someone else, has it in hand, they might be able to better advise you, especially with respect to whether the inclusions pose a risk for re-cut. Hope that helps!

 

[RSargent]

Thanks Chrono. Your replies are always thoughtful, educational and helpful.

 

[RSargent]

Thank you Endless Summer. I will take your advice and have it looked at. We have such smart people in this forum!

 

[chrono]

ES is also correct; I don't know the size of the chip, if it is small, it can be polished out with minimal size difference. I had assumed something fairly large. I've had two chips "fixed", both were caused by damage during the setting process. Both had to be tweaked, rather than just polished out. On one stone, there was minimal ct weight loss and size difference. On the other stone, there was more ct weight loss and size difference but I just wanted it fixed. Both stones are very clean.