How rare is a 40-carat sphene?

[Lee Little]

Once again, I am not a cutter but with what I know about Sphene, you will lose very little face with a depth of over 10mm. The weight will be in the mid 30's if I am correct but we could use the advice of a precision cutter that has experience with Sphene.

 

[gemandjewelrylover]

Ok, I understand. I really appreciate your input! We'll see if any cutters have any comments. I thought the additional pictures might help too.

Here are a couple of the belly, just for anyone's edification.

Thank you!

 

[chrono]

I don't know any lapidaries in Japan or in the Asian region so I cannot make any recommendation. Ideally, it is best that the lapidary has the stone in hand to make an accurate assessment. Lee is correct that you may not need that much depth (not as much as a sapphire, for example) because the sphene's RI is high enough that you can get away with a 60% depth.

 

[gemandjewelrylover]

Hi, Chrono,

I probably would go ahead and have it done in the states in the future if I could find someone who was a specialist in sphenes. As I said, I'm not in any big hurry to do anything with this, I was just wondering and speculating. My jeweler did have it recut here originally, apparently was even bigger but had a bad inclusion or two so he had it cut to remove inclusions but keep it as big as possible. So he ended up with this 43 ct stone. I suppose I could ask him too... but seeing all the awesome re-cuts that people post here kind of makes me want to have one of the experts people post on PS about do it! If they would do Sphenes.

Mostly looking for opinions at the moment.

Thank you.

 

[chrono]

I had Jerry Newman recut my sphene.
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/to-cut-or-not-to-cut.194988/page-2']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/to-cut-or-not-to-cut.194988/page-2[/URL]

 

[Starzin]

If you email Jerry with a link to this thread he can probably give you an idea of the recut feasibility now that you have put up more pictures.

I'd personally love to see more of that incredible dispersion.

 

[gemandjewelrylover]

Hi, Chrono and Starzin,

Oh, Jerry does sphene too? I've seen several of his recuts here and they all look fabulous. I'll check into it.

Yes, Starzin, I'd love to see better dispersion too...seems a waste to have such a big sphene with less than ideal sparkle. I'd love it if it could live up to its full potential. But of course I'd want to lose as little as possible.

I'm curious to know what he would say. I wouldn't want to mail it from here, so I'd wait till my next trip home to have anything done.
But it's kind of exciting to think about!

Thank you for the info!

 

[chrono]

You can email him with the same information and pictures you shared with us here. I think there is sufficient information for him to make an educated guess so that you can decide whether to recut or not on your next trip to the US.

 

[gemandjewelrylover]

Hi, Chrono,

Ok, I'll send him an email and see what he thinks.

Thank you very much!