Really need your honest opinion

[T L]

Date: 1/14/2010 4:18:34 PM
Author: crasru
I think so. It is so much like what TL seems to have in her stone (gorgeous! I must say it again).
But since we have started this subject - is there any cut that should potentially minimize this effect?
To me it also seems to depend on the size of the stone. Am I right?

Barry Bridgestock cuts his ovals in a cut called a "supernova", and this cut was designed to minimize the bowtie effect. To see some of his ovals, look at his website acstones.com.

Thank you Crasru.

 

[Arkteia]

Thank you. I like his cuts very much. I wish I could buy material (not necessarily spinel) I like in the rough and then ask him to cut it.

 

[PrecisionGem]

There are many different cuts the eliminate a bow tie. The whole key is not to have any facets that fall outside a certain angle range, unless they are located beneath a crown faceted designed to bend the light correctly to work with the pavilion facet. Large tables present problems, especially with longer cuts. For some reason checker board crowns have been shunned on Pricescope, I think because somewhere someone said cutters use them to hide inclusions. This just isn''t true. A crown with little or no table (such as a checker board) can work very well to eliminate bow-ties, windows and other problems common to the more traditional cuts.

 

[LD]

Date: 1/14/2010 6:53:08 PM
Author: PrecisionGem
There are many different cuts the eliminate a bow tie. The whole key is not to have any facets that fall outside a certain angle range, unless they are located beneath a crown faceted designed to bend the light correctly to work with the pavilion facet. Large tables present problems, especially with longer cuts. For some reason checker board crowns have been shunned on Pricescope, I think because somewhere someone said cutters use them to hide inclusions. This just isn't true. A crown with little or no table (such as a checker board) can work very well to eliminate bow-ties, windows and other problems common to the more traditional cuts.

Gene - forgive me but that's an incredibly sweeping generalisation and assumes that PSers are sheep! I'm not a sheep and I buy if I like! I, personally, don't like a checkerboard cut and that's why I don't buy them. I think you'll find people don't like them or would rather have a different cut - nothing to do with reading one poor review on here!

 

[Arcadian]

I have a few checkerboard cuts. I like them though they don''t sparkle as much and I tend to like them on darker stones like Ammy. (not sure why but it rocks to me). what I find I don''t like all that much is concave cuts. They''re interesting (I''ve got a few stones with the cut) but I don''t always like them in person.

I think people like what they like.


-A

 

[T L]

I don''t like the extinction I see that are caused by checkerboard cuts on some medium to dark toned stones. Those particular stones fare much better with traditional faceting IMO.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I didn''t mean to imply anyone was a sheep, but certainly you must admit there are trends among the people here.

My point was, there are a number of ways to avoid extinction, bow-ties, windows etc, most of them involve the pavilion facet angles, but a lot can be done with the crown too. By bending the light with a fully faceted crown, rather than a large table, you have more options with the pavilion.

 

[chrono]

Gene,
Even if the stone is IF, checkerboard faceting just doesn't appeal to me. The same goes for concave faceting. I have one from Richard Homer and he is one of the premier concave faceters, yet I adore his traditional flat faceted stones more than his concave cut stone that I own. To me, it's only a matter of personal preference.

 

[Largosmom]

I personally like well cut checkerboards...just bought some garnet earrings with a checker top and they are very pretty...need to take some photos. They are cute, not a large pair, I just like the style with those stones.

 

[Arkteia]

I think concave faceting can really mask some defects of the stone - it may be helpful if you have a top-color but included stone (like my Mandarin spessartite). It looks lovely, and without the precision cut, the inclusions would have been way more noticeable. Actually I am quite happy with it because I was after the color.