Should I have this Pink Sapphire Recut by Richard Homer?

[ILikeBond]

A few weeks ago I posted a thread (here) asking for design ideas for a wedding gift involving a 15 carat pink tourmaline pear that I ultimately returned in favor of the sapphire pictured here and below.

Its vitals are:

1.83 ct. cushion cut pink sapphire
6.0 x 6.8 x 5.3 mm
(presumably heated)

While purchasing the stone, I contacted Wink and looked into the pricing and process for having a stone recut by Richard Homer. I'm torn about whether to do it.

On the one hand, the majority of people here speak very highly of Homer cuts and, from my experience, I greatly trust the fine opinions here. As you'll see below, the stone is also fairly dark in some places in some light, i.e., a lot of extinction. Wink said it was about 40% extinct based on this photo from the vendor, but in real life if often looks more.

On the other hand, I sort of "hear" the criticism about the Homer cuts, i.e., that the concave cutting and the "strings" of light it produces in the stone might take away from the personality of the stone and actually make it look less unique, kind of like all concave cut gems. I'm not personally decided on this, though, because I haven't seen a Homer cut in real life. From what I read, it sounds like the static view of it may suggest some homogeny between different concave cut stones, but in real life, when the stone's moving around, the effect is magical.

Is this true?

Does anyone know where I can see a video of a concave cut gem scintillating?

Speaking of personality of this stone - it really is very beautiful in some lights, as I think the pictures will show. Some nice hot pink color and beautiful firey flashes.

The shape and size is very nice, I really love the cushion. One odd thing is that depending on the light, the color will go from a purpley-pink to a pure purple - something I'm not crazy about because I wanted a pink sapphire.

Anyway - hope you don't mind a lot of pictures

, and I look forward to hearing your comments and advice on this sapphire.

(PS - After I figure out the "whether to recut" issue, I'll be seeking some more advice on what to turn this into - just be warned!

)

 

[ILikeBond]

Real life photos. It was hard to capture the colors, etc. - this is the result of taking hundres of pictures!

 

[ILikeBond]

2

 

[ILikeBond]

3

 

[ILikeBond]

4

 

[ILikeBond]

5

 

[ILikeBond]

This shows the size on my hand - it also shows the stone being really purple.

 

[ILikeBond]

7 - ditto

 

[ILikeBond]

8 - ditto

 

[ILikeBond]

9 - set it up on a little styrofoam peanut from a package I got - worked perfectly.

 

[ILikeBond]

10 - this picture shows a good amount of extinction, I think, but its also probably b/c of the lighting/darkness.

 

[ILikeBond]

Last one - PURPLE!

Thanks!

 

[chrono]

Have you asked Wink about how much better the stone will get? If you take a peek at my Colour Me Pink thread, the improvement is amazing and the loss in weight isn't all that much. 2 carats to 1.75 carats (only because I wanted a different shape too). I even have one more picture that shows the effect of the recut. However, only the cutter can tell you if that stone is a potential candidate, how much weight loss and size loss and colour improvement will happen. Mr. Homer not only does concave faceting, he also does traditional faceting. For larger stone, concave faceting is a wonder to behold, especially his creations - I have a windex blue zircon from him (2 carats, I think). However, at the same time, when a stone already scrumptious colour, I prefer traditional faceting to really bring out its colour, especially for sapphires and rubies.

I'm really plugging Jeff's work today.

. The stone below is a peridot he recut for another customer that owned it but was unhappy with the large amounts of extinction. It looks like very little weight was lost and the improvement is amazing. If you are happy with the colour of the sapphire, I personally would consider a recut in the traditional faceting pattern. I agree it looks more purplish pink to pure purple from my monitor - not what I would consider pink at all.

 

[Cehrabehra]

I voted to keep it as is.... but I think for me it would be not so much who cut it but how they cut it.... meaning, I agree RH is amazing, but I prefer his traditional cuttings, the concave ones just remind me of class rings from the 70''s or something, like cat eyes. They DO bring out the color though if color is more important than the faceting. And I have to add I''ve seen a few concave cuts that really were amazing - that hex one of his is gorgeous! I love chrono''s stone... I''m seriously thinking I need to duplicate that sometime LOL!! Best of luck to you!

 

[surfgirl]

Keep it as is! Personally, I loathe Homer''s cutting style. Every stone looks exactly alike and let''s face it, each stone has its own unique characteristics. Yours is lovely as is. I also think the current cut is "richer" and more "classy" looking. The Homer''s look fake to me. But that''s just how my eye sees that very spikey faceting.

 

[colormyworld]

I also voted no on the concave cutting.

My pink sapphire was 1.84 cts before cutting, while not windowed the make was "off ". The culet was not centered and the facets not symmetrical. I thought a R. Homer recut would really make it pop. Well to make a long story short I wish I had my native cut stone back. It seems to have lost its personality. Maybe it is just me but I like most of the native cuts over the "perfect" cuts some perfer. As long as there is not much windowing or extinction. A little belly on a native cut is not always bad. As a matter of fact it will help the stone not to have such a bad "tilt window", which is so common in stones cut to critical angles.

Just about all pink sapphires and rubies will get more purple hue in natural and fluorescent light.

Here is a pic of my cookie cutter pink sapphire set. This pic was taken outside on a sunny day. It looks much more reddish in incandescent lighting.


Doug

 

[ILikeBond]

Thanks, Doug.

I''ve seen this ring on the forums before as I was doing my research - definitely one I was looking at a lot, since this and the pink sapphire currently on Richard''s site are the only 2 Homer cut pink sapphires I''ve come across so far. I do appreciate the hindsight.

Thanks also for the head''s up on the "tilt window" - I didn''t really know of this phenomenon, but now that you mentioned it, even though there is no window in this sapphire head-on, it does have some significant windowing at a tilt. I figured this didn''t matter when the stone is mounted, but if it can be corrected, it probably should be.

-----

So Richard Homer does regular recutting in addition to concave recutting? Is he as talented at that as he is at the concave cuts?

 

[chrono]

Yes, RH is excellent in regular faceting work. He recut Cflutist's sapphire and it was gorgeous. I'm off to find that thread for you. Oops, sorry, that was concave faceting too, but I'll keep looking for examples.

I'm pretty sure he does regular cutting because I talked to Wink about 2 years ago on cutting a pair of pear shaped red spinels for earrings and he suggested Mr. Homer doing them justice with old fashioned cutting.

 

[colormyworld]

In my opinion (for what its worth ) the concave cutting shows no sciintilation. I really like to see those brighter flashes as the stone moves around. With concave faceting the stone just looks frozen as in static. With no life. All brilliancy.

I would not worry to much about the windowing when tilted. I don''t think it has much effect on value, unless it is extreme.
Doug

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I like the traditional cut as well. I''d probably leave it alone. Chrono''s pink spinel recut is amazing, and I''d do a traditional recut IF the native cut is bad. In any event, I think this is a much better choice than the other stone!

 

[Catmom]

I voted to keep it as is. Personally I just have never liked the look of concave faceting. It just looks off to me and I like the personality that comes out with a traditional cut. I have several pink sapphires and all of them take on a purple hue depending upon the light.

 

[partgypsy]

I''m in the camp of liking big chunky facets stones. I vote no for the concave cutting. I would only consider recutting IF it was traditional cutting and upon discussion with the cutter there would be visible improvement in brightness and minimal loss in the carat weight. you really have to talk to the cutter about it. Since it is on the deep side it is more likely that you would have minimal loss in size for the recut, which is a plus.