The Portland Regional Gem & Mineral Show is September 17 – 19, 2010. Exhibitors need to register their intent to exhibit by filling out the “Exhibit Application” for as many categories as they wish then sending it to Lamar Tilgner (address below). Accolades and the awe of your peers are to be had!

Columbia Willamette Faceters Guild sponsors the Al Gerding Memorial Faceting Trophy each year.

• Al Gerding Memorial Faceting Trophy application, awarded for the best single natural or synthetic faceted stone by an adult Novice (to qualify as “novice” you must not have won this award in the past or a novice rosette for faceting in any other show).
• Non-Competitive Exhibit Application. Download this application if you would like to have a display case in the show. Please send this in no later than August 31, 2010.
• Competitive Exhibit Application

Applications should be sent to : Lamar Tilgner, 200 SE Olvera Ave, Gresham, OR 97080

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Gemology Project Faceting Design Contest

First prize, for contributor of most useful Design Collection

Receive an “All You Need Kit” containing:

• 1 BATTWING Lap
• One 3,000 Diastik
• One 60K Diatsik
• Three BATTSTIKS, 1 each CeO, AlOx, and Chromium Oxide

(Retail value: $258.00)

Second prize, for most popular Individual Design

You’ll receive a Professional Polishing Kit, containing:

• One BA5T lap
• Your choice of a 60K OR 100K Diastik

(Retail value: $205.00)

Check out the Gemology Project’s Faceting Design pages to see stones cut from the various designs

The Gemology Project is “a non-profit gemstone and gem science wiki-style database” about gemstones and gemology (gemmology). Every month a gemstone and a piece of gemstone identification equipment is featured.

Don’t need the prize? Donate it to your local faceting club!

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1. Software for Faceters
2. Puzzle, Faceting Laps

Every month in Facets we publish one or more gemstone designs. The April 2010 issue includes SpinWheel 3 by Jerry Bartlemay, March 2010, inspired by Wind Wheel by Charles Covill and Checkboard Oval OMNI Version by John Bailey, 2008.

We’d love to hear your experience cutting one or both of these designs. Post them here, or send comments via the Contact Us link at any time.

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1. Faceting Gemstones for Fun and Profit

Yes, it is possible to make a living from your gemstone faceting and no one has done this faster than John Bailey of GemstoneArtist.com. This year, 2010, Bailey will hold ONE boot-camp-style Faceting class.

July 8 – 13, with over 60 hours of classroom instruction in a close, friendly environment. This course is perfect for the beginner and experienced faceters alike.

This course is so much more than just “how to facet.” John includes vital information on how to value rough, saving you time, money and frustration when you buy rough that you’ll never sell because you overpaid. You’ll also learn basic Gemcad (and if you know Gemcad John is more than happy to teach more advanced concepts). This course is highly recommended by Kathryn Martyn, our club’s secretary and webmaster who attended the boot camp in 2009 and plans to attend this year as well.

The course includes all of the following

• Faceting Machine Orientation
• Rough evaluation
• Rough Evaluation Lab
• Gemstone orientation
• Cold Dopping Methods & Tools
• Hot Dopping Methods & Tools
• Orientation & Cold Dopping Lab
• Hot Dopping Methods & Tools Lab
• Beginning Cutting & Polishing Sequencing
• Advanced Polishing & Repair Cutting
• Beginning Cutting & Polishing Lab
• Intermediate Cutting & Polishing Lab
• Training the Eye to See (Quality Control)
• Beginning Design & Geometry Planning
• Advanced Geometry & Design
• Beginning Design & Geometry Planning Lab
• Basic Gem Photography
• The Well Fed Artist (Getting Paid)

Complete details are found at GemStoneArtist.com

John has several videos posted on YouTube as well, including the cutting sequence when he faceted Oregon’s largest flawless red sunstone

Related posts:

1. Faceting Design Contest

Seattle Fac-Ette for Sale

The Columbia Willamette Faceters’ Guild has a Seattle Fac-Ette for sale (as of May 4, 2010). This machine is in excellent condition, having been recently refurbished by Bob Grove.

This package deal includes three used laaps (180, 600 and 1200 grit) and an acrylic master lap. Also included are a transfer jig, target dop, 45 degree table dop and about a dozen Fac-Ette dops in a wooden dop block.

The price is $1,200. If interested contact Haden Olson, our property manager at 503 631 3132. Haden can bring the machine to a meeting or arrange for you to take a look.

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1. How to Build Faceting Machine

Clean-up of Messy Epoxy Tubes and Mixing Surfaces

by Glenn Ruminson (FACETS Mar 2005)

I got tired of getting my fingers gummed up from leaking epoxy and hardener tubes. I avoid the mess by slipping a 2″ by 3″ polyethylene bag over the bottom end of the tube — all the mess stays inside the bag.

This is probably not new to a lot of you, but I also discovered that ethyl alcohol (sold as denatured alcohol or shellac thinner–editor) will dissolve epoxy, hardener, and mixed but still soft epoxy-hardener. A squart of alcohol plus scrubbing with a paper towel makes quick and easy cleaning of sticky fingers, or your mixing surface, as long as you do this before the epoxy hardens.

Cut a paper towel into 2″ by 2″ sections for ease of use in cleaning up epoxy messes. I also find these sections useful in blotting water and debris off stones before checking my cutting progress.

Related posts:

1. Dopping with Epoxy

GemCad Software

There are a few software programs of use to faceters. The first that comes to mind is GemCad, developed by Robert Strickland. According to GemCad.com, “Gemcad is a computer-aided design (CAD) program for faceted gemstones. It runs under Windows 95 or later on PC compatibles with screen resolution of at least 800 x 600.” Note, it will also run on a Mac using Parallels or other software enabling you to run Windows software.

Strickland goes on to say, “GemCad simulates a faceting machine and shows you accurate 3-D views of the stone. GemCad understands symmetry, so you typically have to ‘cut’ only a fraction of the facets to get the full design. GemCad can follow paths of light rays through the stone to allow you to optimize a design to minimize light loss. The end product is an accurate faceting diagram that shows several views of the stone with accurate angles, indexes and dimensions. At Gemcad.com you’ll also find links to the Datavue 2 database of faceting designs.

The DOS versions of GemCad and GemRay software and documentation are now free. So if you’ve got an older Windows machine, grab a copy and get designing!

Gemology Tools is a complete gemology software reference. They say, “If you do jewelry appraisals, work with gemstones in any fashion or just love gems then Gemology Tools Professional is a must have. Time is money and Gemology Tools Professional saves you time. Visit Gemology Tools for more info.

DiamCalc is another program that displays a simulation of a cut stone. It is used by diamond cutters and sellers because no photograph can show the beauty of a diamond. They also have the free GemAdviser 2.0, a read-only software allowing you to view 3D models of diamonds and gems in the *.GEM format created in DiamCalc and Helium Polish. (Does anyone know whether it would also be able to read files in the .gem format created in GemCad? If anyone knows the answer, please let us know so we can correct or append this post). The GemAdviser allows one to evaluate diamond (and other gem material’s) light return and leakage.

DiamCalc Software

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By Dick Walker. Published in FACETS, January 2005

The time-tested method of dopping with hot wax seems to have gone the way of the Dodo bird for most people. I still use hot wax on occasion when I am in a hurry or perhaps someone else is in a hurry. Now I favor the use of epoxy, the five-minute variety. I could use the longer cure variety but it takes a long time for it to become stiff enough to stop running all over the place. Now I use the quick cure epoxy but I use only the epoxy in the tubes, not the kind that comes in the double syringe form. I have found that the double syringe variety becomes a study in madness and frustration.

Why you might ask? Well most of the resins and the hardeners or catalysts are not the same viscosity.  As a result making a proper blob of each is virtually impossible, leaving you with epoxy that will not cure rock hard.

Over the years I have heard of numerous additives used to thicken the epoxy and make it less runny and yield more readily to the solvents used to dissolve it. I have heard of using com starch, corn meal, cream of wheat and cerium oxide, the cheap brown stuff that is. A bit confusing, you bet. I decided to give them all a try to see which method actually was best.

Cornstarch & Epoxy

Cornstarch seemed to be an inexpensive place to start. I prepared a blob of epoxy and proceeded to add an abundance of cornstarch to my blob until it appeared to be sufficiently thick and dopped a stone. After a sufficient wait, I proceeded to facet the pavilion of my stone. After completion of the pavilion I transferred the stone using the same doping method.

Then came the task of removing the first dop so I could cut the crown. I found that the cornstarch epoxy required quite a bit of heat to free the initial dop, enough that it made me just a bit nervous. After completion of the crown again what I felt an inordinate amount of heat was necessary to remove the dop.

Corn Meal & Epoxy

Oh well on to the next filler material. I decided to try com meal this time. I proceeded to mix the com meal with the epoxy as instructed put the stone on the epoxy dop and waited. I do not know what the problem was here but the epoxy failed to harden to my satisfaction. Perhaps some of either the resin or the catalyst was absorbed by the com meal. This was tried again with approximately the same results.

Cream of Wheat & Epoxy

On to cream  of wheat with just about the same results, I may have to juggle the resin catalyst mix a bit.

Cerium Oxide & Epoxy

So on the last suggested filler, cerium oxide. I had tried this filler in the past with satisfactory results but I decided to mix up a batch filling the resin catalyst with enough of the cerium oxide to thicken it sufficiently. This mix hardened quite rapidly with very little tendency to run. After about two hours under a light bulb it was hard enough to commence cutting. When it came time to remove the epoxy from the stone and dop the amount of heat necessary to effect separation was quite satisfactory even for the more heat sensitive stones.

As far as I am concerned the cerium oxide makes the most satisfactory filler for epoxy dopping.

A note on Dops

I have found that the cone dops make a much better base for epoxy dopping than the flat top dops because the epoxy does not work as a thin film adhesive. More mass is required to form a satisfactory bond for dopping. One of the best features of epoxy is that it is waterproof and resists shearing. I have never had a stone come off when dopped carefully with epoxy.

Watch for Humidity

One last thought, one factor that might effect your success with epoxy in general is the humidity in your shop environment. If the humidity is high, as in near a dryer vent or in an utility room, there is a pretty good chance that your efforts to dop with epoxy may result in rubbery or insufficiently rigid epoxy. Make every effort to use epoxy in a warm dry area, for best results.

Related posts:

1. Dopping Tips – Cleaning Epoxy Mess

Resources abound on the web, and forums are great for getting together while staying at home. Here are a few faceting forums I’ve found. Let us know if you know of others and we’ll add them. (Note, links open in new window)

• USFG Faceters List Very active lis. Current topics: Who do you buy rough from, Question on Polishes, etc. Great place to learn and/or contribute about faceting.
• The Lapidary List at Yahoo
• Pretty Rock has a Gemology, Faceting & Jewelry forum
• Lapidary / Gemstone Community Forum
• Aussie Lapidary Forum: Look for the “Forum” link across the top of the page
• Visit GemologyOnline.com for all sorts of forums including lapidary and faceting

Know of more? Send any more forums you know so we can post them here.

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1. Free Gemology Course
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With the dizzying array of equipment available, Your Gemologist has a nice write-up explaining a bit about what many of the various gemstone identification tools do and why they do it. This equipment is used by both gemologists and faceters.

What equipment do you use? Did you teach yourself?

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1. Where to Learn Gemology