Kunzite Emerald cut

Hello facetors, a, having trouble Emerald cutting a Kunzite. Cleavage is the main problem all help is appreciated.

1 Like

You can orient the rough differently to keep the cleavage plane off of your cutting direction by 5 degrees or more. And/or you can cut with a finer grit than you normally would. Perhaps you rough cut with a 600 grit and facet with 1200 or even 3000. The second thing is don’t use pressure or high speed during cutting. I cut kunzite at about 300 rpm and the lightest pressure. It takes a lot longer, but usually keeps the stone from fracturing along the cleavage plane.

1 Like

Thanks for the help.

Am Having the same issue. Am cutting a chromium/vanadium spodumene from Afghanistan. Looks like a mint merelani garnet in color. Its color stable too with no fading in sunlight. Color is great, size is great but to my dismay I keep getting chipping and cleavage plane issues, very saddening. Have found that low speed and pressure is important. 1200 is the toughest grit to use. Change lap direction and stone placement on the lap to avoid chipping on leading edges of facets. Change angles of facets instead of chasing edge chipping likely caused by a cleavage plane. Am complete newbie when It comes to cutting g spodumene though, just learning the hard way.

I did not cut with the table perpendicular to the z axis of the stone as has been suggested a lot for best cutting and avoiding cleavage problems(would need a few degrees offsetting as mentioned above)
How did you orient the rough in regards to its z axis?
I oriented based on getting the highest yield. Probably my first mistake