The Gemstone Butterfly Cut

Tried out the gemstone butterfly cut by Mr. Donald Clark CSM IMG.

Used a piece of Quartz , supposed to be natural.

Diameter 18.5mm

Impressed with the result and enjoyed the exercise.

Tried to attach a photo but not very computer savvy unfortuneatly

2 Likes

Very nice. Great work!

Hi Grant,
Nice cutting. I’m just starting out and wondered if this was a good exercise for a newbie? I heard that polishing quarts will test you patients. Yours looks good. Did it take a long time to polish and what disk did you use?

Also, I know this is a bit off topic, but I like how you displayed the gemstone. Would you mind sharing how you were able to get the tweezers in that shape and how they you secured them? I’m trying to photograph some gems and your setup is just what I’ve been looking for.

Thanks,
Hayden

Hi Hayden,

Thanks for your compliment and interest. Sorry for the delay in replying.
Of course I don’t know your skill level but the cut is not terribly difficult but it does have a lot of facets. Why not give it a go , you never know until you try and I’m sure you’ll learn lots along the way . I always do even though I’ve been cutting for a few years and usually specialise in sapphires. Try it on a piece of glass if your worried about wasting quartz rough , although if you are successful the end result is still just a piece of glass.
I did my usual cuts , 260, 600, 3000, Tried to polish with typemetal & 50’000 , no good.Ended up useing lucite and cerium oxide.Seems to work best for me on quartz.
For the photo I used a large pair of tweezers (about 6 inches long) passed through the hole in one of my metal laps , sitting on a toilet roll . Sheet of white paper on the lap.Sounds a bit ordinary but seems to work alright.
Thanks again and if yov’ve got any other questions I can help with I’ll be only too happy.