Sometimes a stone that is poorly cut, or damaged can be re-cut to produce another beautiful stone.  On this page I plan to show the difference I can make by re-cutting a stone.  First lets take a look at the stone before re-cutting.

This Ox-blood Citrine started with a weight of 4.36ct.

The dimensions were 10.68mm x 8.6mm x 7.12mm deep

This beautiful ox-blood Citrine was also poorly cut.  You can see it has polishing marks all over the entire stone, chips, and it is not cut evenly.   I plan to re-cut this stone to show how it can be improved with proper cutting.

Here you can see another very poorly polished facet on the pavilion… this facet isn’t even flat.

Parts of the girdle are still un-polished, and the girdle facets are very irregular.

This stone is also cut excessively deep which creates problems for the jeweler and diminishes the overall appearance of the stone.

This stone also has a window, however it is not quite as large as the other stones I have shown you on my Custom vs Commercial page.  Only the last tier of facets was cut below the critical angle.

After Re-Cutting:

Take a look at this stone now.  It may not look like it, but this is exactly the same stone after re-cutting it.  I chose to cut this stone in Jeff Graham's "Gram Prince" design because in order to get enough material for the proper crown depth I had to cut the girdle down.  By the time I had enough material for the crown the corners were no longer cut at an angle, so I chose a design with square corners to maximize the size and weight of the finished stone.  This design was the right shape and I really like the look of this particular cut.

The first thing you probably notice here is the color.  Notice how bright and vivid the orange color of this Citrine is now that the stone is properly cut.  The facets are cut at the correct angles, and polished properly so the light reflects within the stone the way it should.  This creates a more vivid color with much brighter flashes than in the stone before re-cutting.  Also notice that the facets are flat and don't have pits or scratches across them.  The stone is now cut evenly all around the stone, and is a true rectangle with 90 degree corners.  Also note how all of the facets on the pavilion now meet at one point in the center of the stone.

Here is a side view from one of the short ends of the stone.  Again you can see the stone is very symmetrical, and the pavilion is no longer cut extra fat and deep.  You can see the perfectly straight girdle, the centered culet on the stone, and the facets meeting everything right where they should.

Here you can see that the window is gone at the tip of the pavilion. 

This stone basically started as an 8x10mm stone, and after re-cutting it measures 8.88mm x 7.15mm x 5.93mm deep...  so basically a 7x9, which is one size smaller when looking at settings for this stone.  Not too bad really.  I was hoping to keep the stone larger than this, but there simply was not enough material in the crown to cut it properly and keep the larger size.

Remember when I mentioned about commercial cutters "cutting for weight"  and trying to retain as much weight as possible in each stone?  This is a prime example.  This stone started at 4.36ct, and finished at 2.10ct after being correctly cut!  That means that even though the actual size of the stone when looking at it face up isnt much smaller, I still removed 2.26ct of material!  If you were paying for this stone by the carat that means that you essentially paid about DOUBLE what you would pay for a well cut stone with the same dimensions.  Typically you will pay more per carat for a well cut gemstone, but as you can see here, it really is worth it, and you will not be paying extra for a heavily cut stone.  Not all stones lose this much weight when being re-cut, but this one was a very good example of what you will typically find in most jewelry, and shows exactly why you want to make sure the gemstones you buy are well cut.

As you have seen above, proper cutting can really make the difference between an ordinary stone, and a fantastic gemstone.

If you have any questions or comments, E-Mail me and I will be happy to answer them for you.