CZ - Luster Quality and Velocity

I rather enjoy cutting CZ, it’s my second fave synthetic to cut
after Spinel.

I have had many very well paid comissions for large CZs, almost all
of which have been Barion cut from coloured material.

An unusual request for a set of white CZ’s was filled with these
stones; Bad Cuts

A recent ‘cutters moment’ resulted in a pink CZ cabochon. It turned
out a very intriguing and delightful gem, So far every jeweller that
has seen it has been stumped at identifying it but they also wanted
to buy it!

Tony.

Anthony Lloyd-Rees.
TheGemDoctor.com

Maybe one day when the earth's natural resources are running lower,
CZ's will be more valuable and not have such bad press. People will
pay you good money for them then! 

I remember when CZ sold at $40/ct, in the 70’s when $40 was a
significant fraction of my paycheck.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

Hey Al,

When CZ first hit the market, Nordstrom was selling it for $100/c.
My little first storefront was six blocks from the mall N. was in.

I was cutting it and trying to sell it at $40/c. Nada.

My mentor said to raise the price to $75/c. I did.

It was incredible.

Today, I don’t sell my work that cheaply.

Wayne

I thought the cloudiness was due to the facet edges being abraded? 

That can make it appear so, but she insisted it was, well, within
the stone…I figured that was mostly bogus sales hype…but decided
to run a test…

A bit like diamond being hard as in can't be scratched by anything
but another diamond (Moh's 10), but not necessarily tough (chips
and breaks if hit). 

Well sorta…Diamond is way more durable that way, than CZ… But
diamond cleaves real good…so mostly ya gotta hit it right…or
wrong, depending on how ya look at it…

See, the three criteria for a true gemstone aRe: beauty, rarity, and
durability…

CZ qualifies on beauty, and maybe on rarity depending on make…
Durability…well, dust (lotsa times Moh’s 7 or so) ain’t gonna
bother it…Most other stuff in a jewelry box isn’t gonna scratch
it…

But that %$#!& brittleness…Sometimes, I think ya look at it, and
it facet line chips…

A CZ ring, unless the set armors it, is doomed… If the person
babies the ring, things might be OK, though… It does seem the
colored stuff holds up better… The lighter colored stuff is kinda
neat when the fire (dispersion) pops back at ya…

As far as using CZ…since it is so inexpensive, it’s worth it to
acquire the best ya can source…

I’d love to get me hands on one of Goo’s stones… A pendant with
provenance it would become, fer sure…

Gary W. Bourbonais
L’Hermite Aromatique
A.J.P. (GIA)

Hi Hans…

I'll cut a new stone in a new shape and put is in my faceted CZ
box. I got colour change, black, blue, orange, and many other
colours. All so pretty and useless. For high end jewellery. But,
boy, so pretty. 

A DUH! moment in my earlier post on CZ…

“I’d love to get me hands on one of Goo’s stones… A pendant with
provenance it would become, fer sure…”

I meant one of Hans’ cut colored CZs…

Apologies to Goo also…

DUH!

Gary W. Bourbonais
L’Hermite Aromatique
A.J.P. (GIA)

A CZ ring, unless the set armors it, is doomed... If the person
babies the ring, things might be OK, though... It does seem the
colored stuff holds up better..... The lighter colored stuff is
kinda neat when the fire (dispersion) pops back at ya... 

I mainly bezel set gems and have a couple of bezel-set, faceted CZ
rings in my Etsy store. They’re lovely to wear and fairly protected
against damage compared to prong set stones. I do like the CZ’s and
much prefer them to “white” (colourless) topaz or sapphire, for
example - and yes you’re absolutely right that it is best to pay for
the best CZ’s available.

Helen
UK
http://www.hillsgems.co.uk
http://www.helensgems.etsy.com

When CZ first hit the market, Nordstrom was selling it for $100/c.
My little first storefront was six blocks from the mall N. was in.
I was cutting it and trying to sell it at $40/c. Nada. 

That does take me back-- to 1976 in Europe and South Africa.

I was cutting YAG at the time and this new product made by a Swiss
company called Jevulite? ( I think) had come on the market. After much
negotiation I managed to obtain a small amount and indeed, after
cutting a few small pieces, ( and that was some serious
experimenting with angles and polishing compounds) it was clear that
it was much better than YAG.

Eventually, I managed to buy rough from an American supplier at
$1.23/ carat in 1978. I had to buy a large quantity to get that
price, but dang, I made a lot of money selling the cut material to
the trade.That material was stabilised with calcium oxide, and
apparently the Russian material, which was stabilised with yttrium
oxide, was a little whiter. (so I was told)

I had a cutting workshop at the time, and we were selling it at R60/
carat to the trade ( the dollar was weaker at that time to the rand–
one rand to 80 dollar cents, if I remember correctly) That was a
hefty profit, and allowed that (then) 22 year old big deal to eat out
every night and live the good life. In those days there were no
colours of CZ but I experimented, and I found that if you heat a cut
stone up just so, it would turn a sort of light citrine colour. (
that is, if it didn’t crack). These I sold at a premium, and they
made me good money. And then a guy called David Wolfe imported some
automatic cutting machines and collared the SA market. Sharp dude
too.

I was not to unhappy though.I had cut some 6000 CZ’s by then and I
was pretty burned out. So I became a jeweller.Much bigger field.

These days,the burn out is long gone and I still love cutting the
stuff. Easy to cut, easy to polish.Nice to experiment with, nice to
cut untried designs and see how they pan out.

Just for interest, I buy my rough from http://www.morioncompany.com/
Good guys to deal with.

And to the poster who mentioned that CZ is problematic to polish, my
sequence is 260 lap, 1200 diamond ( then 8000 on copper, if it is a
big stone), and then 50,000 on a Batt lap.

Just on a side note while on the subject of synthetics, I find it
quite sad that the moissanite crowd have not released thier product
in a more open and easy manner. The stone simply does not feature in
the wider market, ( for that reason, I think) and that is a pity. I
have never been able to obtain any rough, and to the best of my
knowledge it is not available generally. Love to get hold of some,
though

Cheers, Hans
http://www.meevis.com
http://hansmeevis.blogspot.com

And to the poster who mentioned that CZ is problematic to polish,
my sequence is 260 lap, 1200 diamond ( then 8000 on copper, if it
is a big stone), and then 50,000 on a Batt lap. 

Hi, Hans. I’ll add that to my collection of who cuts CZ and how. My
favorite so far, though I haven’t tried it, is Linde A in Rave hair
gel.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

Nobody else in the world who knows anything about gemology has
ever heard the term "Luster velocity" so perhaps you'd better
define it for us. 

After googling for the term, it looks like nobody uses it at all.
Smells like a ham-fisted attempt at spam to me.

Paul Anderson