OPEN MOUTH A INSERT FOOT B CLOSE MOUTH A Again thanks to all
who responded. Hopefully I will remember to try not to post anything
in the wee hours of the morning 
during a hard shift at work…
Also sorry for the double post yahoo mail has been acting a little
flaky the past couple of days for me messages being double sent and
sometimes not getting sent at all. I think they are having problems
with their mail servers, or at least the one I’m on. Anyway you are
correct about the method of creating CZ’s I was thinking of other
material at the time (and not Rutile, on the manufacturing) as was
evidenced in my previous post which I hope arrived okay to the list.
I would have to say that yes if you are looking at the standard 11
different types of cuts then my time cutting CZ’s (or laser material,
a boro-silicate which is one of my favorite) would be completely
wasted as what would differentiate my stones from the mass marketed
stones. However, The types of stones and cuts I am speaking of are
not your standard. Try and have a Jamb Peg native cutter do a
portugese cut, pinwheel cut are any one of the thousands of other
special cuts out there that impart a unique look and feel to the
stone, that would be difficult to execute properly without precise
machinery. I am not saying it can’t be done. I have heard of some
impressive work done with calibrated jamb-peg machines. However now
we are talking more than the intrinsic value of the stone itself we
are looking at the creative process. It is akin to the painter who
has a tube of paint and a canvas, the canvas and the paint itself
does not have an intrinsic value it is what the painter does with the
canvas and paints that imparts the value to it. I guess what I am
saying is that the stone itself can become of little consequences but
the crafted stone as a whole has value rather than a species price
that is set by what the market will bear. I would say I like to take
the value more out of the stone and put the value in the process as
it should be. A badly cut stone is a badly cut stone whether it is
synthetic or not and the price should reflect this. I know that is
an idealistic viewpoint and the way things should be for all of our
works not just faceting. Probably also the reason why I still have a
day/night job 
I think you are right in one aspect the way the
market is currently driven people don’t look or really care about the
cut the only thing that most people think of is I have a round
(insert carat wgt.) diamond. They don’t care how the facets were cut,
and in some cases I have had people tell me they thought they come
out of the ground already finished and that is why some rounds look
different than others! Would I like to facet a 10-carat Alexandrite
or demantoid garnet, Well sure I would, can I afford the stone up
front and or find it, well maybe not. How much would I cry if it
flew off the dop and shattered into a million pieces (quite a great
deal) Would I be tempted to do a simple cut on this to keep the
risks down and the profit margin higher, probably (although I
couldn’t let myself do a bad cut). Here we have the case of the
paints and the canvas being worth more than the final painting and
the impetus to do a complicated job is not there.
I guess the reason this hit a nerve is that I have heard this from
both sides of the fence. I have heard that my synthetic cut
material, (although of good cut, quality etc.), is worthless because
of the material and from an art gallery who told me faceting,
irregardless of the stone, was not artistic because of the machinery.
So there you have it my complete ergonomic soap box in a
nutshell…
Ok that is it hopefully I muddled throught his E-mail without making
gross errors that I should know better than to make.
Terry