A couple years ago my grandfather re-built the faceting machine he used when he was stationed over-seas and gave it to me, along with plenty of tooling and rough stones. I’d been meaning to learn how to get going with it, even read a few books on the topic; unfortunately all were pale substitutes for experience. I’d been vaguely aware of the existence of a lapidary club in Tucson when I lived there, and had heard they held events that coincided with the annual gem and mineral show. Only this year did it strike me to look into them, and I learned they offered a two-day intensive course in faceting for members of the United States Faceter’s Guild (USFG). It didn’t take long to decide. I got my membership sorted out within the hour, and signed up for a spot! It didn’t hurt that a trip to Tucson would also mean a chance to catch up with several friends, and indulge at a lot of my old favorite restaurants.
The class itself ran two days, 8 hours each day, and was taught by Jeff Theesfield, Billy Bob Riley, and Dave Richardson. They walked the students, six of us, through the process of setting up and faceting a stone, from rough cutting through final polishing. I’m glad I decided to take a class rather than dive in on my own - there’s a mind-bogglingly large band of things that can go wrong, and mistakes that are incredibly easy to make. A number of famous names in the gem-cutting world stopped by the classroom throughout the day, Scott Sucher (world expert on the Hope diamond, among other stones) and John Bailey (from the International Faceting Academy in Oregon) among them, which was a rare treat.
The 16 hours was total was just barely enough to complete the stone - though I’m told with experience the whole process comes down to 2-4 hours depending on design complexity and well-behaved materials. Of the six students, only two of us produced finished stones, meaning the class likely could’ve benefited from a third day, longer hours. Dave spent a considerable bit of time near the end showing me how to clean up my meet-points during the final polishing step, which made for a significantly better gem. Going forward, I’ve got a clear picture of how I need to modify the machine I have to cut well, though there are a couple of features I probably won’t get without a professional machine (e.g. a Facetron or UltraTech) that would make life a lot easier. I’ll post updates here as my home setup matures, which will inevitably require new side projects worth writing up.
