It is always sad to see a beautiful stone destroyed and when it is happening as you work on it, that is even worse. Now I have certainly had tourmalines “blow up” on me and left me shatter along with themselves, but this stone is one of the few tourmaline’s I have cut that developed a flaw that moved ahead of the cutting, threw the nascent gemstone. The more I removed the more developed the flaw. I have found that there is only one reasonable way to try and get a clean stone from this type of rough. Put on an aggressive lap and with moderate pressure, take down the facet as rapidly as you can. I have out run a few of the moving flaws this way. Once they are cut out, you can continue to cut the stone in a normal fashion. I have not had exceptional problems once the flaw was gone, but it better be completely gone.
This medium dark toned blue Namibian emerald cut developed a flaw while being cut. The flaw is not particularly obnoxious, but the stone is unstable. It has everything else, just great. It weighs 4.11 carats.
This beautiful, medium dark, completely open, blue Namibian emerald cut bears the dark line of a moving fracture. It penetrates about half way into the heart of the stone and really looks like nothing more than a dark irregular line. The rest of the stone has great properties and the flaw is not really obnoxious. But it lays there as a result of the stones instability and I have no idea whether it could be set or not, without completely fracturing the stone.
The gemstone still has a spot in my heart and a place in the collection. It still makes a nice display stone for the blues of Namibia, that may have come from heating the rough. It weighs 4.11 carats.
Bruce
