tri-color, pure, nice tone and saturation. Ring stone sized emerald cut. red-champagn-green color. The gemstone weighs 3.29 carats,
This pretty tri-color is flawless and weighs a couple of carats, a nice size for a ring. It is the best example of of color combination of green to red with a narrow band of yellowish between them that I have. This is because very little rough like this has been offered to me, the high cost of nice examples and the focus of my collection is on exceptional color not the combination of colors. Still who can resist a distinctively tourmaline standout.
The cost of the rough was moderate because it was rather dark and scruffy. Fortunately for me it turned out the the mean streak in the rough was more on the surface than in its heart. It helps to be a genius to pick rough (or have superman’s x-ray eyes), but in this case it was mostly luck. In the end cutting the rough is the only way to really know what you have. In addition to better color saturation (purity of color), the colors had a high enough tone level to moderate any mixing of the colors and this kept the potential for muddy colors out of the picture.
Cutting an emerald cut of this size is very ho hum business except that this is a tri-color and that means stress in the stone and on you. There is not much to be done, but have “soft” hands that keep from shocking the stone. I am far from the best with this slow motion effort, but I have only taken the “hammer” to one expensive bi-color from Afghanistan after weeks of breaking in a new 3000 grit lap to grind major facets on at least a 4 gram piece of rough. It had already gone through then “normal process”. The tourmaline had a colorless end and a great green end of moderate tone. The green end kept breaking, but as the tourmaline grew smaller and my frustration grew larger, the clear end finally gave way. It never broke down the divide, which was not too sharp, between the colors which is rather unusual with a stressed stone, but I had had enough. I didn’t even put it up on the kitchen window sill, which is the land of lost efforts. It is still nice to see their color when the sun shines. Sort of like very expensive sun catchers.
Now back to my success, everything turned out great with this stone and I can show it off. Its beauty speaks for itself, but I get a bit more of a kick out of the stone knowing I won one rather against the odds. I am not considering have this one set in jewelery, at times a traumatic experience, while I am around.
Bruce
