Martin's Faceting
Martin is an Active, non-commercial cutter who cut stones for the beauty of it. He loves to cut exceptional Gemstones and transforms them into magnificent jewels!
He does Conventional Flat faceting, but also Fantasy Cuts, Concave Cuts and V-Grove Cuts.
Cut a little and look a lot . . .
Homebuilt Machine
Pictured to the right is Martin’s DIY faceting machine when he started out cutting gemstones.
Vintage V2 Ultra Tec.
This Ultra Tec V2 machine was Martin’s first professional mast machine he acquired and he is still using it today.
Modern V5 Ultra Tec.
The latest addition to the workshop is this digital Ultra Tec V5 machine, arguably the best machine on the market at the moment.
State of the Art, Ultra Tec, Fantasy Machine.
To top it all off, this Ultra Tec Fantasy machine!
This machine can cut at different angles, concave facets, V-grove facets, round circular patterns – anything you can imagine!
V-groove cuts
V-groove cuts improves overall brightness of a gem and gives better "Tilt" performance. It is improves fairly dark material and allows for a shallow cut stone.
Flat Facet cuts
Flat faceting falls in two distinctive groups, that is; Precision or Brilliant cut stones and Commercial or Step cut stones, broadly spoken.
Fantasy Facet Cuts
This type of cutting is normally a combination of Flat facets, Concave facets, V-grooves or round Bubble facets.
Concave facet Cuts
Curved surfaces intersect in a very different way than flat facets. Concave cut gems have the ability to gather light from a wider range of angles and reflect it back than flat faceted stones.
Frequently asked questions
To cut and polish a stone to a very high standard with an excellent level of polish can easily takes anything between 6 – 12 hours.
Over the last decade or so many lapidaries experienced in the art of flat faceting experimented with concave cutting gemstones (curved facets instead of flat). This is a relatively new style of cutting compared to the traditional flat faceting designs. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of published designs and cutting with this technique presents a number of unique challenges ! The cutting tools used to cut curved (concave) facets are cylindrical mandrels and that brings all sorts of variables into the design.
Concave cut gems have the ability to gather light from a wider range of angles and reflect it back than flat faceted stones
Concave facets presents the gem with a completely unique appearance!
I source gems from Trade shows and independent rough dealers and then also directly from miners and licensed mines in mostly African countries, like Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia etc.
Yes, anyone who are willing to spend the hours and have the patience needed to cut a stone can learn how to cut a stone. However, not very cutter is a good cutter, to stand out in the business you need to be able to pay attention to detail and a deeper knowledge of the types of stones you cut and how light interacts with the stone and chosen design. Your execution of cut and polish should be superb!
No, it’s not the golden road to riches. Your capital outlay to start is quite high compared to your Return on Investment. Then you need to establish yourself in the market and build a name for yourself and whilst doing this you still need to compete against the cheap commercial stones.
You need passion, focus and determination to have a chance to make it in the long run in this business.
Yes, I do!
If you are keen to go on a Gemstone Safari, please contact me and when I have enough people interested I will arrange one either too Namibia, Mozambique or Tanzania.