GEM CUTS

Other stones can benefit from mass-production methods. Jade, for instance, is extremely tough and difficult to cut and polish, making it a problem to remove possible pitting. It may actually benefit from the massproduction method used for irregularly shaped stones and used to polish some cabochons.

The method is known as tumbling, and the irregularly shaped gems are called tumbled or baroque gems. The irregularly shaped stones-and stones cut in squares, circles, or other shapes-are placed in barrels with various abrasives and liquids and are literally tumbled for days or weeks. Once they have been shaped by this tumbling, they are put in another barrel and tumbled with polishing agents to smooth them.

The gems used in inexpensive jewelry are generally tumbled Otherwise, the cost of hand labor would make the jewelry much more expensive. Baroque gems, in fact, have a charm of their own, with their irregularity contributing to the effect of the jewelry.

While the cabochon cut is ideal for translucent and opaque gems where the play of light on the rounded surface is enough transparent gems are another matter. Here, the more surfaces there Are to let in light, the greater is the dispersion of light and the fire of the gem, as well as the brilliance and scintillation.

FACET CUTS

starting in the fifteenth century and earlier in India, transparent gems been to be cut with faces or facets to enhance the effects of although the method was introduced to Europe in Venice, 'Jam soon became the center for this kind of gem cutting, was common by the seventeenth century.