Oh damn that's pretty! Nicely done to the both of you!

Fantastic work! It took me at least 6 months before I could get a finish like that!

The stone I cut this from was half a £2 tumblestone I picked up from a gem show, so it's a great way of using up uninspiring quartz group stuff

Woah how many facets is that on the pavilion?

I can imagine getting a good polish on that was also an arse, I always struggle with long facets

"Fat girdle habit" is a great name for a band

Ice clear polish, and perfect meetpoints too! Fantastic!

I've used the AlOx lightning lap because powders hate me

Quartz is definitely a bastard. The only thing that helped me was getting hold of a couple of lightning laps - https://lightninglap.com/ - the 3k resin bonded lap polishes like an 8k, and then a CeOx resin polishing lap from them.

I've never figured out how to get a satisfying polish with anything I have to apply to a lap, it just becomes scratch city.

Stone looks lovely though!

Oh I love the richness of the colour there

I can thoroughly recommend his book on commercial facet designs!

Hahahaa yissss

Amazing! I've got a moissanite I've been keeping for a special occasion- how do you find it vs something like sapphire?

In the UK, we've got https://www.gemsofeastafrica.com/ who provide trustworthy rough without having to pay huge amounts of intercontinental postage

Woah damn, I need to step up my game

This is what we call The Good Stuff. Amazing job

Stunning work, and a lovely story

I've been so impressed with the LL pads that, outside of bonded cutting disks, I don't use anything else. Your milage may vary, though!

Yeah it's pretty effective! Looks great!

It's a little box for ease of display in photography. The groove gets wider at one end allowing different size stones to sit in it.

Thanks, it's the first stone in a year I've been properly proud of