Hammers - amethystHammers - amethyst

Hammers: Guest Designers, Online Faceting Designs and Diagrams


Gem cutter Daniel Starr gave his “Hammers” gem design to the faceting community. Here, he describes his design and gives advice for cutting it.

1 Minute Read

Gem cutter Daniel Starr was kind enough to give his "Hammers" gem design to the faceting community. Here, he describes his design and gives advice for cutting it.
Hammers - gem design diagram
Hammers gem design by Daniel Starr © 2006.

You can find cutting instructions for Hammers here.

Cutting Remarks

Hammers - amethyst
Hammers, 2.56 cts. 8.5 mm x 5.6 mm, cut from amethyst by Daniel Starr.

Here's an easy one to cut! The pavilion is quite basic. All the fun comes in the crown. I purposely tried to make another Mirage design when I designed this one, but it also had to be easy to cut. I think this design accomplished both goals. (Note: "Mirage" designs create illusions of facets in finished gems from reflections. See Jeff Graham's Additions #9 and #10 faceting design books). 

Once again, a "second girdle" runs around the crown. Cut C4 and C5 just as you would the facets that establish the girdle: just go round and round. Better have the spiral set correctly.

The long sides of 96-24-48-72 give off a nice flash in person.

Polishing C6 to meet C1 goes very quickly, so be extra careful there.

Complete the table before working on C7. C7 can be adjusted no higher than 14°, but can be taken down to 11° if you like. Decreasing C7 towards 11° steadily increases the brightness of the stone, but not by too much.

My wife immediately appropriated the finished amethyst, which looks better in person.

Detailed faceting instructions by Jeff Graham available at The Rock Peddler


Jeff R. Graham

The late Jeff Graham was a prolific faceter, creator of many original faceting designs, and the author of several highly-regarded instructional faceting books such as Gram Faceting Designs.

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