How to cut rough stones — orientation, preform, faceting & cabbing basics
Track: Gemology · Duration: 42 min
Video lesson
Videos stream from YouTube. To use your own uploads, host on YouTube (or another embed-capable host) and set video_embed per lesson or edit defaults in academy-gemology-track.php / Academy Admin.
Course reader
How to cut rough stones — orientation, preform, faceting & cabbing basics
Gemology workbook — ID, cutting, evaluation, setting, and birthstones next to the video.
Orientation
- Locate color banding, cleavage, fractures — the “path” of the finished gem starts here.
- Mark table and culet direction; saw or grind away unusable crack zones first when possible.
Faceting vs cabbing
- Faceting machine: index gears, mast height, laps (diamond, cerium, oxide) — progressive grit sequence.
- Cabbing: wheels for domes and calibrated sizes — great for opal, jasper, turquoise (with water and dust control).
Dust. Silica and some gem dusts are hazardous — wet cutting where appropriate and capture dust at the source.
More tutorials: Open video search on YouTube
Lesson quiz
Each attempt uses a random set of questions with shuffled answer choices. Pass at 70% or higher to mark the lesson complete.