Butterfly cut

[Faceting Frank]

Just some advice on your Butterfly cut MB. I want to cut one to go in a pendant, I’m guessing it doesn't want to be below about 15mm diameter to clearly see the butterfly. Also, a pale or clear coloured stone for best effect. Was thinking of cutting it in CZ.

[MakkyBrown]

Yes about 15mm+and light color saturate rough. A little color works better than completely clear. I will have a look at it tomorrow might tweak it a bit.

[RoughCreations]

Like this!
https://aussielapidaryforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=6980.msg61379#msg61379

[Faceting Frank]

That looks good RC and the square cut suits it because the wings point into the corners. Thinking now of cutting it in quartz instead of CZ around 16-18mm for a pendant. In MB's book it has the instructions for cutting it round, have you got the cutting instructions for a square RC? Thanks.

[RoughCreations]

The square design is in Volume 4

RC

[Faceting Frank]

Had another look at your vid RC and it won't fit in a square pendant anyway. The facets below the 96,24,48,72 girdle are too steep and would hit the pendant body. I only have MB's volume 1 and 2, butterfly being in vol 1.

[Faceting Frank]

Have preformed a clear quartz stone of 20mm diameter for this and will start cutting it tomorrow.

[MakkyBrown]

I will have a look in the morning, not a bad option to cut the butterfly a bit smaller so it comes out from under the crown facets.

[MakkyBrown]

I have made two new versions if you'd like to try them Frank. One is a Simple butterfly that should be easy to cut and suit clear quartz and be good for smaller stones. The other in the same as the publish version but a smaller butterfly so it is not under the crown borders.
Like pic. If you were up for it I'd be interested in a comparison I can sent you the new Simple Butterfly if you want. Cheers MB

[Faceting Frank]

Thanks for the offer but I can easily change the top wing angles to keep them away from the girdle.

[Faceting Frank]

No need to alter the angles, just stopped facets number 2 short of the girdle.

[Faceting Frank]

Finished the butterfly cut in quartz at just under 20mm diameter. Left all the angles the same but increased the length of the bottom wing facets. Only did 16 girdle and C1 facets. I normally go from 1200 to cerium when polishing quartz, but because the table was so big I pre-polished it with 3000 on a BATT lap. Only took 15 minutes to polish the table with cerium and heaps of pressure on the lap.
I don’t cut many frosted stones and have always used a 1200 lap, thought I would use a 600 for this stone to get a better frost effect. I use an ink marker to check I’m on target with polishing facets and found it was getting into the pores of the 600 grit. I normally use meths to get the ink off, but it wasn’t removing it all and leaving a grey look to the frosted part.
Had difficulty getting a good photo of this stone, normally when you take a photo of a clear stone the facets reflect all the light coming from the surrounding area, in this case my hand and mobile phone is all the reflection.
But I do like the way the butterfly stands out when looking at it by eye against the gray frosted facets.

[steve f]

Cool as Franky

[Pro-oz]

Good I like that. I must have another go at one.

[MakkyBrown]

Well done frank.