Deep Diving into Gem Faceting: My Brilliant Adventure with Oval Cut

In an earlier story, “Exploring the World of Gem Faceting”, I recounted my journey as a beginner gem faceter. Since early January, I’ve embarked on this brilliant adventure of gemstone cutting, hoping that this experience would become an asset for a product strategist like me who’s constantly on the lookout for new and creative ideas. At the moment of writing, I’ve tried my hand at a variety of gem cutting styles, including round brilliant, princess, trapezoid, cushion, Portuguese and oval.

Today, I would like to share with you readers some of the discoveries I’ve made in the last couple of weeks. As I’ve mentioned earlier, a faceting diagram is a step-by-step instruction of the degrees and angles at which the stone should be cut to achieve the desired style. It is only when each step is followed correctly that the stone will end up looking exactly the same as the one shown in the faceting diagram.

Faceting diagram of an oval-cut
(Universal Oval 2 By Jeff R. Graham)

By the time when I was cutting my first oval brilliant, I was very much familiar with Facetron, the faceting machine. Making minor adjustment to the cutting angles has become almost a reflex for me. I was confident that I would be able to create a perfect cut with precise and symmetrically aligned facets as long as I stay focused throughout the cutting process. It was then when my instructor told me to try another oval without following the diagram but adapting it to the condition of the rough (a stone that has not been cut or processed).

In the commercial world, gemstones are usually priced per carat. The higher the carat weight, the more expensive the gemstone would be. In most cases, any experienced gem cutter would go for maximum weight retention in order to obtain a higher per carat price. This is one of the reasons why we see so many different proportions or length-to-width ratios of the same cutting style available in the market.

“Oval cut has always been one of my favourite cutting styles because it is not as commercial as the ubiquitous round brilliant. Its gentle curve also conveys an air of elegance and timelessness.”

The challenge was that I had to learn how to cut an oval based on the condition — namely the size and the shape — of the rough that I was provided with. Depending on the rough, I could end up with an oval that has either a flat or round shoulder, unlike what’s depicted in the faceting diagram. Throughout this challenge, I “blind-cut” (due to the lack of a guide or diagram to follow) a total of three ovals out of green-coloured cubic zirconia (CZ). You, curious readers, might be wondering why and what happened along the way.

Completing the contour for my first oval-cut gemstone

My First Oval

For my first oval, I followed closely the guidance from my instructor in order to achieve an oval-shaped outline for the girdle (the widest point of a gemstone that separates the crown and the pavilion). The crown (the upper portion of the gemstone above the girdle) is in brilliant cut, whereas the pavilion (the lower portion of the gemstone below the girdle) is in step-cut. The hybrid of these two cutting styles — the brilliant cut and the step cut — is also known as a “mixed cut” and has become the most common cutting style for coloured gemstone.

In the process of polishing the gemstone’s girdle using copper disc

My Second Oval

Practice doesn’t make perfect but it does make permanent. In order to become more familiar with blind cutting, I tried my hand at another oval — only this time, I would do it completely on my own. After some trial and error, I was able to confirm the contour for this second oval, eventually moving on to cutting and polishing its pavilion and the crown.

After I put together these two ovals side by side, I discovered that both gemstones seem to display “extinction” or dark areas where little or no light returns to the eye; and it was clear that the first shows more dark areas than the second. The good news is that the second oval exhibits more colour and brilliance, though it didn’t seem enough. I was eager to find out what I could’ve done to enhance the visual aesthetic, namely the colour and the brilliance, of these two gemstones. Therefore, I decided to do a little bit of experiment with another oval.

My Third Oval

This time, I tried to lower the pavilion angle from 65 to 55. I’ve also tried to enlarge the size of my table (the largest facet on the top of a gemstone), hoping that this would allow the gemstone to exhibit more colour when it’s held face up. Once finished, I quickly did a comparison to the other two ovals. It was obvious that my third oval — which has a shallower pavilion angle — appears greener and shows less dark areas. However, this oval seems to have lacked the kind of brilliance found in the other two.

Oval cut has always been one of my favourite cutting styles because it is not as commercial as the ubiquitous round brilliant. Its gentle curve also conveys an air of elegance and timelessness.

In this brilliant adventure with oval cut, I’ve learned so much about gem faceting that can’t possibly be covered in one single tale. These valuable insights I’ve gained continue to water the seeds of curiosity planted in my heart. I can’t help wondering what will these seeds grow into one day?

Stay tuned to find out!