Information about Precision Gem

Click on one of the headers below to get more information about that topic.

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Gem Grading System

To simplify the grading of the gems, I have used a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. Gems are graded for both color and clarity. For most gemstones, color and cut defines the value. Excluding emeralds, I typically only cut very clean material. The following is my clarity grading system.

Heavily Included - Inclusions can be readily seen with the naked eye.
Moderately Included - Inclusions, bubbles et. can be seen with the naked eye.
Slightly Included - Some inclusions can be seen with the naked eye, but are small or not readily noticed.
Eye Clean - There are no visible inclusion or bubbles to the naked eye with viewing the stone face up.
Loupe Clean - No visible inclusions with a 10x loupe. (This is very rare for colored gemstones)

Shipping

All stones are shipped by the US postal service. They will be sent out either insured mail, or registered mail, which ever is more economical based on the value.
Shipping rates are:
Up to $200 value - $4.00
$201 to $600 value - $6.75
$601 to $800 value - $9.00
$801 to $1300 value - $14.50 (registered mail)
Over $1300 value - $16.50 (registered mail)

Pricing

The prices shown on this web site are WHOLESALE prices and are intended for members of the trade and gem collectors. You may also purchase stones through select custom jewelers or directly by contacting me. See the Contact Us page.

How to purchase a stone

I encourage you to either email me, or phone to discuss your gemstone purchase. I want to make you sure you get exactly the right stone. Once you have decided on a stone, you can use the shopping cart to make your purchase, and make payment with PayPal or a charge card. You can also phone in your order with a charge card, or pay by check.

For established customers, or those with a charge card on file, I will memo out stones. If you use the PayPal feature of the site, once you get the the checkout, enter your zip code to have your shipping calculated. Shipping is based on the value of the package.
IMPORTANT! If you are using the Paypal shopping cart, once you click on the "Proceed to Checkout" button you must then click on the link at the top of the screen calculate total order amount and then enter your zipcode. Paypal will then add on the correct shipping amount. The shipping rates are ONLY for shipping in the USA. If you are outside the USA, then don't use the shopping cart and email me your order, and I will get back to you with shipping.

Gem Identification Certificates

For all gemstones that are $150 and over, I supply a certificate of authenticity along with the stone. I have a complete gemological lab, and test all the stones. These test results are then printed on the certificate along with a photo of the stone.
These gem identification certificates are not to be confused with those you would purchase through third party labs such as the AGTA etc, but they will give you a nice record of your purchase and verification as to the identity of the gem. Below is an example of a certificate you will receive with your gem purchase. scan0001

Photographs

Gems are very difficult to get a nice picture. The photos here do not capture the real beauty of the stones, the flash, dispersion, sparkle etc. can only been seen when the stone is moved before you eyes. For some reason, green stones seem to photograph the worst with digital cameras. I have not retouched or altered the colors of any of the pictures. All the pictures have been cropped, so the relative sizes of one picture to another is not true. I use a Nikon D70 camera with Sigma 105mm macro lens that gets in really close, so you are seeing these stones many times larger than life. On many of the stones, you can click on the images to open a very large close-up of the stones. These files may take a bit of time to open. These large images are about 50x the actual size, you may see small specs that are for the most part dust specks on the surface of the stone or finger prints.

If you haven't found the information you are looking for, send me an E-mail or phone.

I added a link to download my Optic Sign program. This program requires Windows to run, and will tell you the optic character and sign of your stone, based on measurements you make with your refractometer. The program is free. Click HERE to go to my download page.

Why choose a custom cut precision stone over a typical commercial stone?
Many people have never seen a properly cut stones. Once you do the difference is very apparent. Most stones commercially sold are what is known as "native cut", meaning they are cut in the land they are found in. Most often this cutting is done on Jam Peg faceting setups. While this style of cutting is very fast, it is not very accurate. In larger cutting houses, the work is done on an assembly line type process, where one worker will only dop stones, then pass them to the next that shapes them, then passed to another cutter who polishes. The workers are paid by the number of pieces they produce and the weight. To maintain the maximum weight they will cut stones with angles below the critical angle for the stone. This causes the stone to "window" (see image below).
But windowing is just part of the story. Most commercially cut stones are not symmetrical, the facets don't meet correctly at sharp intersections, the girdles are not polished, and the polish used is not very fine. Usually the polish is only a 14,000 grit or less. I use 60,000 on all my stones.
WindowStone