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For those interested in gems and jewelry. Recently I finished faceting a huge 545 facet 335 carat Portuguese style gem in CZ. Has 32 facets on the girdle, took almost a month to cut off and on. A tad heavy to wear in a ring, perhaps it will make a nice ear stud.

Another week gone by, and I cut a nice square lilac amethyst gem (around the 5 carat mark). And in my picking travels I bought a Siffari White Gold Diamond Pendent on a 925 silver chain. Also to add to this weeks pickings - a white opal with a tiny diamond set in a 9 Carat pendent attached to 9...

This is a gem I recently cut from a large piece of quartz called the "Pharaoh's eye". This gem weighs in at a whopping 45 carats. The Pharaoh's Eye is a novel design credited to "Gems of the world" as Sapphire faceting guide number 37. Fred Van Sant tweaked the original design. The girdle...

Maybe the key to this problem is treat the coin before it milk spots.

Hey John can you make the fonts smaller. It takes too much effort scrolling down on my phone. I don't want to wear myself out.

The look great. And shiney is always better to look at.

The is opal known as Fire opal. There is a type of Opal call "FIRE OPAL" various types come from Mexico which is red. Others are yellow - ie Madagascar. Australia also has a Fire Opal and it is a reddish colour. There is also a green opal called Hyalite Opal and it's fluorescent. This Opal is...

I have noticed that cleaned coins sell quicker.

The cloudy ammonia does a great job on dirty old coins with the bicarb soda. A great tip I learnt off one of your Youtube Vids years ago.

Well if they are going to develop their own "Virtual Money" they need secure their own hot wallet totally offline. Anything online is totally hackable. You could not make this stuff up in a novel if you tried, but Perth Mint are finding so many alternative investment strategies in recent years...

Thanks redhawk.

A week ago I posted a photo of a rough yellow fire opal from Madagascar. Been having trouble cutting such a stone mainly because I was not used to how soft Opal is. However rather than give up I decided to press on. Realising some of my early mistakes, this time I avoided doing what I did in...

A beautiful gem. The photo's below gives you a idea how many carats you lose by just grinding away to create a gem. To lose 60% or more of the original rough to create a gem is not uncommon. And when certain gems like Tanzanite can cost the gem cutter $80 per carat or more depending on quality...

Haha...Just love it.

I hope this trade deal means we can also trade out our Prime Minister. That would only be fair.

We have certainly entered a new trading paradigm. Trading things that are not really tangible for a promise that it's backed by something physical. This grinds against thousands of years of human trading culture.

The green makes for a interesting colour. I'm thinking of cutting a square also. Well done on cutting this.

A while back I was speaking with a gentleman who had several of his precious watches secured in a safety deposit box located at a Commonwealth Bank in the Brisbane CBD. You would expect that a safety deposit box is a pretty good place to have your precious goods secured. However, it seems that...

I've found Madagascar Yellow Opal a challenging stone to facet. It's soft so it's very brittle. Chipping a girdle can be done with ease. It's also sensitive to heat. On removal from the dop it can chip or break also. But I will continue to learn to cut such stones as they not often faceted...

I really don't know enough about Crypto's. Personally, I feel it's not much difference than the Dotcom Bubble, the 2008 GFC Derivative Bubble and now the Crypto Bubble. All 3 bubbles seem to revolve around a decade or slightly more cycle. So what's the next bubble that can be invented after Cypto's?