Talk:Voltolini - Hanabi

Hanabi - Marco Voltolini

Hanabi, a.k.a. "fireworks". I wanted a design with a sort of firework shape, so I thought this one was a good idea. There's the big bright globe in the center, many radial lines surrounding it, and smaller blobs and larger flashes around. On the paper it seemed a good idea, but results are somehow different than expected. Not bad, but not exceptionally good either... Now after test-cutting I cn give some more hints to make it (imho) better, if you decide to try and cut this.

This is the final result I got from the test-cut (rounded girdle here):

14.2 ct citrine quartz

I started with a big chunk of citrine quartz. I dop with my trusted 5-min epoxy, after grinding a false table.

Rough dopped

Then you have to rough in the pavilion before carving. No need to go to finer grits, since you'll be recutting it after carving, to get rid of the small chips on the "bubbles" edges. When it's dark I usually paint with a marker the facets to be met and/or cut, to better check the meets.

The stone after the first "preforming"

After that I take the stone off the dop and I start carving. I use my flex shaft and ball diamond burrs. I carved a big one in the culet and some smaller ones around. After the diamond burr I use bamboo skewers pieces with 600, 1200 and 3000 grit diamond paste. Finally I polish with Ceria and water. Note the chipped borders of the bubbles, you'll have to cut them away after placing the dop again in the quill of the faceting machine.

The "bubbles" are carved and polished

Back to the faceting lap repeating the cutting sequence with finer grit.

recutting the stone

Polish facets and girdle as usual.

The pavilion is polished (it looks like a small volcano...)

Now it's "normal" faceting: you transfer the stone and start to facet the crown.

Almost finished cutting the crown on my very worn 260 grit diamond plated lap

Finer cutting & prepolish (keep the table small)

Almost done!

Put in hot water or put the dop stick under a flame to remove the stone from the dop. Enjoy your Hanabi stone!

The piece in the sun...

To make it better than mine, I'd suggest to carve a smaller bubble in the culet and add a few smaller bubbles around the stone. Or omit them at all. I expected the D tier to act as a magnifier lens, but not that much: so small is enough. This design is also interesting when tilted.

The stone viewed tilted