Gem cutting

Affiliated stats:

       Primary: dexterity
     Secondary: wisdom
      Tertiary: intelligence

Gem cutting shapes a stone on a grinding wheel, one facet after another, until it catches the light.

Usage:  use gem cutting at <stone>          - read the stone and begin
        use gem cutting at recut <stone>    - re-cut an old, unmarked stone
        stop                                - lift the stone off the wheel

Cutting needs a grinder: a province cutting room with a gem grinder installed. You can cut a gem that has never been cut, or a polished crystal whose nature has been revealed; a psicrystal cannot be cut. A stone cut from a crystal is worth much less than a mined one.

Members of the Gemcutters can also practise at their guild's bench, which never cuts past a plain cut.

As you begin you turn the stone under the light and judge how far it can safely be taken. Good gemmology and good lamps make that judgement sure; a novice in poor light can only guess at a wide range. The wheel then works the stone pass by pass, and each pass tells you what the stone now shows. Stop when it shows what the stone promised: stop keeps the cut you have. Pressing on past that is a gamble. The stone may hold, but when it gives way it is flawed, loses some of its worth and the work ends there. The grinder sets the finest cut the room can give.

Watch the wheel as it works. A pass may turn up a bright facet: use facet before it passes and the stone keeps a little more of its worth; miss it and nothing is lost. A pass may instead open a hairline in the stone: use ease at once, or the flaw runs, the stone loses some of its worth and the cut slips back a grade. A fine stone in unskilled hands can shatter outright. A skilled cutter sees more bright facets and gets longer warning of a hairline, a finer grinder turns up more facets and good lamps give longer warning. A hairline left alone always runs; use ease, or lifting the stone away with stop, keeps it from running.

Every pass tires you. Fighting, leaving the room or running out of endurance ends the cut where it stands. A stone is cut only once, and the cutter's mark stays on it. A stone can be re-cut once, and it always loses by it.

Example:
  use gem cutting at zircon         - then 'stop' when the wheel shows
                                      the cut the stone promised
  use gem cutting at recut zircon   - re-cut an old, unmarked stone, once
  use ease                          - when a hairline opens in the stone

See also: help gemcutting, help momentum, help skill gemmology, help skill identify gem

Taught by the Gemcutters. For the whole craft, read Gems.