Gem cutting

Gem cutting shapes a stone on a grinding wheel, one facet after another, until it catches the light. A rough stone is worth little, and the finer the cut, the more it is worth. A well-cut stone that a smith sets into armour or jewellery can later be woken, so that the piece gives its wearer a power. This page covers the cutting; Gems follows a stone from finding it to waking it.

Where to cut

Stones are cut in the cutting room of a province smeltery. The council builds the room onto an Improved or Advanced smeltery, and from the smeltery's main room cutting takes you in. A bare cutting room has nothing to cut on: the council fits it out piece by piece with install, and the notice on its wall lists the cutting commands.

Fitting	What it does	From plainest to finest
gem grinder	Sets the finest cut the room can give. A finer grinder also turns up more bright facets.	treadle grinder, flywheel grinder, geared grinder, faceting head, master's lap
cutting lamps	Let you read a stone more surely and give longer warning of a hairline.	oil lamps, lens lamps, mirrored array, daylight shaft
water feed	Cools the wheel, so a flaw costs the stone less and a fine stone breaks less often.	drip trough, piped cooling

The finer fittings need an Advanced smeltery.

Members of the Gemcutters can also practise at the treadle-wheel bench in their hall in Vaerlon. The cut runs there as anywhere else, bright facets and hairlines included, but the bench never takes a stone past a plain cut, and a stone cut there can never be woken. Real work needs a province cutting room.

What you can cut

• A gem that has never been cut. Gems turn up as treasure, and a miner can free one whole with use prise when a swing exposes it; see Mining.
• A crystal from a province mine, once its nature is revealed. haul crystal at the mine entrance sends your crystal fragments to the smeltery. There, sort crystal at the sorting station cleans the rock off one, and polish crystal at the polishing workshop shows what it is: watch it and stop polishing at the right moment, for too early wastes the crystal and too late may shatter it. The wheel's first touch shows which stone a crystal holds. A stone cut from a crystal is worth much less than a mined one, and a psicrystal cannot be cut.
• An old cut stone with no cutter's mark, such as treasure from a hoard or old stock from a jeweller, can go back on the wheel once; see re-cutting below.

You can cut a stone straight from a gem case you carry; it goes back into the case when the cut ends.

Cutting a stone

Command	What it does
use gem cutting at <stone>	Read the stone and begin.
stop	Lift the stone off the wheel and keep the cut it has.
use facet	Catch a bright facet before it passes.
use ease	Ease the stone off a hairline before it runs.
use gem cutting at recut <stone>	Re-cut an old, unmarked stone.

Reading the stone. As you begin you turn the stone under the light and judge how far it can safely be taken. A sure eye under good lamps names a single cut; a novice in poor light can only name a range. The stone will stand the lower end, perhaps more, and past that you are guessing. A vague reading is never a wrong one, only a wide one. Gemmology and better lamps narrow it.

Working the wheel. The wheel works the stone pass by pass, and each pass shows you what the stone has become. When it shows the cut the reading promised, stop and keep it. Pressing on past that is a gamble: the stone may hold, but if it gives way it is flawed, loses some of its worth, and the work ends there with the cut you had already reached. The cut also ends when the grinder can take the stone no finer, or when you fight, leave the room or run out of endurance. Every pass tires you.

Bright facets and hairlines. Now and then a pass gives you a few breaths to act. A bright facet, caught with use facet, lets the stone keep a little more of its worth; miss it and nothing is lost. A hairline must be eased off with use ease, or lifted clear with stop. Left alone it always runs: the stone loses some of its worth and the cut slips back a grade, and a fine stone in unskilled hands may shatter outright. A skilled cutter sees more bright facets and gets longer warning of a hairline, and good lamps lengthen the warning too.

Your mark. A cut stone keeps your mark worked into its girdle, and it cannot be cut again the ordinary way.

Re-cutting. A stone that is already cut but bears no cutter's mark can go back on a province wheel once. The wheel grinds the old facets away before it starts again, and the stone always loses some of its worth doing so. Then the cut runs like any other, and the stone takes your mark. A stone that already bears a mark cannot be re-cut, and neither can one that has had its re-cut.

The skill

Affiliated stats: dexterity (primary), wisdom (secondary) and intelligence (tertiary).

The Gemcutters teach gem cutting, and they take only proven hands: joining asks a good standing among the Master Artisans, and from the second rank the guild master wants to see stones you have cut yourself. Gemmology makes your reading of a stone surer, and identify gem tells you what a stone could become before you spend a wheel on it.

See also

• Gems, the whole path from finding a stone to waking it
• Enchant gem, the spell that wakes a set stone
• Smelting, for the smeltery the cutting room belongs to
• Crafting