Some Times Newsletter - April

APRIL - MAY 2010

in this issue

-- Our Product Line.

-- FANTASY & CONCAVE MACHINES

-- POLISHING ADVICE

-- NEW ZEALANDERS - ATTENTION!

-- New Ultra Tec Representatives: Michaela Matzl -AUSTRIA - Baiers Enkel

-- Toronto, Canada - Boris Kolodny - Artistic Jewelry Design

-- We're on FACEBOOK!

Greetings!

To all of you in the Ultra Tec family.

When It started out in 1981, its name was The Ultra Tec Newsletter - but it soon got to be called The SomeTimes. The name stuck-maybe because we maintain what has become a tradition of being a little late with it -- sometimes. This is the April issue - it says so. But it's so close to May, that maybe we'll call it April-May. Why not?

Our Product Line.

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Product Index

FANTASY & CONCAVE MACHINES

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Here are a group of Fantasy machines in Assembly - wrapping up. That's Robert Mendoza overseeing final testing.

The several machines that had been "out there" in the World are now joined by the ones in this photo, and we expect to report feedback in our next SomeTimes. We of course did considerable prototype testing - including testing by professional cutter Andy Gulij (who lead us to several design refinements), and we performed "life tests" - long time steady operation - with "no fail" results. All of that, combined with the intense interest we found at the Tucson introduction, makes us optimistic about these new machines.

POLISHING ADVICE

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If you made a list of the first 10 subjects of concern to faceters - amateurs and professionals alike - the number 1 subject would be "polishing". For that matter, probably numbers 2, 3, and 4, would also be polishing. I think, if you ask 10 faceters, you'll get 7 "best ways" -- none of them "wrong", and none of them "the absolutely right way" but all of them worth considering. You will find a technique that feels best and works best for you - but even when you think you've got "IT", keep your antenna working.

Here's a bit of advice we gleaned from Cambridge Professor Brad Amos - advice from him to a local faceter. Properly, under the heading of "one man's opinion" this one man is Dr. Brad Amos. Listen:

"I use the 'Batt' lap with 50K diamond. It polishes almost everything except the very softest stones such as apatite, for which I use a tin lap. I may as well tell you the procedure now.

Get some odourless and harmless non-drying oil. I use oil designed for woodwind musical instruments. Remove the rubber drip tray from the Ultratec and clean everything (including under fingernails) to remove grit from previous stages of grinding of the stone. Put the Batt into position without the drip tray and add no water at any stage of the polishing. (Water makes diamond dust form into hard agglomerations which produce large scratches, because diamond is hydrophobic).

Anoint the lap with three small drops of oil, add no more than a cubic millimetre of diamond dust and work this over the surface with fingertips until the entire lap is grey. Some people press the diamond in with a large flat piece of synthetic corundum: I find this unnecessary. A small facet should polish within 30 sec if appropriate prepolish has been given. To check the polish you need to be very fussy. Clean off all the oily diamond residue (I use chamois leather but a microfibre cloth from Tesco is just as good) and look hard with the 10x lens and with the intense light from a fibre optic not quite reflecting into your eye. You will then see defects such as deep fractures from earlier stages, as bright dots of light against a dark background. You have to keep polishing until they have all gone."

Yes, "one man's opinion" - a scholarly, scientific opinion. Other opinions most welcome.

NEW ZEALANDERS - ATTENTION!

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Sean Fennessy at Worldwide Gems in Wellington is offering Faceting Classes. Saturday or Sunday Classes are limited to only 3 or 4 students, so there's plenty of personal attention. Each person will have a current Ultra Tec faceting machine to use. It's a full day-going through each step of the faceting process. At the end, the knowledge is yours, as is your very own faceted stone that you will be pleased to show.

To contact Sean, call 04-939-7949 or email info@worldwidegems.co.nz . Worldwide's website is www.worldwidegems.co.nz .

New Ultra Tec Representatives: Michaela Matzl -AUSTRIA - Baiers Enkel

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Michaela Matzl In Vienna, Austria. The shop is Baier's Enkel, a family owned business since 1906 - over 100 years! Baier's Enkel brings extensive experience and knowledge to the field of jewelers' equipment and supplies, in general, and now, to Ultra Tec gem faceting, in particular.

Working with her father, Michaela says she "learned by listening and doing" absorbing the knowledge and experience of her father and their customers.

Thomas Rausch, a professional cutter, facets in the Baier's Enkel workshop. He loves original designs and is represented in several museums around the world. At the shop, Thomas teaches and provides classes in faceting, so, for a new faceter, there's expert advice "on hand".

Toronto, Canada - Boris Kolodny - Artistic Jewelry Design

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Boris is well known in the World of gem Faceting. A graduate gemmologist, he's a Fellow of the Canadian Gemmological Association and is an active member of the North York Faceting Guild.

With many years of experience, he has become an expert in gem cutting and gem materials, and has originated exceptional gem faceting designs.

We're on FACEBOOK!

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