The Making And Creating Of Wholesale Cabochons

Posted by adortalukdar on January 10th, 2014

Wholesale cabochons are the beautiful gemstones that are polished to perfection rather than cut like diamonds. Wholesale cabochons are available at prices much lower than what you find these stones being sold for individually in jewelry stores and consignment boutiques.

Wholesale cabochons that are asteriated stones are made by cutting a dome shape into the stone so that the star, or the eye, of the stone is clearly visible. Chatoyant stones are asteriated and so are the star sapphires, but the most famous asteriated stones are the cat’s eye chrysoberyl stones.

You can find wholesale cabochons that are made from the translucent yellowish chatoyant chrysoberyl. These stones have microscopic tube like cavities of rutile that occur at an orientation that is considered to be parallel to the c-axis. This produces a special effect that is visible as a single ray of light is captured going through the stone, and to enhance this effect the cabochon needs to be cut perpendicular to the c-axis of the piece.

A cabochon is normally cut in an ellipse shape rather than in a circle, or uniformly rounded shape. The ellipse makes the appearance of anomalies like the appearance of the cat’s eye able to be better seen and appreciated.

To begin making the cabochon a slab saw is used to cut a huge piece of the rough rock away from the main section. After the slab is cut away from the main piece a stencil is used to mark the shape the crafter wishes to make. A diamond blade saw is then used to cut away pieces of the slab and trim it down close to the stencil.

After the stone has been trimmed down with the diamond bladed trim saw the next steps of creation can be performed by hand. The stone piece will be ground to the line of the template. On the back portion of the slab the crafter may make beveled edges, but on the top portion of the slab the crafter will sand the stone to perfection and create a uniform dome that allows the beauty to shine through.

Most of these items generally have a convex top and are flat on their backs. The opaque gems are generally cut, but the transparent stones are more apt to be faceted than to be cut. The hardness of the stone makes a big difference in what can be done with the stone. The Mohs hardness scale is used to determine at what stage the stone is and what will be done with it. Using the Mohs hardness scale anything that registers below a 7 on the scale of hardness will be easy to scratch and damage. Any stone that registers below a seven will usually not be used because the easy to scratch surfaces would soon make the pendants they were fashioned into unsightly.

The cabochon is one of the many different stones that are used for jewelry creation. The beauty and elegance of each of these stones has to be weighed by an expert craftsman before the stones are cut and prepared.

Wholesale cabochons can be purchased online and from discount retailers. The wholesale cabochons are created in the same ways that the single cabochon pendants you buy at the jewelers. You can get more information from cabochon settings.