June 2021 Coppermind Art (Part 4)

Now, this may be a stupid question, but would you really cut gems intended to shine by themselves like we cut gems on Earth?

9 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Now, this may be a stupid question, but would you really cut gems intended to shine by themselves like we cut gems on Earth?

There actually was a lot of debate on the cut among us staff when we decided which shape a perfect gem should have. Some of us are on the side that they're likely to be perfectly spherical (or at least approximating a sphere with many facets), while others - including me - think they have more "realistic" interesting cuts like we have here on earth.

The internal crystal structure and purity probably plays a more significant role in determining the quality of the gem than the cut, but we do of course know that "better" cuts affect it as well - we just don't know what qualifies a good cut. I personally think it's got something to do with the cut "fitting" to the underlying crystal lattice.

There's probably a compelling argument to be made for it also being somewhat affected by perception, too. That is, a technically perfect (in an IRL sense) brilliant cut might be suitable for a perfect gem since people perceive it as beautiful and perfect.

Regarding your point about the gems shining themselves, an important distinction to make is between light and Light here (very unfortunate terminology xD). I don't think the cut is all that much about "trapping" rays of light inside the gem, they do glow after all. It's about containing the gaseous stuff inside them and the considerations for that are likely to be completely different than for the light they emit (or refract and reflect in the case of external light). So in that sense the cuts might indeed be completely different than on earth, but it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the gems shine by themselves.

1 hour ago, Paleo said:

There actually was a lot of debate on the cut among us staff when we decided which shape a perfect gem should have. Some of us are on the side that they're likely to be perfectly spherical (or at least approximating a sphere with many facets), while others - including me - think they have more "realistic" interesting cuts like we have here on earth.

I'd say as little cut as they can get away with. It costs mass.

1 hour ago, Paleo said:

The internal crystal structure and purity probably plays a more significant role in determining the quality of the gem than the cut, but we do of course know that "better" cuts affect it as well - we just don't know what qualifies a good cut. I personally think it's got something to do with the cut "fitting" to the underlying crystal lattice.

That makes sense. Ruby has a hexagonal crystal structure.

1 hour ago, Paleo said:

There's probably a compelling argument to be made for it also being somewhat affected by perception, too. That is, a technically perfect (in an IRL sense) brilliant cut might be suitable for a perfect gem since people perceive it as beautiful and perfect.

Well, they stay perfect. How can that be in that case? Perceptions change.

1 hour ago, Paleo said:

Regarding your point about the gems shining themselves, an important distinction to make is between light and Light here (very unfortunate terminology xD). I don't think the cut is all that much about "trapping" rays of light inside the gem, they do glow after all. It's about containing the gaseous stuff inside them and the considerations for that are likely to be completely different than for the light they emit (or refract and reflect in the case of external light). So in that sense the cuts might indeed be completely different than on earth, but it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the gems shine by themselves.

But we cut our gems to enhance reflection. By doing so we are getting parts that are sticking out and mechanically weakening the gem. As the last thing you want is a crack, I'd expect a convex shape at the very least.