Cutting Yowah Nuts?

[lostwax]

G'day all , This is a tough one.
This is my first nice piece of Yowah Nut and I'm curious to know how the Pro's would cut this?

The center of the nut looks very brittle and the best matrix and beautiful coloring is right near the very soft outer muddy area.
Don't want to grind away that beautiful color but in terms of stability I don't think I have much choice?

I hate the thought but is there some way of treating the soft mud..ie epoxy etc.?

Any tips?

[mick]

Ive had similar problems with the mud. I guess resin is the only solution.

[lostwax]

Thank's Mick..whats been your experience when trying to go deeper with this material? I'm guessing the color will taper off and dissapear? Any suggestions for a good resin if I go that way?

The other choice is to trim it down and settle for a few smaller stones and cab one of the stable looking inner rings?

Sean

[mehoose]

Sean,
First query. How deep is that crack and are the pics of the same stone?
I've found cutting and polishing on diamond wheels to give the best results even with the 'sandstone' area. You can jump in here and correct the terminology.
Do you set your own stones?
Whenever I cut a Yowah with these softer areas they get ear marked for pendants or brooches, wouldn't risk in a ring and a solid back setting is a must in my book.
The first pic has a massive amount so I would tend to grind most of this away. If setting, I certainly wouldn't use prongs on this area.
The second pic is very workable. Shape and polish. Who said you have to use a complete bezel?
Read the stone, work with it. Sometimes a weak area will break away, better now than later. These really lend themselves to freeforms.
No, I don't use resins.
If I recall, this can lead to being called treated, lowering value. Again, please correct me if this is wrong.

Merryn.

[lostwax]

Hi Merryn. those two are both in the too hard basket for the moment..so frustrating having those beautiful gemmy seems surrounded by soft mud..The larger egg shape piece is not cracked, just a saw mark..that one should be ok once all the mud is removed..I think.

I really dont have much choice in treating or strengthening the other piece, if I want to cut it...it'll just crumble otherwise.
Might just leave that in a jar as a nice specimen.

cheers

[mehoose]

HAHA, you have much greater self control than me, I'd be cutting it
Out of curiosity how deep is the one you're 'Afraid" of?