Oval cut stones

 Ovals:


These can be very pretty stones and are useful in complex designs and the stone is a very flattering shape on the finger or around the neck.

Sometimes ovals, like many of the odd shapes, are cut from awkwardly shaped crystals or lumps and shards of rough diamond. (Again, they are trying to salvage as much material as possible, so a roughly oval piece of rough stone MAY best produce an oval finished stone.)  A stone may be a bit too thin to make a deep stone, but an oval or many other shapes can be cut.  A poorly shaped rough can result in a rather lifeless stone and strange dark shapes can be seen in the facets, sometimes looking gray or even black.  Bow tie shapes show up in the stone.  Be critical of the sparkle and reflected color in the stone as these characteristics can suffer.  Also, trying to salvage these shallow rough stones can result in a rather broad table revealing more of the inside of the stone than is desirable and again cutting down on the sparkle and color.

A well-cut oval can be very beautiful, but they will never have the fire of a round stone.


(Just a note here, round stones are the best for color and sparkle, but in order to make them fit into a complicated piece of jewelry design you often have to make the shape you want for the design, the balance of the shape may be made up from metal surrounding the stone.  If you want an oval shape, for instance, you have to make the oval from the metal and then drill in a round opening in the middle to drop in a round stone. In addition to this, most round stones are much deeper than other stones of comparable visible size making them unsuitable for shallow designs.

Rounds can also appear less elegant that other shapes.  If you have a large round stone on a pendant, for instance, they will not look as graceful as an oval or pear shape.)

 

The complex pattern of facets and reflections can hide minor flaws in the oval stone to the naked eye.


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