Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 1: The Essentials

This is an incredibly thorough, thoughtful , and useful treatise on many facets ;-D of gemcutting. Highly readable and very punny. A great book for newbies and experienced cutters looking to expand their skills and knowledge. Order the 2nd book as well and keep them handy! Helped me as a newb troubleshoot hidden inclusions, etc. to cut great gems.

A fantastic primer to the world of faceting. Takes a lot of the mystery out of the whole process. The book is an absolute bargain compared to about everything else needed to get into faceting stones. Its very well written - very informative, but best of all - its not a dry textbook - its candid and entertaining. Highest recommendation for beginners (like me). Buy/read this book before you spend money buying a faceting machine or any of the other items which you need to get started.

This is a great book. I will admit however Gem 101 is not the easiest gem in the world and I would recommend a gem with either just 1 tier of Pavilion facets or one that is not just 1 degree off from the other facets.

Such a great book. The way the author put this together is really a lesson in how to organize and teach others in a way that is logical and methodical. I have had to reread parts because everything he writes is chocked full of information and details I missed the first time. I wish I could thank this man in person. I am learning at home by myself and Herbst's books have been invaluable. The only thing that would be better are some videos, hint, hint. I enjoy the dry humor he adds in explanations and the way he says, yes, I too have struggled and so will you, but you will get it, read on and you will see. There is a bit of geometry that you can learn, but do not need to get up and going. Herbst is a physics guy and it shows in that he was able to put together such a masterpiece of detail and organization in these two books. You will want both of them. They work together. You will go back over them many times as you journey into faceting.

Tom's books are an excellent source of faceting information, both to the beginner and the more advanced faceters. You'll need both volumes as they are extensively cross referenced between the volumes. Tom is an astrophysicist and what I enjoyed is that he writes from a first person perspective. I could imagine him giving a lecture on faceting as I read his books, with little sidelines to more fully explain what he was presenting. Tom covers all aspects of faceting from the history of faceting, the selection of the faceting rough, descriptions of current & past faceting machines, the process of cutting the gemstone, designing faceting designs and use of current software to accomplish the design.

So far I love this book, and I was very impressed at how quickly it (and volume 2) arrived. The book is surprisingly large and seems to be chock full of good, up to date info. I am looking forward to a good read on modern day amateur faceting, as most of the other books I've read are old and out of date. I'll update this review after I've had a chance to read the whole book.

The details are clear and understandable

My experience level before reading this was a beginner faceting class and 2 stones. I found it highly helpful in expanding my skill set and filling in concepts that the class didn't cover thoroughly. I'll be buying Volume 2 soon. The cost was higher than some of the old faceting books, but I found out that Amazon prints the book on demand. The author details how it was published which is a neat read in the book. For now Amazon is the source so there is no need to shop around. The only negative I see is that there is only one faceting pattern in the book, but that's in Volume 2 so I won't take any stars off!