The Museum of Faceting Technology

The Museum of Faceting Technology project began in February of 2018. At first it was devised as a personal collection but the scope quickly changed as more machines were acquired and donated. As the collection grew, it began to become a tangible representation of the worldwide culture of gemcutting.

In seven years, the museum has acquired 124 machines, faceting heads, and handpieces from 24 different countries. The end goal will be to have at least one style of machine from each country that has a history of faceting. In some cases, such as the United States and Australia, there are dozens of types of faceting machines going back at least 100 years. In these cases, care will be taken in selecting machines for their uniqueness and antiquity.

We hope to put the museum collection of public display soon but for the time being you can experience the collection through the museum catalog. You can click to download a copy of the catalog here:

Download the Catalog of the Museum of Faceting Technology

Machines that the Museum is looking to acquire:

American

Early American Mast Machines (Pre-1960s)
-Clinefelter and Larson
-Phase Advancer
-Hillquist
-Rockateer
-Handy
-Featherweight
-Simplex
-Orcott
Mercopon (Maine, USA, 1920/40s)
Alpha Taurus (American)
Facetron SCM (American)
Facette Gem Master or Gem Master II (American)
Graves Mk 5XL(American)
Willems jambpeg head (American, 1960s)
Addexton Jambpeg (American, 1980s/90s)
StoneTes Faceting Kit (American)
Patriot (American)

British

Concord (British)

Australian

Little Jewel (Australian)
Hall (Australian)
VJ (Australian)

Asia

Antique Sri Lankan Handcrack Bench with Handpiece
Burmese Foot Powered Bench

Other

Brazilian-style jambpeg
Israeli jambpeg
Antique German Handcrack Bench with Jambpeg
Large or Medium Size Idar Sandstone wheel and bench
Pre-1900s Czech Handpiece
Russian Arm Style
18th Century French or English Quadrant (Cadran)

Special Thanks

This collection could not have been assembled without the generosity of our donors. The majority of these machines have been donated for free. Some have been offered at extremely low prices in order to support this project. We thank each and every one of our friends and machine donors:

Special thanks to Michael Holmes for the catalog design and layout and to Victoria Raynaud for the continuous support in this project.