What is CZ?
Man-made Cubic Zirconia Faceting Rough
Cubic Zirconia (CZ) is a man made material and comes from all over the world.
There are several methods of making it and there are some variances in both
refractive indexes (R.I. 2.14-2.20) and hardness (8-9).
It is available in almost any color you can imagine and there are even some
color change (fluorescent/incandescent, i.e. blue/red for example) varieties.
CZ is readily available and very inexpensive, usually pennies per carat.
The corollary is that it is not really worth anything when cut.
Note: CZ is hard on laps and can cause
undue wear. I do not recommend it for the brand new cutter, it can be problematic
to polish and is best cut when a person has some experience.
Some people, especially if they want to cut large clean stones enjoy cutting
it and because of it's high R.I., it can be quite pretty. CZ needs to be polished
with diamonds, the laps used can be ceramic, tin, copper, and ultra laps.
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