Amateur Gemstone Faceting Volume 1: The Essentials

Good book. Wish the pages were in color

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.

Very good book. Goes pretty much in depth about gems and gem faceting. No matter where you are on the hobby this will have some useful new information in it for you. There are no real down sides unless you just hate reading.

Should be considered a go-to for a beginner faceter, and it's not in a boring, information only format like a lot of faceting/scientific books. Great read, worth every penny.

I started faceting in the 80s, and read books by Soukup, Vargas, Unruh and Wykoff. I also took an entry level gemology class to learn more about gemstone properties. I've been out of the hobby for about 15 years, and recently got the urge to pick it up again. I decided to get these books, both 1 and 2, to feed my rekindled interest. Boy, am I ever glad I did! Not only does Herbst cover the topics I learned back in the day, he brings me up to date on changes due personal computers and the Internet. Best of all, he does it with a humorous and engaging manner that holds my interest. I totally recommend these books!

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!

A nice thick book appears to have the 411 Im looking for

Excelente libro completo en lectura aún.