When I took my stone to the jeweler yesterday, he said they would not cover it during setting (this is a different jeweler than the one I was working with before--I was pricing out each of the recommended jewelers here this past week) because there was no way to know if the stone was heated or not, or how brittle it was. I know it is not; it came from a trustworthy vendor on here and also came with a certificate, but when I told him this, he dismissed it and said, "They're all treated now, it's too hard to find the untreated material. They're all treated." I told him I had the certificate to prove it was natural and he still said, "Uh, no, it's probably not a legit cert." I didn't argue with him further. (I'm also having it set somewhere else, by a jeweler who told me they would not only cover but replace the stone with a similar one from the same vendor I purchased from if anything happened--much better!)
Now I know my stone is not treated, and I know others on here have untreated spinels, but why did he seem so convinced all of them were?
I was under the impression that spinels were not often treated? Mine is actually dated from 2007 on the certificate so it's older too. I thought I remembered reading that spinel wasn't treated because it didn't do much for the stone? The loose spinels he showed me for sale in his shop actually looked to be synthetic because they were perfectly clean, no bubbles at all in any of them, so I'm wondering if he meant synthetic instead? He did also show me some heavily filled rubies and said, "HEre are some natural BE treated rubies" (I think it was BE) so after he said that I'm not sure I put a whole lot of stock into what he is saying, because not all rubies are heavily treated either.
UPDATE: I'm definitely taking it to a different jeweler to have it set. I decided to order the trellis setting from American Set in unplated 14K WG if possible, and then when it comes in, if I don't like it (it's returnable), my second choice is the solitaire from Unique (mainly price difference here--AS is about $200 less, even with setting, and nearly the same setting). I decided to go without sidestones because my favorite is the baguettes and I don't want to mimic my sister's setting; also, I tend to be pretty hard on jewelry (I'm a klutz) so I decided to put it in something a little more protective where it would have a heftier setting since I want to wear it pretty frequently. I also just kept leaning towards solitaire styles when trying on--for me, you just can't beat the solitaire. Thank you for all the help deciding and advice!
Now I know my stone is not treated, and I know others on here have untreated spinels, but why did he seem so convinced all of them were?
I was under the impression that spinels were not often treated? Mine is actually dated from 2007 on the certificate so it's older too. I thought I remembered reading that spinel wasn't treated because it didn't do much for the stone? The loose spinels he showed me for sale in his shop actually looked to be synthetic because they were perfectly clean, no bubbles at all in any of them, so I'm wondering if he meant synthetic instead? He did also show me some heavily filled rubies and said, "HEre are some natural BE treated rubies" (I think it was BE) so after he said that I'm not sure I put a whole lot of stock into what he is saying, because not all rubies are heavily treated either.
UPDATE: I'm definitely taking it to a different jeweler to have it set. I decided to order the trellis setting from American Set in unplated 14K WG if possible, and then when it comes in, if I don't like it (it's returnable), my second choice is the solitaire from Unique (mainly price difference here--AS is about $200 less, even with setting, and nearly the same setting). I decided to go without sidestones because my favorite is the baguettes and I don't want to mimic my sister's setting; also, I tend to be pretty hard on jewelry (I'm a klutz) so I decided to put it in something a little more protective where it would have a heftier setting since I want to wear it pretty frequently. I also just kept leaning towards solitaire styles when trying on--for me, you just can't beat the solitaire. Thank you for all the help deciding and advice!