stone injured in accident?!?

[enbcfsobe]

yesterday i was looking at a sapphire (heated, no other treatments) i bought from a recommended vendor and i was trying to do everything all professional-like and handle the stone with the tweezer things (i have some that came with my idealscope). everything was fine and then suddenly the stone popped out and hit the wall, and then the wood floor.

i''ve handled loose stones before and have dropped them once or twice with no ill effects, but when i picked this stone up i immediately saw what appears to be a big chip in the side just under the girdle!!!

after closer examination in various lighting conditions and through the 5X magnification i had available, it looks like there is a chip there and that there are also two much smaller nicks on the edges where some of the pavilion facets come together. i feel like such a ruiner!!

so now i am definitely not returning the stone since i effectively broke the thing

(i was uncertain about it before). but if i''m going to keep it and use it, i''d like it to be in better shape than it is after my apparent mistreatment. i''m not sure what to do next. do i take it to someone local and have them check it out to confirm that it is chipped (that''s what it looks like to me, but who knows...)? should i try to have them polish it out? or do i send it back to the cutter and explain what happened and ask the cutter to see what they can do to fix the problem (polishing, recut, etc.)?

i am pretty upset -- while this wasn''t an expensive stone in the grand scheme of things, it wasn''t free either! plus, while i know that no stone is invincible, isn''t this supposed to be a fairly sturdy stone? should i be concerned that it chipped so easily?

obviously i need to handle stones differently in the future (no more tweezers!!!), but now i need to figure out what to do with this one. thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[LD]

Unfortunately any stone if dropped and hit in just the right place may chip or fracture. It may be that there was a weakness in the stone already and it just landed in the wrong place

I do feel for you.

 

[RockHugger]

Im sorry! I feel your pain totally!!! This has happened to me a ton of times (thank god, none have chipped yet). I swear the tweezers are dipped in teflon before being sold. I now only work with my stones in my living room with carpet protecting the fall.

My worst one, was I took my pool blue 7+ ct mozambique paraiba tourmaline to a store to set it. The sales woman behind the counter picked it up with the sweezers and it slipped and she dropped it on the glass. I examined it under 30x looking for chips or cracks...and thankfully there are none but I was so peeved I just walked out with no further words.

Recutting is expensive, and if you paid less then 200$ for it, it may not be worth recutting (the cutters I have spoken to charge 60$ + per ct, to recut or repolish a stone). Its up to you though and the value you put on your stone. Also, alot of times, they can put a prong over the chip and you never have to see it again.

 

[coati]

Sapphire is durable, but it can exhibit parting, which is a direction of weakness-as LD mentioned above. No gemstone is impervious to chipping, but I''m sorry your stone was chipped. I''m very clumsy, so I often handle gems with my fingers. I have had stones pop all over the place and one disappeared down an air vent...not fun.

Can you see the chips without magnification? If not, then I''d leave it.

 

[enbcfsobe]

yeah -- i need to set up a padded room or something -- there was a rug but because it flew sideways and hit the wall first, it missed the rug. ugh.

i'm wondering whether re-polishing it is an option to at least make the chip less obvious? if so, would you send it back to the original cutter to try to do this?

it is right in the middle on the longer side of the chubby rectangular cushion, so i normally wouldn't put a prong there, but i guess i could try to figure out how to do that without it looking silly. you wouldn't see it from above, but definitely would from the side view. the stone is a little dark, so i don't want to bezel it (which would completely hid the problem). i also wasn't planning to use it as a pendant because it is a bit dark -- it seems to do a lot better on my hand than when i hold it up by my neck.

ETA -- yes, i can see the chip below the girdle without magnification, and i can actually feel it if i run my nail over that part of the stone. (coati i love your little lego avatar!)

maybe this will become just a specimen and a reminder not to be so clumsy with my sparklies

 

[chrono]

Even diamonds can chip when dropped, and yes, like LD and Coati mentioned above, sapphires can also chip when dropped if it hits at the right spot/angle. I am sorry for your misfortune. What I’d do is contact the vendor to let him/her know what happened. He/She may be able to do something to improve the stone’s current appearance for a minimal fee. Personally, I prefer to handle unset gemstones with my bare fingers since I’ve accidentally popped a few gemstones out of the tweezers but have been fortunate they only dropped onto the carpet or cloth covered table.

 

[enbcfsobe]

thanks, chrono -- this is what i was thinking of doing, but i wasn''t sure if that was appropriate or realistic. it does stink that this happened, but it could be much much worse. i suppose this is why i don''t buy anything too pricey -- i''m still learning!

 

[lelser]

Before I made the transition from studly consulting director

to poor but happy gem cutter I spent hours each day on conference calls from my home office. Next to the computer were several tweezers, and a bunch of crap stones in all different shapes and sizes. I spent those miserable hours practicing right and left handed pickups day after day.

I do NOT let most people use tweezers on my stones if I can help it. Coloured stones can scratch and if someone is not an expert with them, or even is just used to diamonds it''s too risky. I have one of those stone holders, and place the stone in it myself and then hand it to the client.

 

[marcy]

I am so sorry to hear that. I am all thumbs with tweezers and gemstones. I have shot the across the room.

 

[Arkteia]

I always thought you can break any stone if you (intentionally or accidentally) hit along its cleavage plane. Isn't that Asscher broke Cullinan damond into smaller ones (intentionally, of course)?

 

[mastercutgems]

I am so sorry to hear about your accident. It does happen more often than we all will ever realize...
After 20 years of holding gems with every tool know in our arsenal; I now take a good set of gem tweezers and rubber coat them with a thin cost of the rubber dip you can purchase at most tool suppliers.
Just one dip most of the time is enough and when it wears thin you can peel it off and re-dip them again. It does keep the slip from happening most of the time; you just want to make sure the width of your tweezer is wider than the girdle. I also try to choose a color that will not conflict the color of the gem much; like black; white if you can find it???

I hope this helps some as it has helped me for the last 12 plus years. It also lessens the chance of scratching from the hard metal against a softer gem like apatite, sphene, etc.

Most respectfully;

 

[Michael_E]

Author: mastercutgems
It also lessens the chance of scratching from the hard metal against a softer gem like apatite, sphene, etc.

Apatite and sphene are "desk gems" and should never be put in jewelry and never be touched with human hands.

As for grabbing stones, I like to cut a groove lengthwise on the inside of the tips of all my tweezers, keeps the stones in the right plane. For those stones which are not cooperative I like to use the "stone holder" in the attached picture. They REALLY grab well !

when i picked this stone up i immediately saw what appears to be a big chip in the side just under the girdle!!!

As for this original post, well I''d just have to say that I''ve never seen a chip that didn''t start on an edge. If the "chip" is under the girdle and not out of the girdle, then it may have been an underlying fracture that was already in the stone. In any case I would definitely send it back to the cutter and let them look at it and tell you what can be done to salvage it.

 

[Laila619]

Ugh, so sorry that happened to you.

Don''t be upset with yourself, it could happen to anyone.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Just one more note to add this thread. Many gems are shipped in the white gem jars with the glass tops. I like these much better than the round plastic ones, HOWEVER, when you open them, if you just pull the top off very often the gem will come flying out.

ALWAYS use either a dime or the back end of your tweezers, put it in the slot on the side and twist the lid off while holding the jar firmly down on your desk. Don''t work on a hard surface desk like glass with out a protector as gems will inevitably get dropped.

 

[enbcfsobe]

Thanks to everyone for all the tips and sympathy! I will let you know what happens. I really appreciate all the suggestions on how to safely handle gems. Clearly the tweezers and I don''t get along...

 

[Pandora II]

Just out of curiosity, were you using the tweezers that have a locking thing on them?

I''ve found that normal tweezers with a horizontal groove are much less likely to ping stones across the room.

 

[nicoleanne]

I sympathize.

My first gem purchase was a princess cut pad/pink/orange sapphire. Moments after I got it out of the package, I brought it into my bathroom (where, of course, the best light is). I was so excited I didn''t even think about the hazards of the sink or vent... let alone my granite counter tops and marble floors. Sure enough, I promptly dropped it on the floor. Chipped the corner.

It was only after the chip happened that I realized it went a bit brown in diffused natural light, a color that doesn''t do much for my skin tone. Fortunately, the corner isn''t all that visible face up (it is from a side view though). Still haven''t set it though.

Expensive lesson...

 

[enbcfsobe]

nicoleanne -- thank you so much for empathizing and sharing your story. i''m sorry it happened to you as well. i saw a news story about how some woman fell into a picasso in a museum and tore a big hole in it -- that made me feel lots better about my little incident.

pandora -- i was tweezers that don''t exactly lock in place, but they do sortof spring back to a narrow shape when not in use. thanks for the recommendation on what to look for in tweezers, though i think part of the problem is that i may not have been holding it tightly enough because using the tweezers made me nervous about scratching the stone! i''ll stick to manhandling them for now and leave the tweezers to the pros.

thanks again to all for your advice and comfort. i''ll let you know what happens with the stone!

 

[Stone Hunter]

So sorry this happened to you. I don''t handle my loose stones much because I''m very afraid of hurting them. I try to do it in a room with carpeting and I usually use my fingers. Tweezers and I just don''t get along.