burned diamond

[tinman]

so my girlfriend has her grandmother''s antique diamond ring. There''s a loose prong on a side stone, so she takes it to a jeweler to have it fixed. They send it out, and it comes back with yellow gold prongs (the ring is white gold). They fix that for free, no problem. When the other side gets loose, she takes it back assuming that she better make sure both sides are uniform and the work matches. When we get it back, there''s clearly something wrong. The side stone is cloudy and yellowish. We go to another jeweler and he tells us it may have been burned. We return to the original place and the jeweler has the nerve to tell me that diamonds can''t be burned, in fact, that''s how they are created (intense heat). She also tells us that its fine, thats the same stone we gave her. I agree it probably is the same stone, nobody''s going to switch out a 70 stone, i just don''t think it''s in the same condition we left it in. We get our money back, but the stone will have to be polished, hopefully not replaced. What really concerns me though is the ring itself. It looks uneven. The side with the burnt stone, underneath the diamond the metal looks melted and distorted. On the other side there are two very small holes that you could clearly look through. On the burnt side, the holes are almost shut. What do you think happened here? Did the jeweler leave his torch on the whole damn thing while he went to look for the boracic acid he forgot to apply?

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Sounds like it. You need a professional to take a look at it. Probably a master goldsmith would be your best bet.

Diamonds are compressed charcoal, and can certainly be burned. The melted setting adds further likelihood to the possibility that the jeweler fell asleep at the torch.

 

[innerkitten]

That really sucks! That happened to me but with a less expensive ring. It was sterling with three sapphires, custom made. One of the stones fell out so I had a jeweler put it back in and give it new prongs. It came back warped and the prongs didn't look right. I was pretty angry but figured for sterling I can just have the whole thing re done. But in your case it's different because it's a more expensive ring and it's an antique which is even worse. I'm sure some of the people that work with jewelry here can give you some ideas about what may have happened.
Sorry to hear you've had to go through that.

 

[oldminer]

A burned diamond can readily be re=polished by a diamond cutter with virtually no down side, either in risk of breakage or of weight loss. It is not a free process, but hardly a major hit in the wallet.

Diamonds can definitely be burned by improper heating and lack of protecting them with a normal substance the all jewelers use to protect them. Sometimes the jeweler forgets of gets poor coverage. They ought to own up to the possibility they did the damage. It really is not a biggy.

If no one steps forward, we can probably get this done for you. Many others, probably more convenient to your location, could also accomodate you, but if they are unwilling, you have an alternative if necessary.

 

[tinman]

thanks for the replies and the offer, we'll definitely consider it

 

[MelanieC]

You guys are great. Where would all of us diamond consumers be without great people like all the experts here on PS. Tinman would be left with his jeweler making him think he was crazy in the head when in reality it really sounds like they made a mistake. I hope they fess up to it. Good luck! I think it's ok that people make mistakes, it's just sad when they don't own up to it.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Diamondsbybree]

"You could always go back, ask to see their largest stone in stock, and then when you see it, ask if you can hold a torch to it since it won't burn "