custom ring - diamond possession

[sat]

I am having a ring custom made. The jeweler told me that the process will take six to eight weeks and that I must leave the stone in their possession for that entire period. Is this customary and/or necessary in the jewelry industry?

 

[Lanee]

You might want to title this "need expert advice ASAP" I have a stone that is not certified and I fear it may have been switched on me when I had it reset. I have no info on the stone but it looks different to me.

 

[justme]

I've had a few gemstone rings made and have had to leave the stones.

The goldsmith takes basic measurements when we talk about the design - he makes a wax I bring the stone - try on the wax, sit the stone in and look - if no revisions I leave the stone 2-3 weeks later my ring is ready. If my ring needs melee stones (that he has to order in) it might take longer than 2-3 weeks - if I insisted I'm sure he'd let me take my stone home with me and return when he was ready to put it all together but I trust the guy I work with.

This is a jeweler that I had great recommendations on from others who had used him and met with throughout the years for minor jewelry repairs and purchase advice before I ever starting designing and having him do custom things for me.
I wouldn't hesitate to leave my stone with him if he told me he needed it - it's a relationship of trust built from experience.

He doesn't sell jewelry - but is a benchmen, goldsmith and designer. Does alot of work for all the OTHER jewelers in town - so I took my business to the source rather than the middleman.

Justme

 

[Mara]

We left our stone with our guy and he gave it to the designer making our ring (it was custom from scratch) for 5 weeks. But then again our jeweler was the one we bought the ring from, so in no way did we feel it was in danger. ALSO we made sure that our jeweler knew we had the stone appraised unset AND were taking it back to the appraiser after setting to get the final appraisal for insurance purposes. So our appraiser would have known that the stone was not the original stone, etc. But I think it comes down to trusting your jeweler and/or designer. They are making your setting, do you trust them to give you the side stone quality and/or plat quality you asked for? If so, you may want to trust them with your stone. But you can always lay the mental groundwork (even if its not true) that you are taking the final piece to be appraised and checked out after it's all done..and that you did it before so that if there is any thought of switching happening, it will be quelched immediately.

The other thing is that they may need your stone if they are making the setting truly from scratch. I'd rather leave the stone than have the stone not fit properly in the head or have them make the band too small because they didn't have the stone to drop into the setting to measure as they went along, etc.

Also I think one of the experts/professionals recently said on here that switching of stones actually only happens VERY RARELY as the designer/jeweler really puts their reputation on the line when they do that. If they are the type to do that, chances are you wouldn't be working with them anyway. So don't be overly naiive but don't be paranoid either.

Good luck!!