Experts, what does porousity look like? Please advise.

[Daniela]

I just purchased a set of platinum and diamond earrings and was disappointed to find that there is a rough black mark on the side of the bezel mounting of one of them. They came brand new this way. Is this porousity? When I called the vendor, the girl at the store said that porousity isn''t black, and that I would have to take it to a jeweller and figure out what it is. When there were two tiny black dots on the bottom of my original engagement ring, someone on this board suggested to me that that was what porousity looked like.

I have soaked my earring, cleaned it with a tootbrush, and scratched away at this mark and it''s not going anywhere.

Also, is having this repaired going to cost a lot? It really irks me that they are brand new and look like this.

Daniela

 

[noobie]

Sorry Daniela not answering your question, but seeing your post reminded me to ask about your upgrade. What's up?

 

[Daniela]

Thanks for asking, noobie. I just received the upgrade on the weekend. The stone is beautiful and it I am soooo much happier with it than my previous stone. It's a real quality stone, definitely what I've always wanted. The whole upgrade was a really big deal and a lot of hassle with all of the shipping difficulties we ran into, so I'm quite glad it's over. I actually found the whole process pretty stressful, so you can imagine my relief now that it's finally over with. I won't be doing any more alterations to this ring in the near future!

I haven't gotten around to taking and posting pics yet because I'm too lazy (working on other stuff). I'm also not that good at the picture taking, so I've been putting it off.

 

[ame]

I think the store/vendor should replace them with some not "damaged". That to me would be a major problem and I wouldn't keep those.

 

[noobie]

It's nice to see that you got the shipping worked out. Looking forward to the pics.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Here's some porosity for ya.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

...

 

[Richard Sherwood]

They kind of look like moon craters, or bubbles that have popped in the metal.

 

[ame]

What magnification is that? Would I be able to see that on my platinum head with my 10x loupe? Assuming there is some I mean.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

These photos are most likely around 25x-30x, but you should be able to see porosity under a 10x loupe. If you can't, it's probably not a problem.

 

[Daniela]

Wow, Richard, thanks for the detailed pictures. That's exactly what I was looking for. Now I am perplexed, though. The problem I am talking about is a rough black patch on the metal. On my ring it was a sort of little black hole, on my earring this time it's a rough black spot.

What would that be?

 

[Richard Sherwood]

My first instinct would be that the little black hole in your ring might be minor porosity, while the black patch on your earring is either jeweler's polishing rouge which didn't wash off, or a small tarnished portion.

Sometimes a piece will tarnish where a drop of solder touched, because the solder is a different alloy which might be reacting to your body chemistry.

Probably just needs a good ultrasonic cleaning and maybe a little polishing.

 

[Daniela]

Thanks, Rich. I'll take it to a jeweller when I get a chance. It might not be until after my wedding, though. Things are getting really busy. It's too bad--I'm wearing them on my wedding day, and I would have liked them to be perfect. But I know that if I take them down to this jeweller guy he's going to give me the usual song and dance about things taking a week. I would rather make some sort of appointment with him, keep my earring for the week, and then go back and have it done on the spot. I'm just paranoid about something going wrong with my earring before the wedding, I guess.