How easy is it to damage diamond during mounting process?
- Thread starter zz00ter
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Re: How easy is it to damage diamond during mounting process
There’s not really a straightforward way to answer this. There is no scale, but I’ll bring in a few other data points and maybe you can get a little closer to your answer.
Jewelers Mutual will insure against this as a bundle with a bunch of other perils. They typically charge about 1% of the declared value in premiums per year. Presumably they’re making a profit on this deal. Most of the other insurers won’t do it, which would suggest that the profits aren’t really big. That suggests a claims number under 1%, and probably not a whole lot under. Naturally the real numbers are proprietary information.
I ran a fairly large shop for over a decade and every setter I ever employed had a breakage rate well below that, or at least every setter that I continued to employ did.
That said, no one was at zero. Stuff happens, even to the best.
Certain stones are decidedly more risky than others. Points, like what you find on princess and marquise cuts, extremely thin girdles, especially if it’s at one of those points, and certain sorts of inclusions are problematic, especially if they’re in the vicinity of the above mentioned points and X thin girdles. In the extreme, your setter is going to decline the job and/or make you sign a disclaimer up front. They don’t want a problem any more than you do. Ask.
Certain setting styles are more risky than others. Breaking a wafer thin marquise in a hammer setting is a LOT easier than breaking an excellent cut round in prongs. As with the above, ask.
There’s not really a straightforward way to answer this. There is no scale, but I’ll bring in a few other data points and maybe you can get a little closer to your answer.
Jewelers Mutual will insure against this as a bundle with a bunch of other perils. They typically charge about 1% of the declared value in premiums per year. Presumably they’re making a profit on this deal. Most of the other insurers won’t do it, which would suggest that the profits aren’t really big. That suggests a claims number under 1%, and probably not a whole lot under. Naturally the real numbers are proprietary information.
I ran a fairly large shop for over a decade and every setter I ever employed had a breakage rate well below that, or at least every setter that I continued to employ did.
That said, no one was at zero. Stuff happens, even to the best. Certain stones are decidedly more risky than others. Points, like what you find on princess and marquise cuts, extremely thin girdles, especially if it’s at one of those points, and certain sorts of inclusions are problematic, especially if they’re in the vicinity of the above mentioned points and X thin girdles. In the extreme, your setter is going to decline the job and/or make you sign a disclaimer up front. They don’t want a problem any more than you do. Ask.
Certain setting styles are more risky than others. Breaking a wafer thin marquise in a hammer setting is a LOT easier than breaking an excellent cut round in prongs. As with the above, ask.
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