Let’s see amazing repairs :-)

[caolsen]

So many great threads about finding the perfect stone, cutting it, creating the most personalized and memorable setting with a custom bench on here. But we all know that benches and lapidaries can work miracles when we damage pieces. I thought a place to call those minor miracles out would be good (forgive if there is one already, couldn’t find one).

I’ll start - I dropped this ring in an all marble, hotel bathroom in NYC last year. I took an almighty chip off the sapphire, butchered an entire 180 degree arch at the bottom, prong to prong. It was a fairly cheap auction find so I did not want to replace the center stone as a new stone was priced more than I paid for the ring with similar color, saturation and clarity.

I had made my peace with getting it recut and losing quite a bit of weight. The stone was sent to NYC and the cutter called, got some insight as to my desire, asked how I would feel about a flat new facet from the central point to the table to take the entire damaged section out - would look odd from the bottom, but would look pretty darn perfect face up and only cost about .10-15 of a carat. I said ‘what the hell, give it a whirl!’

Well, he was right. From the face it is only a tiny roval on the bottom where I chipped it. From the underside you can see the new facet, or the ‘ski slope’ as I call it.

All in all, saved me lots of $$$ buying a new sapphire (8x6). My amazing local jeweler modified the basket a tiny bit to sit it lower, re tipped the prong and straightened the band whew it hit the counter and bounced around.