Q. for Garry H and other Aussie jewelers

[echelon6]

Hi Garry

Can you recommend a skilled benchman in Sydney? I''m looking for a skilled jeweler to fix the loose prong problem I''m facing as per my other thread, but I don''t know anyone who can do "competition finish" work - as you term it.

(apologies for always resorting to asking you, but being the only regular aussie expert here, you''re immediately our goto guy for questions like this)

Thanks

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I would love to help you solve your problem E, but I suspect that it could be difficult to achieve what you want and if I recomend someone who does not pass the microscope test, then we will all look bad.

I think you should send it back to the original maker.

It is hard to tell from the images, but it looks to me that the stone has way too much claw over the diamond which is not a good look. I would consider probably removing 1/2 the prong length all around.

 

[mdx]

You could try
King Street Jewellers
Level 4/ 428 George St Sydney 2000

They do pretty good work; let¡¦s just hope that Murphy doesn't get involved though

Meaning they do fantastic work until you recommend someone

They have done some very complicated work for us, so might be worth a try

Johan

 

[echelon6]

Garry, by "difficult to achieve what you want" do you mean you think it would be hard to fix my problem, or hard to fix without leaving a mark or bending the head etc? Also by removing 1/2 prong length does that help my problem or is that purely aesthetic?


Hi Johan. I''ve visited King St jewelers a few months ago and was greeted by the younger brother (I believe they are 2 brothers at the bench, no?). Their work looked good but I wasn''t paying attention to minute details at the time. I''ll pay them another visit soon before deciding who to use. Do you know of any one else who may be able to help?

Thanks

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 11/15/2007 3:06:41 AM
Author: echelon6
Garry, by ''difficult to achieve what you want'' do you mean you think it would be hard to fix my problem, or hard to fix without leaving a mark or bending the head etc? Also by removing 1/2 prong length does that help my problem or is that purely aesthetic?


Hi Johan. I''ve visited King St jewelers a few months ago and was greeted by the younger brother (I believe they are 2 brothers at the bench, no?). Their work looked good but I wasn''t paying attention to minute details at the time. I''ll pay them another visit soon before deciding who to use. Do you know of any one else who may be able to help?

Thanks

I mean you may have to never ever look at jewellery with any magnification.

Re the prongs, post a top down image. They look monstrously too large - covering thousands of dollars of diamonds.
Cutting them right back to where the lift off is happening may kill 2 birds

 

[echelon6]

Top down image.

The prong coverage doesn''t bug me, I''m happy with the way it looks. But Im worried that the way it "takes off" means if a jeweler pushes it back down, it might put enormous pressure on the diamond via leverage and lead to chipping.

 

[echelon6]

Wrong pic.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

They look great now.

Show us a picture after 1 year

I would reduce their size width and depth wise. They are monsters

 

[echelon6]

Haha! anyone else think they look as monstrous as Garry points out? what do the ladies in particular think?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Drena who buys about $10M worth of jewels a year just looked at the image and said "they are too big"
I asked how much too big?

"1/2 make them 1/2 the size"

She thought it was a piece of my stock

 

[echelon6]

Well if I want to downsize I''ll have to wait till I move to NYC which won''t be for a few years. I''ll see what the actual opinion of my intended is. But I''d like to fix the prong first in any case.

$10M a year on jewelry!

 

[mdx]

Date: 11/15/2007 3:06:41 AM
Author: echelon6
Garry, by ''difficult to achieve what you want'' do you mean you think it would be hard to fix my problem, or hard to fix without leaving a mark or bending the head etc? Also by removing 1/2 prong length does that help my problem or is that purely aesthetic?


Hi Johan. I''ve visited King St jewelers a few months ago and was greeted by the younger brother (I believe they are 2 brothers at the bench, no?). Their work looked good but I wasn''t paying attention to minute details at the time. I''ll pay them another visit soon before deciding who to use. Do you know of any one else who may be able to help?

Thanks

On the same floor as King street is another Jeweller I am told is pretty good, I work from the Melbourne branch so don’t have the name at my finger tips,

I will call my colleges at our Sydney branch today and get the name for you

Regards
Johan

 

[echelon6]

Thanks Johan, appreciate it.

 

[elmo]

Hey Garry, MM means "More Metal". Folks here who want delicate will get "LM"

.

 

[stebbo]

Date: 11/15/2007 4:36:22 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
They look great now.

Show us a picture after 1 year

I would reduce their size width and depth wise. They are monsters

You bad man, ech just spent a fortune. How many diamonds do you know emit a grey halo like ech''s?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 11/15/2007 10:15:01 PM
Author: stebbo

Date: 11/15/2007 4:36:22 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
They look great now.

Show us a picture after 1 year

I would reduce their size width and depth wise. They are monsters

You bad man, ech just spent a fortune. How many diamonds do you know emit a grey halo like ech''s?

The dark side diamond!!!

 

[stebbo]

btw echelon, I think it''s a lovely solid design and smaller prongs would look out of place.

 

[echelon6]

Thanks for the reassurance stebbo. But I think Garry's right about MM being heavy on the metal side.

But its what my fiancee wanted so thats what I got her. If her tastes change when she reaches Garry's age, then a new ring will always be an option. Worst comes to worst if she truly doesn't like the setting for reasons as Garry points out, then only the setting is a write-off, the diamond can always be put into something else. But at this stage I highly doubt her tastes have changed since she told me what she wanted originally.


ETA: personally I've always liked the design, but I'm a guy what do I know.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 11/15/2007 11:25:32 PM
Author: echelon6
Thanks for the reassurance stebbo. But I think Garry''s right about MM being heavy on the metal side.

But its what my fiancee wanted so thats what I got her. If her tastes change when she reaches Garry''s age, then a new ring will always be an option. Worst comes to worst if she truly doesn''t like the setting for reasons as Garry points out, then only the setting is a write-off, the diamond can always be put into something else. But at this stage I highly doubt her tastes have changed since she told me what she wanted originally.


ETA: personally I''ve always liked the design, but I''m a guy what do I know.

Guys always like heavier looks than Gal''s

You can have the prongs reduced in size, and solve your gappy problem quite easily without a new setting.

 

[stebbo]

Date: 11/16/2007 6:56:22 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

Guys always like heavier looks than Gal''s

So why are they the ones trying to lose weight?

You can have the prongs reduced in size, and solve your gappy problem quite easily without a new setting.

In fact I''ll do it for $30 + GST. I''m slowly building up my bench toolkit, but this is what I have so far:

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

hew he he

Date: 11/16/2007 8:50:43 PM
Author: stebbo

Date: 11/16/2007 6:56:22 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)

Guys always like heavier looks than Gal''s

So why are they the ones trying to lose weight? Look in fashion amg''s Stebbo, girls like to be thin for other girls to look and admire them. In my personal research of other guys, very few like the 13 year old starved model look that is "in".
http://images.google.com.au/images?q=buxom+wench&svnum=10&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIG_enAU241AU241&start=20&sa=N&ndsp=20

You can have the prongs reduced in size, and solve your gappy problem quite easily without a new setting.

In fact I''ll do it for $30 + GST. I''m slowly building up my bench toolkit, but this is what I have so far:

 

[mdx]

These are the other guys I mentioned.

David Brown Jewellers
Level 4 Suite 9B Dymock”s Building
428 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000. Phone 02 92332890
I would suggest that if you ultimately use one of them, you are careful to let them know your quality expectations before they start.
Johan

 

[echelon6]

Will do! Thanks Johan