Question for RockDoc et al

[Harriet]

I've recently recycled a number of diamonds, and am left with 2 stoneless rings and 2 pairs of stoneless earrings. Can these be reworked to hold bigger stones? One of the settings is a Tiffany Lucida. Is it possible to preserve the style?

ETA:
RockDoc,
Sorry, I forgot that your area of expertise is cutting.

 

[RockDoc]

Date: 4/21/2007 12:45:05 AM
Author:Harriet
I''ve recently recycled a number of diamonds, and am left with 2 stoneless rings and 2 pairs of stoneless earrings. Can these be reworked to hold bigger stones? One of the settings is a Tiffany Lucida. Is it possible to preserve the style?

ETA:
RockDoc,
Sorry, I forgot you are a cutter.

Actually I used to cut colored stones, but don''t have the time anymore. I''ve not cut diamonds, but I''ve toured diamond cutting facilties, discussed cutting with many different cutters, and have a pretty reasonable knowledge of how diamonds are cut in an overall position.

The colored stones I cut, I did to make them ''turbo perfect'', cutting them to bring out the best they could be, regardless of time spent or carat weight lost.

What I do is check stones gemologically ( I am a GG and more ) and do expert witness work, specializing in consumer fraud legal cases, checking out purchases by consumers on the internet, and doing valuations, for a lot of different needs. Most of them legal in nature.

As to trying to put a bigger stone in an existing setting, the answer is "IT DEPENDS"! The size differences, how the previous seats were cut, and the style of the setting ( prong section).

In some items you can change the prong section to accomodate a larger stone, but sometimes it isn''t practical. If you alter a Tiffany piece, you sort of destroy it''s value. Since you like colored stones, you could potentially set a colored stone that would fit into the setting. Not sure if you want to do that however.

Hope this helps explain and answer your question.

Rockdoc

 

[Harriet]

RockDoc,
Many thanks! Sorry for misidentifying your baliwick yet again.

 

[RockDoc]

No problem.

I''m a laid back critter, and don''t worry about little things. I only get "intense" in court and depositions in legal cases as an expert.

Rockdoc

 

[Harriet]

I''d like to hear about your work as an expert witness. Will you be talking about it in a webinar? Wht type of issues have you encountered?