Scratched Oregon Sunstone

[kjocot]

I bought a red-orange faceted 10 carat Oregon Sunstone from the Dust Devil Mine, dropped it off at the goldsmith for mounting in a ring. When I got it back it had some minor surface scratches on the face of the stone that wasn''t there when I dropped it off. I called and left a message; (politely) told him of the issue and I am waiting for a response. What if he doesn''t claim responsibility, and what exactly can be done to remove the scratches? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Are the scratches on the table only? If so, depending on the mounting, you maybe able to get the table repolished with out taking the stone out of the mounting. If they are else where, you will have to get the stone removed from the mounting, and then some recutting an polishing done. If they are not really big scratches and all that noticalbe, maybe let them go, as you are sure to get more. The sun stones are not very hard and will be prone to scratching.

It''s reallly common for stones to be damaged while being mounted. I get asked by jewelers all the time to fix chips and scratches that the caused. Sometimes it can be a real pain in the neck to do... very hard to fish around for the right angle and index on a facet, much less to get the stone dopped up sqaure. Usually it''s best to recut the entire crown, or stone, and ofter this ends up in a much nicer looking stone anyways.

 

[MJO]

Sunstone is very easy to scratch when setting. As said prior if it is a table scratch and there is room for the table to sit on a lap without hitting the prongs if polishes easily with cerium oxide.

Regards,
Maurice

 

[jszweda]

Gene,

I had a lapidary do me a favor when I had something of mine repolished. She told me the table that was scratched was a little small. So she did take it down a tad further for me, and like you said it ended up looking better than before.