Hi, my girlfriend and I are looking at two different settings. The first is a Coast 3-stone:
We like the milgrain and tapered look of the ring. We didn't like the 3-stone look as much but with a bigger diamond in the center (in pic the center is .75 carat and we're looking at .90 carat) the 3-stone look diminishes somewhat. Price is $2,250
The 2nd stone is a Palladium Scott Kay ring with tension set side stones:
Here is a video of it: http://www.scottkay.com/bridal/videos/M1107RD15PP_L.wmv
We are partial towards the look of the Scott Kay setting because of the way the side stones are mounted. While technically a 3-stone ring, the side stones instead of being oriented upward are angled away from the center stone and towards the sides of the ring. This gives more flash to the side angles and looks less like a 3-stone ring. The tension setting of the side stones also gives a really cool look at the stones from the side (adds flash too). And we liked the look of the diamond under the center stone viewed from the side. It also has .40 total-carat weight of diamonds (although shown is the same thing with .59 tcw) while the Coast setting is .25 tcw and the diamonds in the Scott Kay are probably of better quality.
We didn't like the fact that it's Palladium. Palladium setting is $2400 and same thing in Platinum is at least $3800 so we can't afford the platinum in this setting. We understand Palladium is probably better and more expensive than white gold, but more of a poor-man's Platinum. Since it's from the same metel family as platinum, both I and the sales associate didn't even realize it wasn't platinum until she was about to ring it up. It's slightly whiter than Platinum, lighter, almost as rare, hypoallergenic, and 95% pure. It's also lighter, reacts to acids unlike plat, and dulls like platinum over time (some say more than platinum will) and we're unsure what to do with a dulled setting with all the engraving as such (maybe Rhodium plate like white gold?). It melts at a lower temp and discolored if it's heated too hot so we're concerned about finding jewelers to maintain/repair it (although the jeweler that sold it should be able to do so.) We're also concerned about whether it will hold the side stones as well as platinum will and Jeweler's Mutual should cover lost stones but again who's enough of an expert on Palladium tension settings to put a new stone in (maybe it can be sent in to Scott Kay)? More info on palladium:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal.45636/
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/setting-question-palladium.41944/
I guess Scott Kay is becoming a big advocate of palladium now and people really respect his opinion (he used to be a big platinum guru, his company name used to be Scott Kay Platinum and he only worked with platinum, and some people credit him for popularising platinum):
http://archives.modernjeweler.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=87
It's just a tough decision and I thought I'd find out what you all think. She likes them both and is leaving the decision up to me.
We like the milgrain and tapered look of the ring. We didn't like the 3-stone look as much but with a bigger diamond in the center (in pic the center is .75 carat and we're looking at .90 carat) the 3-stone look diminishes somewhat. Price is $2,250
The 2nd stone is a Palladium Scott Kay ring with tension set side stones:
Here is a video of it: http://www.scottkay.com/bridal/videos/M1107RD15PP_L.wmv
We are partial towards the look of the Scott Kay setting because of the way the side stones are mounted. While technically a 3-stone ring, the side stones instead of being oriented upward are angled away from the center stone and towards the sides of the ring. This gives more flash to the side angles and looks less like a 3-stone ring. The tension setting of the side stones also gives a really cool look at the stones from the side (adds flash too). And we liked the look of the diamond under the center stone viewed from the side. It also has .40 total-carat weight of diamonds (although shown is the same thing with .59 tcw) while the Coast setting is .25 tcw and the diamonds in the Scott Kay are probably of better quality.
We didn't like the fact that it's Palladium. Palladium setting is $2400 and same thing in Platinum is at least $3800 so we can't afford the platinum in this setting. We understand Palladium is probably better and more expensive than white gold, but more of a poor-man's Platinum. Since it's from the same metel family as platinum, both I and the sales associate didn't even realize it wasn't platinum until she was about to ring it up. It's slightly whiter than Platinum, lighter, almost as rare, hypoallergenic, and 95% pure. It's also lighter, reacts to acids unlike plat, and dulls like platinum over time (some say more than platinum will) and we're unsure what to do with a dulled setting with all the engraving as such (maybe Rhodium plate like white gold?). It melts at a lower temp and discolored if it's heated too hot so we're concerned about finding jewelers to maintain/repair it (although the jeweler that sold it should be able to do so.) We're also concerned about whether it will hold the side stones as well as platinum will and Jeweler's Mutual should cover lost stones but again who's enough of an expert on Palladium tension settings to put a new stone in (maybe it can be sent in to Scott Kay)? More info on palladium:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-metal.45636/
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/setting-question-palladium.41944/
I guess Scott Kay is becoming a big advocate of palladium now and people really respect his opinion (he used to be a big platinum guru, his company name used to be Scott Kay Platinum and he only worked with platinum, and some people credit him for popularising platinum):
http://archives.modernjeweler.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=87
It's just a tough decision and I thought I'd find out what you all think. She likes them both and is leaving the decision up to me.
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