Wrap Style Weding Band

[perry]

Taking the approach that... there is more than one way to skin a....

How many of you would like to have some form of diamond, or other precioius stone, wrap for your weding band. Alternately, is this a good way to build a 3 stone ring?

The general idea can be seen at:

www.ringdesigner.com/wraps/wraps-for-your-ring.htm

and the specific concept I was looking at is (which you get by clicking the first picture link at the above link.

www.ringdesigner.com/wraps/100960158.htm

Couple of questions:

Durability - is the side mounted stones durable enough or do they have a tendency to break off.

Custom options: I became intrigued by this when I asked a gal at work to see her ring because it was different. What she had was a soliair with 2 partial wrap ring (a total of 3 18K yellow gold rings - all soldered together). Each side wrap had the principal mount for an angled diamond band (3 small stones) - and the free end of the diamond band and matching wrap on the other side was then soldered to the other wrap. Very symetrical, very good looking, very strong (having 3 solder joints connecting the assembly).

The bonus was that this was one of 2 people that I have seen where the solitair had life: It dazzled. So did the 2 bands of very small side stones. One of the things that caught my eye. I did point that out to her how rare it was to see a ring where the stones dazzled so. Trust me she knew it too (and I think I made her week by noticing). It was a custom job and she would not tell who because she did not want to see it duplicated.

I am interested in a 3 stone ring look, but am really intrigued by the concept.

So what do you all think of wraps?

 

[strmrdr]

I love them :}
Its what Im doing for my wifey2b''s wedding ring.
Only down side is that they usualy cant be worn seperate from the ering and sometimes have to be soldered together.

 

[strmrdr]

MY RING

 

[perry]

Thanks Strmrdr.

Nice to see those rubies. I will discuss the concept of other stones with my SO.

Perry

 

[perry]

A bit off topic, but relevant to this forum. I noticed that the site that I chose to use as examples of Wraps also sold diamonds.

So I thougth I would do a comparison at 1 Carat G/H VS1/2.

Uggg....

Almomst no "ideal" cuts at all, Also, I tried to enter the spec''s into the HCA for about 6 diamonds that I could find sufficient information to enter. The HCA would not even run on any of them.

The most typical message was that the girdle must be very thick. Well, yes, the certs did say that.

So just how bad does a stone have to be for the HCA to not even run?

It is amazing the consumer ratings that this site has. It looks like most of the dimaonds are the type of "dead" stones that I see on a lot of rings people are wearing.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 10/31/2004 4:48:15 PM
Author: perry

So just how bad does a stone have to be for the HCA to not even run?

Hm... can you posts some of these stats (EGL certs, right?). Not the seller''s site or anything - just the numbers. I did see the same happening before... but only when percentages are given, not those angles. It could just be the rounding up of these numbers (on top of some unusual proportions) to blame.

Most oddballs would still get a HCA score, for better or worse.

 

[perry]

Actaully some of them were AGSL certs.

Too much time to find the AGSL certs (you are free to look if you want).

Here is one from EGL

Round Brilliant
1.01 Carat H VS2 $3759.93 (you know, its important to get the cents
6.12 - 6.06 x 4.12 mm when selling at minimum markup)
Total Depth 67.7%
Table Width 53%
Crown Height 16%
Pavillion Depth 44%
Girdle Thick faceted
Polish Good
Symmetry Fair
Culet None

Fluoresence Moderate Blue

Have fun with the HCA on this one. Perhaps someone could model it in diamond calc. I'd love to see what the Ideal Scope immage should look like.

Perry

 

[gregates]

Perry

Good morning!

Was up late speaking with some of our friends in Israel regarding a couple of diamonds. And for fun, logged on to PriceScope.

Do not get a chance to visit here very often. I visit every couple of months or so. This is an absolutely terrific forum, with numerous regular folks who know more about gemstones than anybody. They will guide you well! Wish we had more time to visit up here, but we have customers to service. That is our #1 priority as it should be.

When I do visit, I do a search on “ringdesigner” to see if we are mentioned.

Doing that, saw your post. Perry, just for the record, we would NEVER let a customer purchase the diamond you mentioned.

We preach throughout our site, buying a diamond with “pop” and “fire”!! The diamond you mentioned of course would not have it. And at a price of $3,759.93, it most likely it should not have. You mentioned the $0.93. We use a rounded fixed mark up on to the sources price to us. So if their price ends in a $0.93, so will ours! LOL. Because of that diamond’s poor specs, our daily algorithm we run, only added a $200 mark up to the price the source would charge us (for that particular diamond).

First that particular diamond’s depth is 67%. We would never let a customer purchase a diamond with over a 63.8% depth. And we recommend very strongly a set of specs throughout our site to consider. Anytime a customer orders a stone from our site, that is outside the desired specs we recommend (starting with depth and table), we work immediately & personally with thay prospective customer to coach them to a better spec’ed stone at an equal or less price. Rarely do we recommend spending more.

Just because a diamond is in one of our supplier''s inventories (like the one you mentioned), does not mean we would recommend it. We show all their items. Daily we work with prospective customers who initially show a desire to purchase a stone outside our recommended specifications. In seven years we can count on one hand the round diamonds sold outside our recommended specifications. So no “dead” (as you call them) diamonds from us.

Again Perry, there are a great number of tremendous suppliers who frequent this forum. Following their guidance you will end up with an absolutely super diamond for quality at a wonderful consumer value price! Enjoy the experience, it is an exciting time for you and all the other folks in the market like you!!

Warmest Regards,
Greg Gates

 

[perry]

Greg:

Thank you for popping in, it is always nice to here from the vendor.

However, the general tone of your reply seems interesting. You say that you preach "Pop" and "Fire" and that this was just one diamond in your virtual inventory - one that you would never actaully sell.

While it may be true that less than ideal cuts may have pop and fire, it is also true that none of the vendors associated with pricescope who focus on pop and fire list many diamonds that are not ideal cut (there are a few here and there). So it seems that having an ideal cut must add something to pop and fire.

It is also true that the HCA (Holoway Cut Adviser) is just a tool and may not be exactly right. However it gets you close.

In your case your virtual inventory has very very few ideal cuts and is focused on the lower spectrum of cut quality.

The diamond above was not the sole example of one that could not even be run on the HCA. In the end for simplification I restriced my search on your site from 1 to 1.1 carat, VS1 G-H. I found 6 that had certs with enough information to enter into the HCA (EGL or AGS). I even looked for certs in the higher priced stones. None of them would run. The HCA will run and give a score on some really dead stones out there. So how bad does a cut have to be - before the HCA will not even run?

In the end there is a market for every quality of stones out there. It appears that you are fouces on the lower quality cut based on your inventory (virtual). If that works for you - fine. I saw no suggestion in your inventory, or in the kind of information that you are supplying for the individual diamonds that you were focusing on stones with Pop and Fire. In fact, a lot of the cert images are unreadable so a person cannot even judge them (other than the fact that there is a cert). As stated before. I have no problem that you are focusing on a market with lower cut stones and the existance of certs. This is not the market that most people here at pricescope is interested in, but that does not mean that it is not a vailid market. This is America and you have the right to serve whatever section of the market place that gives you an honest profit, and I applaud the fact that you do run a successfull business as all the jobs in America exist because of sucessfull businesses (the goverment jobs are paid for by the taxes on those businesses and their employees).

Trust me that I already have a small selection of vendors who I will direct my final inquiries to - and the diamonds that I get in the end will not just have Pop and Fire. They will sizzle...

My original question related to the use of Wraps, which is why I linked to your site. I think it would have been interesting to have heard your thoughts and experience on wraps as it related to my original questions.

I also presume that should I, or anyone else on pricescope, be interested in one of your wraps or custom designs that you would have no problems setting whatever diamonds you are sent - or with working with whomever we are getting the diamonds from.

Perry

 

[gregates]

Perry,

Really not looking to defend our business here. But with working 16/7/365 serving customers for about seven years, we do not consider ourselves a low class vendor. We have made mistakes, but have always fixed at our expense.

In fact,
---we offer a 30 day no nonsense full return policy,
---we recommend strongly having our customers have a GIA licensed appraiser (who does not sell diamonds) evaluate their item within the 30 day period,
---in seven years have not gotten a diamond back for quality
---have gotten 6 back in the seven years, for the lady saying "NO" to the customer, we can''t control that aspect.

And we have sold many happy customers in those same seven years, that found us via pricescope.com. If you think we were fishing for your business, sorry, but we had no underlying agenda.

And lastly, our jewelry quality is second to none, and we work hard to keep it that way and are fiercely proud of it!! And to answer your question, we set other supplier''s and family provided heirloom stones, on our mountings, skillfully every day.

But for wraps, we craft each wrap individually to guarantee a perfect match to a customer''s engagement ring. That means, as we near completion of the wrap, we ask the customer send us their engagement ring to match it perfectly. We have had a handful of times where the potential wrap customer felt uneasy about the internet, so we respectfully declined the order, as we could not guarantee the quality of the "fit".
Greg

 

[valeria101]

Perhaps this is redundant, but since I asked for the specs.... here''s one more 0.2

I bet this stone really deserved it''s "fair" symmetry - whatever variations of crown and pavilion angles this meant, on the average they wouldn''t make sense to the HCA anymore. With the complete Sarin report infront, it would be easier to guess what exactly went wrong to turn meaningless average measurements, but like this I can only guess. Anyway, the closest HCA approximation to this set of numbers gives a score between 4.6 and 5 (from "good" across the board to "good" and "fair" for scintillation). Garry calls this "Good - buy only if price is you main criterion". We haven''t seen this one, so...who knows? Obviously it is not H&A with ideal finish to fit those numbers well.



I am SO surprised to a little detail of the conversation on this thread, I had to pick it up:

As far as I understand this thread:
seller says " we list all kinds of diamonds, let buyers choose and advise on the result of their choice" (much like Pricescope does, actually)
buyer says "why don''t you make the selection yourself first and tell me what''s great, what''s good and what''s ugly"


On the other hand, more than once sellers'' selections (brands, signature series, cuts with a name) are criticized as too narrow and too expensive on Pricescope threads.

Logically, the end result of both approaches is the same - the buyer still finds out what the seller advocates.

Anyone sees some middle ground ? Just curious.

 

[perry]

Valeria101:

Actually you have missed the intent of this thread. I was curious about what people thought of Wraps, and their experience of them.

It was only as a side that I looked at the diamonds on the site. After looking at the listings on a number of sites I was surprised by what I saw. I also tried running the HCA on some diamonds and posted my comments above.

Greg seems to think that I am misrepresenting the quality of diamonds on his site. Anyone can go to it and do a search and decide for themselves. Of the various sites that I have searched - it seemed on the low end. Perhaps that is typical of ordinary sites though.

I would however much rather have gotten answers to my questions on Wraps, and heard a list of experiences. I have already selected a small list of vendors who I will buy diamonds from based on a variety of issues (I am willing to add to the list if I find another good site).

I do understand that there are different markets. It seems that most the people on pricescope is focused on what I call the "super Ideal" cut stones. This represents probably about 1/10 of 1% of the diamond market (if even that). I have no problems with other sites that target a different market. I am not asking Greg, or the vast majority of sites to tell me more. There are vendors who specifically cater to us who want more information and the "super ideal" cuts.

My Lady is really interested at this time in one ring from a specific jewerly store (the stores custom ring design). Fine. But I know that when I go in to look at it (she lives 6 hours away and I have not visited here recently) the store will want to sell me diamonds. My answer will be that I am focusing on the top 1/10 of 1% stones in cut - and is that the market they are operating in (no). Then I can offer to look at their diamonds and explain what I am looking for in information and precission in cut, and mention that there are vendors who specifically cater to people like me and who have a stock of diamonds that meet my criteria that I can pick between (versus that they perhaps have a stone here or there that may meet it). I believe that is an explaination that they can live with - while I tell them that I would like to buy the ring and have them set the diamonds I will supply.

However, I still search for options.

I also wish Greg and his site well.

Perhaps I will do a wrap, perhaps not.

Perry