Somethings we see in the store are a surprise. Take a look at this ring that came in last week. The ring is only a few weeks old and the diamond is on the verge of falling out.

The owner came in and said she felt her ring was catching where the diamond is. When the ring was inspected, there were no indications of harsh wear or abuse. The ring looked new. The only issue was the setting holding the diamond was damaged. This type of setting is often referred to as a bezel or tube setting.

In the next picture, if you look along the bottom edge, there is no gold over the diamond.  The way a bezel secures the gemstone is that a small ‘lip’ or fold of gold is pushed over the edge of the gemstone.  It does not take much to make a very secure hold on the gemstone if done properly.

If you imagine the diamond as the face of a clock, the outer edge from 5 o’clock to 8 o’clock is where the metal is missing.  At 10 o’clock the bezel was never pushed over the edge of the diamond and a small gap is visible. 

In this case, the actual walls of the bezel are too tight a fit for the size of diamond and as a result the goldsmith setting the diamond did not have enough metal thickness at the edge and the metal simply was chipped or knocked off from very normal wear because it was too thin. 

The goldsmith should have remade the bezel.  Simply, the diamond could have been knocked out or simply fallen out.  In this case, that responsibility would fall back on the store that sold or made the ring.  If there would have been a number of knocks showing abuse, the story might be different.

The owner asked us to repair the bezel.  We removed the old one, made a new one and then reset the diamond.   The new bezel is shown to the right.  Note there are no areas of metal around the bezel missing.

Finished secure and ready to wear.