Hello all I have a platinum question that was asked of me and I do not
know the answer. A good friend of mine/customer has her
wedding/engagement ring of platinum and 18k gold. The diamond is set
in platinum flush with the shank. Two 18K plan rings sit on the
finger sandwiching the platinum ring. The ring is made of three
separate pieces. The diamond is princess cut 1 carat. Although it is
not a perfectly square stone. She asked me if we could re-melt the
platinum and create a new ring for the diamond which will allow more
light and therefore create a flash/sparkle for her diamond. She
wants to use the original metal and create a new ring. I believe she
wants to prong set the diamond but use the current platinum for the
shank. Can we do this, if so what do I need to know or do.
I have never worked in platinum and know very little except what I
have learn here from this forum. Any thoughts are gratefully
accepted. Including a good platinum caster, if that is what can be
done. Thanks again for a great and educational forum.
Barb McLaughlin
Taylor River Jewelry Designs
Barb,
Well cut diamonds don’t need a source of light from the bottom to
increase brilliance. Most princess cut diamonds aren’t very well
cut. Usually the crown angles are entirely to shallow, the
pavilions, and the stones in general, too deep. However, the only
stones that I have seen that need to be set in ways that don’t bury
their girdles are ones that are too shallow. There is a brand of
trillion diamond that is so thin that it can’t be set flush or bezel
because it just saps the life right out of it, it is so thin.
Diamonds are supposedly cut so as to reflect light out, using the
facets as tiny mirrors. Light come in from under the stone is simply
not taken into account. However, it sounds to me that your
freind/customer has her heart set on having the diamond higher.
The two things that will make a big difference in setting a diamond
higher is that the stone will gain more design importance standing
higher and it may stay cleaner longer than when set low. These,
however, are design considerations and have nothing to do with how
much brighter or more brilliant the stone inherently is. Set higher,
it will be easier to get access to the underneath of the stone when
cleaning. Low set stones do accumulate more oil and dirt because
there is usually less area for the dirt to vent out. Low set stones
are also closer to the finger and therefore closer to a source of oil
(skin oils, sweat). It must be remembered that anything coating the
diamond will change the way light is reflected in the stone. Even
the best cut stone will leak out light when dirty. Poorly cut stones
generally can’t afford to lose any light because they have more light
"leakage" than a well cut stone.
This has nothing to do with the platinum problem. You can reuse the
platinum but there are problems that you will probably come up
against that are going to be difficult to deal with if you have no
experience with platinum. I don’t recommend that people who have no
experience with platinum take on such a demanding job as a first
exposure to the metal. It could likely ruin you on ever trying
platinum again.
Larry Seiger
Hello all,
I agree with your estatement,Larry.The cut of a stone is a really
importing aspect especially with diamonds.a few years ago,Belgium
(Antwerp in matter of fact) came out with a new style of diamond
cutting called “The Flanders cut”.I a new totally mathematical based
cutting which reflect the light even more then with previous styles
of cutting.For the persons who are interrested to receive some
about it,let me know and I’ll send you the e-mail
address.I’m not thinking about a commercial spot here,because I do
not sell them nor stock diamonds.
Regards Pedro
Palonso@t-online.de
Speaking only as a faceter here (perhaps others will chime in) my
concern is that your customer (and maybe you as well) may have
unreasonable expectations in improving the ‘brilliance’ of the
diamond. Unless it is very poorly cut it will probably not look a lot
better mounted differently. I guess the surrounding metal’s color
could help somewhat.
Could you first simply dismount the stone, confirm that the pavilion
is clean, and ‘play around with it’ first? No mount would allow more
light than holding it in a pair of tweezers or with a stone holder.
Carl
1 Lucky Texan
Hello Barb, Can you saw out the section of the platinum ring holding
the diamond? You could then remove the diamond, melt the platinum,
reshape this metal into a new setting, solder it back into the ring
and then set the diamond. Should be fun. Tom Arnold