Hi Everyone,
A customer is having her diamonds reset. There are six rings each
with small diamonds, some bead, some pave set. Is there an easy and
quick way to remove diamonds from settings? I have tried removing
the prongs but can’t seem to get enough of the gold off the diamond
for it to come out and have chipped a few in the process of pushing
them out.
Your help is much appreciated
Ruth
File the gold off around the stones by hand the file won’t ruin
the diamonds; as long as you dont need to use the old setting
again. Rael
Hello Ruth I do it just about everyday use aknife graver and a
flat too.flat first to knok the bead off, then slide the knife
beside the stone and the bearing and cut rest of the bead off. you
should be able to pull the stone out with bees wax then.
Happy pulling True
...Is there an easy and quick way to remove diamonds from settings?
Basically, you have to remove the metal holding the stones.
Seperating disks are sometimes more effective in grinding that away
than are sawblades, if you really must just grind it all away. Be
sure to hold a fingernail on the table of the stone while doing
this so it doesn’t catch on the disk and fly away…
One trick, with beads or prongs that are discrete enough to work
with, saw a cut with your sawblade or a thin seperating disk just
behind the prong, angled towards a point just at the bottom edge of
the girdle. Stop just before touching the stone, not actually
attempting to cut the bead off. The prong or bead, now greatly
weakend and at the top of this thin vane of metal, can now be
simply folded back away from the stone with ease. The advantage of
this is that it also bends away from the stone those thin shreds of
metal that so annoyingly manage to still be holding the stone when
you actually cut the bead off.
In some rings it can work to grind off all the beads etc, and
finding that somehow the stones are still held, now cut the bottom
of the shank, allowing you to bend the whole stone set top into
what amounts to a much smaller ring size. This expands the distance
across the top of the stones, loosening beads easily, and usually
allowing stones to just drop off. Doesn’t help with clusters, but
with in line strips of stones…
A final method, if this is a major problem, is that you can
dissolve the gold in aqua regia. doesn’t hurt the diamonds at all.
nasty acid, though. Some refiners will do this as well, accepting
jewelry with diamonds still set, and returning the diamonds after
they’ve dissolved off the gold.
Hope this helps.
Peter Rowe
Dear Ruth, unsetting small beadset diamonds is a pain. To reduce
the pain, sometimes the diamonds can be pushed out from behind if
the rings are old and worn - but remember to push them out against
a piece of wood such as your bench peg, otherwise they’ll go into
orbit.
Another method, if the settings are unsalvageable or dispensable,
is to use your saw blade to cut away the metal around the diamonds,
cutting in so that you cut just under the girdles of the diamonds
to cut the beads away. Again you have to be careful because the saw
can spring them out of the setting, from whence they will disappear
equally rapidly into the ether.
Lots of luck, Rex from Oz
Hi Ruth, Make sure your jewelry is as clean as you can get it then
fire coat your jewelry with boric acid and then melt the area
around the Diamonds with your torch. Keep your solder pick in hand
to move the stones out of the molten gold. The fire coat will
prevent damage to the stones. Let the stones air cool. To clean the
stones you can drill a lot of 1 mm holes in a plastic film
canister, pop the stones in it, pop the lid on and pop it into your
ultrasonic. Any discoloration from crud under the stones or
oxidized metal will be removed and you will have bright shiny
Diamonds to work with. Try not to allow prolonged heating or
overheating as eventually your fire coat could break down and the
stones could be damaged. A burned Diamond looks milky. Steve Howard
Blue Sky Jewelry
Gosh, Steve, with all due respect, I hope Ruth doesn’t have any
platinum-set diamonds. Best wishes, Rex from Oz
Hi Ruth, Make sure your jewelry is as clean as you can get it then fire coat your jewelry with boric acid and then melt the area around the Diamonds with your torch. Keep your solder pick in hand to move the stones out of the molten gold. The fire coat will prevent damage to the stones.
Steve, if this is the way you routinely remove diamonds, you’ve
been extraordinarly lucky if you’ve not burned any. You’re
reaching temps in melting white gold all around the diamonds that
are much higher than, say, careful retipping work. Boric Acid or
borax fire coat does burn off at high enough temps, you know, and
floating diamonds on the gold is gonna push the boric acid off of
areas. And even with fire coat, you’re not completely excluding
oxygen. It permiates the layer some, as dissolved gas. If hot
enough, you’ll still frost up some of your diamonds.
Peter Rowe
Ruth,
the method I use is a flat graver in a gravermeister. I just
cut the beads off and then turn the ring upside down with the
particular diamond I’m working on flat against the bench surface.
I then use a biology needle probe to apply pressure to the
pavillion. The stones are difficult to break.(maybe one in a
hundred). They do take wing easily so have a “protected” clean
bench for easy location. Michael