Hello Orchidland,
I have a heavy 10K gold man’s award ring with 9 little (2.5mm) diamonds set flush with four balls pushed up and over the table.
Going to send the metal in for melt and need to pull out those little diamonds. (I have a plan for them.)
How in the heck can I get the diamonds out without damaging the stones??!! It seems a simple thing to pry those little balls of gold away from the stone - so far I’ve had no success. Just buggered up the little balls 
FYI my studio tools are still in storage so it may be necessary to buy the proper tool. Being a toolaholic, that sounds good! OK What tool do I need and is there a nifty online tutorial.
Judy in Kansas, where today is lovely. The heat returns tomorrow and that continues to keep the tomatoes in stasis.
Judy…Having never done what I am about to write about, and fully expecting to be told what I am full of, here goes. Using a fine saw blade to keep the losses to a minimum, saw into the ring in such a way that you can loosen the stones allowing them to fall out with a little bit of twisting of the ring once you are done sawing. Let the bits and pieces of gold from sawing fall onto a piece of copy paper or whatever you have, you can recover that bit of gold as well as the larger pieces. This way you are loosening the stones up from below the little balls. Good luck and keep us posted…Rob
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If, as I suspect, you are describing bead set stones then the simplest thing is to cut off the beads with a flat graver. There is a chance of chipping the facet meets, but as long as you don’t put pressure on the stones when cutting off the beads you should be fine.
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I had a similar task with two gold bracelets and 90 tiny diamonds. I tried sawing them out, but finally, based on some other Ganoskin discussion. I chopped up the bracelets, covered them in borax and melted them. I actually got a better price selling the gold as melt. The tiny diamonds all floated to the surface. I’m trying to send a photo…
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