I have another question, can you solder a ring with a diamond in it?
can you solder a ring with a diamond in it?
Sure can, Just make sure you use Boric Acid and flux and DON’T over
heat it!
Good luck! Steve
Arista Designs
Sure can, Just make sure you use Boric Acid and flux and DON'T over heat it!
You forgot the most important part, DONT QUENCH IT afterwards
James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
Sure can, Just make sure you use Boric Acid and flux and DON'T over heat it!
Actually, its not quite that simple. At least not in this day and
age. In past years before there were all sorts of treatments.
heating a diamond still had a number of cautions such as, don’t heat
a diamond with an carbon inclusion in it…expansion could result in
a cracked stone. Furthermore, it has always been necessary to insure
the stone is 100% clean. If there was any ‘grease’ on the surface,
it could get cooked on and ‘burn’ the stone requiring repolishing.
There were a few other do’s and dont’s but those were the major ones
as I remember. Now then, with today’s treatments such as
drilling/filling to remove inclusions, glass/resin fillers, etc. one
must be extremely cautious before heating/soldering with the diamond
set. Frankly, unless one knows a lot about diamonds or is a
professional jewelry repair specialist, I would not mess with it.
Especially if it is a capital stone, say 1/2 ct or more. Smaller
stones or melee should not be a problem but be sure to inspect the
stone (and setting as well) very carefully and then clean the stone
very well prior to any heating operation.
Cheers from Don in SOFL.
Hi,
If the stones are at the top, turn the ring upside down and put in a
little lid, fill with water about halfway and solder. You’ll need to
use a hot flame as the water will cool the ring so you need to solder
quickly. I’ve been doing it for twenty years. Just doesn’t work on
massively wide silver or gold rings.
It works for other stones too. If the diamonds are right next to
soldering point, I put white powder flux mixed with meths in a thick
paste, light with a lighter. Let it burn to form a coating. Then
solder. Let it cool then sit in acid for a while. You can quench
diamonds hot but it may be risky if the stone is SI1 and down. I’ve
only ever burnt a baguette diamond where I soldered right next to it
with a platinum solder which needed too much heat. Luckily I was
still an apprentice and my journeyman was Mr understanding. And the
odd 0.01ct diamond here and there which are easy to replace. Some
may disagree with me but that’s the way isn’t it.
I find it works better than heat paste which sometimes sticks to the
stone and is a nightmare to remove.
Good luck
Leza
All,
My first consideration when soldering around a diamond, is to
absolutely clean that mounting and diamond before applying any heat.
Provided the diamond mounting can handle the heat and vibration,
plenty of time in a strong heated ultrasonic cleaner is a good idea.
Steam liberally to blast out every last bit of dirt before soldering.
A dirty diamond under intense heat can have the dirty coating burned
onto the diamond’s surface, making final cleaning of the diamond very
difficult or impossible to accomplish. I will confess, many years
ago, to have soldered around and on diamonds I thought were clean
enough, and had big issues later getting the diamond clean again.
(“Cleanliness is Job 1”) My understanding was that some baked on
coatings require the diamond to be re-polished by a diamond cutter.
…and don’t quench!
Jay Whaley
But wait!!! First clean well in ultrasonic but that goes without
saying for all jewellery repairs.
Elemental Studio
And make certain that the stone is CLEAN
Did anyone forget to mention in using a Borax solution on the diamond
and ring before being heated? Of course don’t quench the ring after
the extreme heat, just let it cool down by itself.
If you don’t use Borax, you’ll have a fire-scale on the stone, or
whats worse is that the diamond could be damaged by the rapid
cooling…
Gerry!
have not read the other posts on this subject but thought i might
mention that for the last few years there have been an increase in
clarity enhanced diamonds on the market. some inclusions have been
filled with oil and resin. if you heat these diamonds up it will all
come out. i ask my customers if they have a certificate for the
stone. if they don’t i give them a choice between taking the risk of
damaging the stone and proceeding as usual or having the stone
removed and replacing the setting then resetting the stone.
Les
You forgot the most important part, DONT QUENCH IT afterwards
I agree, but here’s an experience that lessens the danger…
An attempt to shatter a cheap 2mm ‘promotion grade’ diamond failed
as follows… (I have no idea how a cloudy dull fractured and
included diamond can promote anything)…
I heated the diamond bright red hot and threw it straight into cold
water. It went ‘psst’ and nothing happened! I then used a hardened
steel a cup, a fitted drift, and shattered the diamond with a hammer
blow. I wanted to get small chips so as to make a drill bit
When heating a diamond worth more than $600 to replace (that’s my
affordability number if the worst should happen and it will hurt)
then the customer must pay for whatever precautions are deemed
necessary.
Inclusions visible and ‘invisible’ such as fracture filled diamonds,
and moissonites, are the ones to look out for. It’s an assessment of
risk. Back in my early days I did heat a few 1ct heavily included
diamonds and got away with it. I carefully cleaned the diamonds,
carefully melted the borassic acid onto the diamond, and proceeded
to solder with 18ct EASY solder. Now I have an Orion pulse arc
welder and the risk is reduced to negligible
Alastair.
Also make sure the diamond is clean. Use a caustic lye solution to
clean the organic matter from the diamond. A couple of table spoons
in a pint or so of water and let the ring soak for a couple of
hours. I use a coffee cup warmer (bought at the local drug store for
a few dollars) to heat the solution for a faster action and a
stainless steel kitchen container with a hinged and sealed lid. You
can rinse off the lye and then use the ultrasonic. This also works
great on gold chains that have hair wrapped and caught in them. I
always clean hollow chains this way before solder repair it gets all
the organic matter out of them. Caution: rinse thoroughly in hot
water to remove all the lye before soldering. Rinse until the piece
does not fell slick anymore. Do not get lye on your skin etc as it is
a caustic and will burn!!!
Frank Goss
I heated the diamond bright red hot and threw it straight into cold water. It went 'psst' and nothing happened!
This is probably because the thermal conductivity of natural diamond
is between 2.4 and 5.4 times that of silver, and that of synthetic
diamond is even higher. Strangely, although silver is an excellent
electrical conductor, diamond is an insulator.
Regards, Gary Wooding
Thank you all for giving me advice on this learn a lot about working
on diamonds and also on my enlarge oval ring thanks thanks.
I heated the diamond bright red hot and threw it straight into cold water. It went 'psst' and nothing happened!
I missed that one first time around, but this is exactly what should
happen. One can heat a diamond to red heat and plunge it into liquid
oxygen, and diamond will be just fine. Recommendations of cooling
diamonds slowly lacking any scientific basis. I suspect that it
stems from anecdotic evidence of “diamonds” been damaged from rapid
cooling. Each and every case that I know, upon examination, the stone
was proven been a diamond substitute.
Leonid Surpin