When re-setting, repairing or re-sizing diamond jewelry items, you should always consider several factors that involve the protection of your precious gemstone possessions. Always make sure that the bench jeweller performing the repair-work is credible and properly trained. Diamonds may be hard on the Moh's scale (10), but some areas like their girdles are incredibly thin. Chipping is more common than you think and girdle edges are some of the most vulnerable spots where a diamond can get damaged if not handled correctly by a jewelry repair shop.



Diamonds also have certain planes of atomic weakness called 'cleavage directions'. This means the bonds between atoms in these crystallographic directions are weaker. If a diamond is struct with the right amount of force along these directions, more severe damage like splitting can possibly occur.

Some professionals remove the stone before doing any work on the metal, while others opt to keep it in place. It would also depend on the specific area of the jewelry item to be repaired, as well as the type of work that's required. It's always best to go for the long-term experts in the industry, who have a reputation for taking good care of their customers items, rather than going to just any small shop for a quick DIY tightening of ring prongs or bending of metal settings.



*Ideally, if permitted and not too lengthly, you can request to watch as jewelry item is being worked on. This can also prevent the potential risk of stone-switching. Cases of diamonds being switched out for cheaper imitations like cubic zirconia or nowadays even with lab-grown diamonds, do occur although uncommonly documented. Many jewellers in our industry maintain good ethics and would rather keep their reputations solid- never engaging in such activities, but be aware of the risk as it's always better to land on the safe side when it comes to high-value items like diamonds and jewelry.

(** Our laboratory does not perform any kind of physical repair-work on jewelry, we are stictly a third-party evaluator that administers gemological procedures to identify and obtain a grading opinion on your gemstones. We do insist each and every time that items at our facility must be checked in the presence of their owner or at least a representative, just for good ethical practice. This way, our clients can also benefit the most from their appointments with our gemologist, learning a bit about their item's beauty, rarity and proper care.)

If you've been keeping up-to-date with the trend of gemstone treatment, you'll most likely be familiar with the treatment of fracture-filling. This is usually performed to enhance a stone's apparent clarity by concealing its fractures with a filling material with visual properties closer to that of the host gemstone's.



For many lower-quality, nearly opaque rubies, treaters have discovered a technique that basically pushes melted glass deep into the stone's heavily included interior, sometimes creating ratios up to 50:50 in terms of ruby versus glass material. The resulting gemstone is much more clearer and more marketable, so some people end up buying these stones overestimating their actual value.

Glass-filled or glass-composite stones do not look like synthetic stones to most people, at least through viewing by the naked eye. Their many cracks and crevices lend to the feeling of authenticity. Customers are more weary of stones that are perfectly clear and transparent. Many are less suspecting of these types of materials.

There is much debate on the nomenclature used for these types of products. On the one hand, the base material is indeed natural corundum, but the starting material is also so poor in quality that it would never have made it into the jewelry industry on its own merits. Some stones are filled with so much glass that people wonder if they should be called "composite-rubies" or "composite-gemstones" which is what some laboratories label them as.



While one might refer to them as 'real' due to the fact that the main stone is still natural corundum, the question you should be asking, is how should you see the value of such a product. The price for a majority glass-filled rubies is comparable to that of a flame fusion synthetic stone, sometimes higher or lower depending on the quality. The price for a high quality, untreated or heated-only natural ruby on the other hand, can be many times more expensive, reaching tens of thousands of dollars in range.

Note also that while the glass does improve the ruby's appearance drastically, it is much softer than the host gem, and because of its unique composition, poses a durability issue with regards to most cleaning methods used today. Many types of jewelry cleaners that are routinely used in the re-setting or repair of jewelry can eat away at the glass, causing it to degrade even after a few minutes.



The glass material is usually soft, as many treaters use a type of lead-glass, in order to match the refractive index of ruby (to better conceal the fractures). A material like this, can be easily abraded, and hurt by high temperatures like those caused by steam cleaners. Some reports have even noted that ultrasonic cleaning can also damage the glass filling of these stones, so beware of the implications that come with buying them. They are very affordable if bought with proper disclosure, but affordability comes with complications. Always ask your jeweller if your ruby has been treated in any way.

If they say that a ruby has been heat treated, make sure that heat is the only enhancement done, as this is quite normal and acceptable in the trade. Heating with fracture-filling or chemical diffusion can drastically lower the stone's value, so it's good to be aware of what type of gem you're actually buying.