Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Cognac Zircon - Your Thoughts on This Stone and a Setting?

B

Batgirl76

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Aug 7, 2018
Messages
252
Hi again. As some of you know, I was looking for a sapphire but put that on hold due to costs. (Thanks to everyone for your help/advice on my search!). I found another stone that I like that would be less than half that, a cognac zircon. I think it might look nice in an 18k rose gold setting to match my two wedding bands. Plus a nice first colored stone purchase.

I’ve noticed though that this shade of zircon isn’t very popular on PS. Is there a reason for this? Do they not look as good IRL? Below is a link to the stone. How do you think it would look in a ring? More brownish or orangish? Any other thoughts on the stone? I’ve only seen this shade of zircon at Macy’s and I wasn’t very impressed with the light performance. I just looked at zircons in Chicago’s diamond district but couldn’t find any in this color family.

Finally, it’s an octagon shape, 8.42mm x 8.42mm. Would this shape require a custom setting? That might stretch my smallish budget further than I’d like.

Thanks for your thoughts. Here’s the stone. There’s a YouTube video of it but I’m having trouble with the link.

https://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/CUSTOM-...300285?hash=item4b45b903fd:g:1FQAAOSwhgFbYOxl
 
Last edited:
I think the color is pretty! Reminds me of a spess. However are you sure about the dimensions? There’s no way a 4ct zircon would only be 4.3 mm, pretty sure it would be more like 10mm?
 
Whoops, thanks peacechick. I just corrected it.
 
It seem that spesses are a lot more popular than this shade of zircon. Hmm..
 
If you like what others don't, that's to your benefit, saves money. :mrgreen2:

My personal opinion on why spesses are a lot more popular is that in spesses you see brown less often. The best spesses come with red as a secondary color with no brown mask.

@Batgirl76 do you intend to purchase something over 2 carats? Mastercut Gems is having a sale, and they have many blue zircons. They have spesses within your budget range too, but generally smaller, somewhere between 1-2 cts.
 
Batgirl76 said:
Hi again. As some of you know, I was looking for a sapphire but put that on hold due to costs. (Thanks to everyone for your help/advice on my search!). I found another stone that I like that would be less than half that, a cognac zircon. I think it might look nice in an 18k rose gold setting to match my two wedding bands. Plus a nice first colored stone purchase.

I’ve noticed though that this shade of zircon isn’t very popular on PS. Is there a reason for this? Do they not look as good IRL? Below is a link to the stone. How do you think it would look in a ring? More brownish or orangish? Any other thoughts on the stone? I’ve only seen this shade of zircon at Macy’s and I wasn’t very impressed with the light performance. I just looked at zircons in Chicago’s diamond district but couldn’t find any in this color family.

Finally, it’s an octagon shape, 8.42mm x 8.42mm. Would this shape require a custom setting? That might stretch my smallish budget further than I’d like.

Thanks for your thoughts. Here’s the stone. There’s a YouTube video of it but I’m having trouble with the link.

https://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/CUSTOM-...300285?hash=item4b45b903fd:g:1FQAAOSwhgFbYOxl
Click to expand...
Oops, let me answer your original question. The cognac zircon is a nice size and cut. I just personally am not drawn to the brown. But hey, in Thailand, Mekong whiskey colored sapphires are pretty popular, so this may be your cup of tea.

Regarding the setting, I would reach out and contact Jeff Davies. Octagon shape is not as ubiquitous as round, but Jeff Davies does these cuts fairly often, has done the setting for PSers before (mellowyellowgirl's peridot), and has set his stones for a reasonable price with a good quality. Although you can find premade settings for octagon cuts, the ones I've seen were more for calibrated sizes, so at 8.42mm instead of, say, 8.0mm or 10.0mm, you may have no choice but to go custom with the setting.
 
Finewater gems has two light yellow zircons that you may like. the First is a "hearts and arrows" at 2.46ct and the second is an elongated cushion at 4+cts. The price is less than $300.00 for each gem.
I worry that the JD stone will show brown more often than orange. If you like brown it's a well cut gem but if not then look at other colors.
 
I think lots of people just don't like brown stones. Nothing wrong if you do, there are some very pretty brown/pnk brown/orange brown/yellow stones out there.

zircons are usually cut deep usually so be sure to check the depth of it because thats where most of the ct weight tends to be.
 
I think it is beautiful! But I am not really a big fan of the color orange, so I like the touch of brown in this stone. Can't help too much on the setting, seems like it might be a bit tricky to set? I might think about David Klass, he does very nice custom work.

This kind of choice is such a personal decision, we all have our own preferences and favorite colors. Go with what appeals to you!
 
I also like the brown in this stone. I'm curious how you will set it because I bought a garnet in that shape.
 
Wow, you guys are so helpful! Thanks too for the heads-up on other stones. I'll take a look at those as well.

I'm going to have to pass on this stone because of the added cost of (probably) needing a custom setting. Thanks for letting me know about this. Also, the international shipping costs/fees. I didn't even think about that until reading other PS forums. Duh-lol!

If anyone else is interested in this zircon, please feel free to contact Jeff Davies. He was very helpful too.
 
Last edited:
I just saw your post Maisie. I would have purchased a ready-made 4- or 6-prong setting in rose gold, if that had been an option, to save money. The other option I was considering was a custom rose gold setting with a couple of small "surprise" diamonds on the sides. It's kind of big for a halo I think. But maybe a bezel to protect it, since it's a zircon. But alas, it is not to be. I'm going to keep looking, probably locally. Which will be my next posting topic-lol!
 
Batgirl76 said:
I just saw your post Maisie. I would have purchased a ready-made 4- or 6-prong setting in rose gold, if that had been an option, to save money. The other option I was considering was a custom rose gold setting with a couple of small "surprise" diamonds on the sides. It's kind of big for a halo I think. But maybe a bezel to protect it, since it's a zircon. But alas, it is not to be. I'm going to keep looking, probably locally. Which will be my next posting topic-lol!
Click to expand...
Hey, have you thought about setting cost? I've been quoted $100 for setting a solitaire.

If you want to save money, I really recommend you look into setting gemstones yourself and buying calibrated sizes so buying the setting and setting it yourself will both be easy. I would buy a small <$50 CS and practice setting it in sterling silver first, before trying rose gold.
 
Setting costs too...ugh.

These are good ideas. I see a calibrated stone in my future! :)
 
Batgirl76 said:
I just saw your post Maisie. I would have purchased a ready-made 4- or 6-prong setting in rose gold, if that had been an option, to save money. The other option I was considering was a custom rose gold setting with a couple of small "surprise" diamonds on the sides. It's kind of big for a halo I think. But maybe a bezel to protect it, since it's a zircon. But alas, it is not to be. I'm going to keep looking, probably locally. Which will be my next posting topic-lol!
Click to expand...

Such a lot goes into buying these little sparkly things! I live in England so it’s always more expense buying from abroad. I hope you find what you are looking for and I’m looking forward to seeing it!
 
voce said:
Hey, have you thought about setting cost? I've been quoted $100 for setting a solitaire.

If you want to save money, I really recommend you look into setting gemstones yourself and buying calibrated sizes so buying the setting and setting it yourself will both be easy. I would buy a small <$50 CS and practice setting it in sterling silver first, before trying rose gold.
Click to expand...

I would be really worried I wouldn’t do it properly and lose a stone. I did think about doing a course to learn how. Maybe I should revisit that idea.
 
I think your first instinct to buy a sapphire was a good one as it’s a durable, hardy stone. Maybe look at spinels next? I probably wouldn’t start with a zircon as chipping it may be a bad experience that scares you off CS.

Also if you want a ready made setting, look only at round gemstones, ideally calibrated to 0.5 (e.g. 6.5, 7, etc.) although it’s not really a problem if they are not. That will ensure that anything you buy is easily set.
 
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me peacechick!
 
What kind of colours do you like @Batgirl76?

If you don't mind darker greeny blue colours there are a lot of affordable sapphires in that shade!

Or purpley spinels are also very affordable as a starter stone!

Here are my very modestly priced stones because they are not popular colours! All shoved into premade, off the shelf settings!

20180801_111946.jpg

20180218_145931.jpg

Do tell us your favourite shades so we can have a think!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP

Featured Topics

Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top