drk
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
- Messages
- 1,102
See the photo for the three iterations of my bezel 
I got engaged and married last year, and was never really happy with the head on my e-ring. The stone (which I love) is a 1.22ct K SI1 from GOG, and I had it set in a two-tone semi-bezel setting made by a local jeweler (The Jewel Case, Dundas Square, Toronto). They said they would have someone who uses a microscope set the stone since the grade-defining inclusion was a feather right at the girdle, and it came back set with the bezel finished off very unevenly. (ETA: Though I had issues with the setting, this jeweller carries AGS certed H&A rounds at what seemed to be reasonable prices - didn't see those most other places we looked!)
I had them take the ring back to their benchman and try to even out the bezel, but though it was overall better, the guy cut back too much of the metal on one side, leaving a gap that I could see the girdle of the diamond through. It still wasn't really well rounded, but I figured I'd leave well enough alone and didn't want to risk making it worse again. As well, the jeweller said that that was as good as they could get it, and the bench man had spent 3 hours trying to get it just right. (Having seen my new jeweller fix a few little things while I waited, there's no way this could be true unless the guy took 5 coffee breaks in that time frame!)
I ignored the problems for the rest of the year, but this spring as our first anniversary approached, I noticed that the diamond was starting to really spin around in the setting and it really didn't seem very secure any more. I got the name of a good benchman who could also do laser repair work from Gerry Lewy (http://www.gemzdiamondsetting.com/aboutus.htm) after I'd done some research on the web, figured out that he teaches setting, and learned that he's from Toronto. He pointed me to Carlos Tello of Cardelianni Designs, also in 21 Dundas Square in Toronto. Carlos does jewelery design, but is a benchman too.
I took the ring in to Carlos, and he said that the best thing to do would be to replace the head and keep the shank (especially since it matches my wedding band). He told me not to worry about a thing, and that it would be ready when I came back from vacation 3 weeks later. He used a much whiter white gold alloy that doesn't require rhodium plating. There were a couple of very obvious little things that needed to be fixed up the day I picked the ring up from him (cleaning up the joint between the head and the shank, and polishing a couple things a little more), and he did that without complaint in a couple minutes while we waited.
After I got the ring home, there were a couple other small things that I noticed that bothered me once I'd had a closer longer look(like the shank having been polished so the rounding was uneven near the head and that the diamond spun a tiny bit). I took it back in to Carlos and left it to be tightened and tidied up a little more. When I picked it up the second time, he had tightened the bezel on the stone, but hadn't fixed a couple other little things I had asked about. When I pointed the things out, he fixed everything to my satisfaction while I waited. He didn't get mad or frustrated with me, even though it was 3:45 on a Friday afternoon and it took him about 20min to finish off all in all.
All in all, Carlos seemed to me to be a careful and good benchman, and even if a few little things made it through his initial quality control, he had no problem doing what it took to make me happy - and I'm very picky! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking for a jeweler in Toronto. His prices seemed all right too. The original ring cost $410 all in, and for him to unset the stone, take out the head, make and install a new head and set the diamond, he charged us $250 (14k gold). Didn't seem like to bad a deal to me given that it was probably more work than making the original ring itself!
Hope the collage shows what bad and good semi-bezels can look like!
Kate
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