IrishAngel7982
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- May 5, 2006
- Messages
- 1,412
My bf was in town this weekend!
It was lovely as usual. We celebrated both of our birthdays (mine is tomorrow and his is Sunday) and spent time with our family and friends. His summers are extremely busy with his job so he was only able to fly in on Friday afternoon and stay until this evening. His plane landed in Newark about an hour ago.
The good news is that since we've finally picked a setting (with JohnQuixote's help
) he's ready to get the ball rolling and have his heirloom diamond set for our engagement ring! It's a gorgeous stone and his dad had it removed from its pendant setting and appraised last week so it would be ready to go back to Jersey with my sweetie. He let me see it and I was so excited because I fell in love with it. 0.51ct, j/k color, si1 clarity. It was a real sparkler and looked very white. 
The appraisal says the stone is a european cut, but I'm not sure if it's an OEC or transitional cut. Nevertheless, I LOVE antique stones and we are so lucky to be given a beautiful stone that belonged to his grandmother. We didn't have time to play with it and take pictures because our free time was so limited, but I really wish we could have.
Here's the bad news. The stone was set in a pendant which my bf's mom hardly wore...they were saving it for him in case he wanted to use it. The appraisal was done at a local jeweler, and it's my understanding that this jeweler unmounted the stone and did the appraisal (very general...just dimensions, color estimate, clarity estimate, carat weight, est. value.) When my bf read the appraisal he was so disappointed. It broke my heart to see him that way. He was in shock and very upset because the appraisal said there is a chip on the girdle of the diamond.
I know that antique cuts have thin girdles and chips happen, but my bf was devastated because the appraisal value was only $1,000. He had believed the stone would be valued at a much higher amount since he believed the first appraiser (years ago) valued it at around $10,000. I told him to not be disappointed if it was lower because I don't think I've ever seen a half carat stone worth 10k, and appraisals are inflated anyway. I guess he had a bit of reverse sticker shock, if that makes sense. Anyway, the real issue is that the diamond is chipped. Apparently the jeweler told my bf's dad that the chip was not visible to the naked eye...we found it right away. I don't know if this happened while the stone was being unmounted, if it was always chipped, or if it was damaged while being set into the pendant many years ago. The issue now is that we're not sure we can use this stone.
The girdle has a small chunk missing that I think/hope can be covered with a prong, but we don't know if it is safe yet. There is also a scratch on the pavilion underneath the chip, so it seems that this damage was done by a prong somewhere along the line. I did not have my loupe with me and we had no free time to examine everything, so we spent our time together enjoying each other and trying not to worry about it...but we're still very sad. At this point, we're just hoping the stone does not have any internal fractures or structural issues which will prevent it from being safe to use in our ring, but we won't know until my bf can make a few phone calls and have someone look at it this week. However, he is so disappointed because now this stone isn't *perfect* and he thinks it is too small. He was so upset that he immediately said, "I don't want this stone I want to get you your own." I assured him that as long as it is safe to have set I would love to receive it and it will make an absolutely beautiful ring. I can't even begin to describe how I felt seeing him so upset about this stone that he was so excited to have. I never want to see him that disappointed ever again.
So, all we can do now is wait to see what happens. He's feeling a little bit better about it now but we obviously don't have any answers yet. Hopefully the chip is just a chip and can be covered with a prong. I honestly don't think it would bother me that much as long as it won't risk further damage to the stone. The other option is to have it bezel set, in which case we would probably halo the stone. I love halos but was afraid to go that route for my e-ring because I always wanted a sparkly solitaire, I'm addicted to my ultrasonic cleaner, I would always be worried about one of the little pave diamonds being lost, and I wouldn't want the halo to overpower the center stone. During our setting search I felt like I was trying to convince myself to get a halo ring, so I figured it wasn't the right choice for me. But, maybe God is trying to tell me to get a halo...we'll have to wait and see.
I know everything will work out eventually, but we were so excited for this stone and now we might not be able to use it...which means my bf will have to start saving to buy a diamond now. I'll stop rambling, but please cross your fingers for us so we can use this stone! Congratulations if you made it to the end of this long post! Thanks for listening (err, reading) everyone!
The good news is that since we've finally picked a setting (with JohnQuixote's help
The appraisal says the stone is a european cut, but I'm not sure if it's an OEC or transitional cut. Nevertheless, I LOVE antique stones and we are so lucky to be given a beautiful stone that belonged to his grandmother. We didn't have time to play with it and take pictures because our free time was so limited, but I really wish we could have.
Here's the bad news. The stone was set in a pendant which my bf's mom hardly wore...they were saving it for him in case he wanted to use it. The appraisal was done at a local jeweler, and it's my understanding that this jeweler unmounted the stone and did the appraisal (very general...just dimensions, color estimate, clarity estimate, carat weight, est. value.) When my bf read the appraisal he was so disappointed. It broke my heart to see him that way. He was in shock and very upset because the appraisal said there is a chip on the girdle of the diamond.
So, all we can do now is wait to see what happens. He's feeling a little bit better about it now but we obviously don't have any answers yet. Hopefully the chip is just a chip and can be covered with a prong. I honestly don't think it would bother me that much as long as it won't risk further damage to the stone. The other option is to have it bezel set, in which case we would probably halo the stone. I love halos but was afraid to go that route for my e-ring because I always wanted a sparkly solitaire, I'm addicted to my ultrasonic cleaner, I would always be worried about one of the little pave diamonds being lost, and I wouldn't want the halo to overpower the center stone. During our setting search I felt like I was trying to convince myself to get a halo ring, so I figured it wasn't the right choice for me. But, maybe God is trying to tell me to get a halo...we'll have to wait and see.
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