I chipped my sapphire....

[idreamofice]

Hello everyone,

A few years ago my FI gave me a sapphire ring for Valentine''s Day. This is the very first ring he gave me so it means a lot to me. The other day I noticed a white streak in the sapphire! I took the ring to the store that my FI bought it at to have it re-sized and to inquire about the streak. Well....turns out that I chipped the girdle

. Since I missed an inspection, they could not do anything for me. My FI was a little upset about this and it made me feel even worse

. I know I''m super clumsy but I really tried to take care of the ring

.

So now what? I thought about getting the stone reset in a bezel setting to hide the chip. Will this make the streak go away? Is there any way to fix this?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....Thank you.

 

[RevolutionGems]

What can be done will depend on the severity and placement of the chip. The stone could possibly be recut or, as you suggested, reset in a bezel to hide (and protect) the chip.

Can you post some pictures? That would give us a better idea of what we are dealing with.

Good luck!

 

[idreamofice]

Hi Jeff,

Thank you so much for the response. I''ve attached a pic of the ring, you can see the white streak very clearly

.
The chip is so tiny that we had to put the ring under a scope to see it....Do you think that a bezel setting might really get rid of the streak?

Thanks again!

 

[RevolutionGems]

Can you get a picture of the girdle? From this pic, it appears that the chip is on the pavillion just under the girdle. .

The thing about the bezel set is that it would block the light coming in from the side of the stone which would make a big difference in the way the stone looks. With the placement of the chip, it just may do the trick, but no gurantees.

In any case, I think a bezel would diminish the appearance of the streak if not block it completely..

 

[Harriet]

Sorry. I nicked one of my stones too.

 

[chrono]

A bezel will limit the amount of light coming from the side, so the white streak caused by the chipping may go away completely or be minimized. The downside is that your sapphire will look noticeable darker as well. If your sapphire is on the darker side to begin with, you may not want to choose this route.

 

[idreamofice]

Hi and thank you again everyone.

The sapphire is on the darker side....I guess a bezel setting is out of the question since I don''t want the sapphire to look even darker

.
I''m not sure what to do at this point, maybe I can chip the other side to match?! bad joke

, but thank you for your input and suggestions

.

 

[Kaleigh]

It''s such a pretty ring, sorry about the chip. Wonder if it can be polished out?? Hope the experts can answer this for you.

 

[RevolutionGems]

It looks like the chip is very small.

You may want to think about having the stone recut. If you can find a good cutter, the weight loss would be minimal and it would probably make the stone much brighter (this appears to be a native cut and custom cuts tend to bring more life to the stone.

It looks like only the pavillion would need to be recut since the chip doesn''t seem to intrude on the crown at all.

Good luck whatever you decide. It is a beautiful ring.

 

[Catmom]

Oh idreamofice, it''s a beautiful ring.......I''m so sorry you chipped it! I hope you are able to have something done that will help.

 

[idreamofice]

Thank you Kaleigh, Catmom and Jeff!

I will look into getting the stone recut or polished. I guess I need to try to find someone that can recut the stone...

Thanks again!

 

[Pandora II]

I''d see if you can send it to someone like Richard Homer for a recut.

He re-polished my tsav to remove a similar girdle chip - I''d swear he did more than just a repolish, the stone was beautiful to start with, but I''d swear it looks even better now (even FI asked if there was something different about it and he doesn''t notice anything!)

 

[idreamofice]

Hi Pandora -

Thank you so much for your response! I will have to give him a call! (your ring is Gorgeous btw!) Do you know how much re-polishing costs? My ring was only 1400. so if it''s more than the cost of the ring than I might have to re-think it....

 

[Pandora II]

I'm afraid I don't know how much it is, but I wouldn't have thought it would be very much.

You could try posting it in a separate thread and maybe some cutters will chime in.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Your ring is very pretty and I think it would not cost much to have your chip polished out. Even a recut wouldn''t be too high, but you want to be sure it will still fit in the setting! I''d ask Jeff White. He recut a pink spinel for Chrono and it is perfection!

 

[RevolutionGems]

Recutting the stone shouldn''t cost too much at all. I would be surprised if it was more than $100 or so.

I would offer to recut it for you but I decided some time ago that I don''t want to work on existing stones(read: other peoples stones). Too much liability and stress for me. There are a number of people out there that will not only recut but the result will be extremely good.

Good luck, Ice.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I chipped my sapphire on the girdle a few years ago. By the looks of your photo my chip was worse than yours and I only lost .17 cts in the recutting, which cost me less than $200 BTW. Definitely look into that, and sorry about your bad news.

 

[idreamofice]

ooops...ummm...

...Is Revolution Jeff White by any chance? I sent an email via whitesgems.com...I just read Revolution's response about cutting other people's rings.

Hmm....I'm a bit embarrased now...

...

Thanks for the info DeeJay!! Thank you Diamondseeker!! Thanks again Pandora!

 

[RevolutionGems]

Alas, I am not Jeff White although, looking at his stones, he and I appear to be very much alike, though I suspect he had a wee bit more experience than me.

No, I am merely a hobby cutter who hangs about and shows a stone from time to time.

I suppose, since Jeff White is quite commonly referred to on these boards that I should probably sign my posts with my screen name rather than Jeff. It would be less confusing for everyone.

 

[chrono]

No, Jeff White and Revolution Jeff are two separate people. Jeff White will recut stones but I have no idea what he charges. He's probably still at the Tuscon show so he may not be able to get to his email as quickly as he normally does. My guess is that Jeff most likely will charge you less than Richard Homer though.

 

[idreamofice]

Thanks for letting me know Revolution!

Thank you Chrono for the info! I will wait patiently for Jeff White''s response.