You have seen it happen a hundred times, right? They only lost one but the jeweler says they need to replace the pair. WHY?
I think this is one of the most ludicrous statements in jewelry claims. 1 in a 100 might have a reason to replace the pair but the other 99 just want an easy sale. I had a jeweler tell me that they were cut to match when the diamonds were made and that is why it is almost impossible to match a single stone after it has lost it’s mate. WHAT? Do they think the consumer is that stupid?
Here is the skinny…this is the easiest task in the world and one that we thrive on here at Brilliant.
NO! #1:The diamonds were paired from the start. NO,The diamonds weren’t cut to match, somebody sat at a table with a bag of cut diamonds of similar clarity and color and matched a pair. They did it once, why can’t they do it again…It may have been a good match, it may have been a bad match but the main factor is that they weren’t cut to be a pair.
NO! #2: It is almost impossible to match up a single diamond, you need to just get a new pair. NO! It isn’t impossible to match up a single diamond after loosing the other, it is actually quite easy depending on your ability as a jeweler and your network of diamonds. The problem here is that most jewelers have a stash of diamonds that they want to use and the chances of them having a match are pretty low. So they would much rather just sell you a pair they already have.
NO! #3: The match only has to be CLOSE, because they are going to be on opposite sides of my head! (Can you say it with me.) NO! NO! NO! Would you be happy if the shutters on one side of your front window were not the same as the other side? NO! Well then why settle just because it is jewelry and some jeweler is telling you some gibberish! The fact is there are some very important factors when matching a diamond and there are some not so important factors. There however is no reason they should NOT match, it can be done quite easily by a person who is competent in diamonds.
How to turn the 3 NO’s into one YES? Easy, have Brilliant or some competent jeweler handle the match. Once you get the diamond it is very simple to match because you have the other diamond and don’t have to trust documentation. (You can NOT replace an earring without having the other half and be even close) The reason, most documentation isn’t even correct when it comes to the real color of the diamond, but we aren’t going to go there, that is a topic for another day. Let me walk you through the process of matching the diamond.
1. Receive diamond and clean it thoroughly after removing it from the setting. The setting is the toughest part to match so we just give the client 2 new settings. The cost is minimal and allows them to change color (white to yellow, yellow to white etc.) type of back (screw, friction, clip etc.) or any other style change they might desire as long as the cost doesn’t change.
2. Once clean, we place it on a Sarin machine that does a laser analysis of the stone and gives us a read out with all the angles and dimensions that we need to find it’s long lost sister.
3. We check for fluorescence to make sure what kind of reaction it has to UV light…the sun is UV light so if you are planning on wearing them outside this is an important feature of the process so that you don’t get one blue diamond and one white diamond.
4. We then input all this information into our database that has millions of diamonds and bring up the best match.
5. Last, we have it shipped to us for visual inspection and place the diamonds in their new settings. A color picture appraisal is done and then we send it off to the client for their final approval.
We believe that you should always match the existing stone and not replace the pair. There are however exceptions to that rule and don’t want you to think that it can’t happen. Fancy shaped diamonds can be more difficult. If I had to match a 2ct heart shaped diamond of specific color and clarity that would be very hard. The more rare the cut or quality the more difficult it can be.
I hope that you don’t try it on your own diamond because I can guarantee you that it will chip! One of the more common “accidents” that we see is the ring in the disposal. What the average person doesn’t know is that a diamond is quite fragile. YES, it is the top of Mohrs hardness scale at a 10, but if hit at just the right angle it will “splinter”. That’s how they use to cut diamonds. They took a hammer and a chisel and went to town!
I came across this commercial and had to post it! It is genius.
Brilliant has cutters that can take your chipped and damaged goods and do laser analysis of the stones to evaluate if the stone can be recut and turned into new profitable stones. It doesn’t have to be a diamond, it can be colored stones as well. Most often the stones have to be larger or else the end product isn’t worth the cost of having the cutter recut the stone. You also have to weigh the chance that the stone might just explode on the cutting wheel. It happens, not too often but if it does you are left with what looks like a car window after being hit with a hammer.
Call us for quotes and estimates free of charge on all your damaged stone salvage.
I know everyone wants to be in the diamond business so as I was looking for educational videos to present to our fine adjusters I ran across this and have to say that some people have way too much time on their hands but cheers to them for making me laugh. Enjoy!
Brilliant does not recommend putting anything in the microwave and takes no responsiblilty for any actions that you take after watching this video! Don’t do it! It doesn’t work!
Remember the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August? Remember seeing President Bush and his wife Laura sitting in the stands before swimmer Michael Phelps won the first of his record-breaking eight gold medals?
Well, guess what those medals were made of, in part, white jade. Human rights groups say that the jade was from Burma. If the charge is true (and there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to support it), Michael Phelps took home medals made of a gem material that was banned from U.S. importation by Congress that very month—at the repeated urging of the First Lady. True, the ban didn’t take effect until after the Games, but there’s a feast of ironies in American athletes importing what is soon-to-be contraband material.
Bride magazine predicts black diamonds for 2009?! Billy Idol wouldn’t know what to do if this were true but a trend is pushing its way and provides celebrity Carmen Electra to lead the parade.
Black diamonds are an interesting and very different look but why did so many jewelry professionals think so poorly of the black diamond. Maybe because it is a lower form of carbon that didn’t quite make the transformation to a pure crystal diamond? Well it is true but eh industry is changing and the stone that they use to hold with such low esteem is now showing up in designer lines everywhere and this “faceted lump of coal” is now a staple in the jewelry industry.
In India, where nearly all the world’s faceted black diamonds are cut, they are known as “carbons,” a shortening of “carbonado,” a trade term for a specific variety of highly opaque and included industrial stone thought to be the toughest diamond known. While many black diamonds are not carbonados, all can be put under the large heading of industrial diamond known as “bort,” a term derived from an old French word for bastard. This fact doesn’t help matters any for what are best viewed as crystallographically-challenged diamonds.
According to gemologist Stephen Hofer, author of the landmark Collecting and Classifying, most black diamonds are in “a transitional carbon state between graphite and pure diamond.” This means most are polycrystalline aggregates as opposed to single crystals. “The typical black diamond,” Hofer continues, “is composed of a mishmash of atoms rather than a regular, homogenous arrangement. As a consequence, their atomic lattice has many areas of weakness that cause stones to chip frequently on the wheel.”
Cutting black diamonds is a time-consuming process, which is why most hail from India where low cost permits the man hours needed to fashion these stones. Essentially, says dealer Aaron Kavakeb of Gem Melody in New York, “You are cutting a giant black pique with diamond inclusions in it.” For this reason, many black diamonds are marred by pits, breaks, and areas of transparency, even when pampered on the wheel.
To avoid the appearance problems common with natural-color black diamonds, some designers use easily-cut conventional stones with low color and clarity ratings that have been irradiated to make them look like black onyx: the ideal for black diamond.
Midnight Magic
Occasionally, a pure-crystal natural black diamond comes along that puts competing species to shame and is one of nature’s glories. Such stones are ultra-rare and have been the object of a secret search among collectors that rivals the more public quest for fugitive colors such as red.
As Hofer demonstrates in his indispensable book, there has been a centuries-long hunt for a rarity called the “pure crystal black diamond.” For instance, the 1839 catalog of Henry Philip Hope, whose giant blue diamond now in the Smithsonian is arguably the world’s most famous diamond, lists a 1.25 carat black round-brilliant. The 1874 catalog of the Duke of Brunswick, Hope’s best-known peer among 19th century collectors of colored diamonds, lists five blacks of varying shades from “noir transparent” to “macadam”
This example of a connoisseur-class black diamond, is a 33.74 carat pear-shaped called the Star of Amsterdam. Cut by Holland’s Max Drukker from a 55.85 carat bort in 1972, this 145-facet stone is jet-black through and through. Ward feels that when you couple the stone’s exceptional color with its high polish and uniformly smooth surface, you have “a black diamond as fine as any ever cut. If nothing else, it proves black diamonds can be as awe-inspiringly beautiful as any other diamond. The stone was first shown in February, 1973, at D. Drukker & Zn., Amsterdam. It was auctioned off at Christie’s in November, 2001, for $352,000, setting a world record for the highest price fetched by black diamond at auction. The stone is cut in a pear shape, with horizontally split main facets on the crown.
Jewelers and consumers looking for black diamonds probably won’t be able to find stones this lustrous, even-colored, and defect-free. But since most demand for blacks is in melee sizes from .01 to .05 carats, they can expect decent stones with fairly uniform color and minimal clarity problems. Although larger sizes are more, the price difference is not as much as with colorless diamonds. “You might think that the cost difference between 1 carat and melee black diamonds should be the same as for white diamonds,” says Ambrish Sethi of Manak Jewels in San Francisco, a specialist in both antique-cut and fancy color diamonds. “But since most of the cost of a black diamond stems from the labor rather than the value of the material, the difference in cost for melee versus caraters is only double while for whites it is ten times. That makes fine black diamonds in larger sizes an impressive bargain.”
Brand: Hublot
Model: Bigger Bang All Black Carat (Black Ceramic-Diamonds/Skeleton/Rubber)
Code: 308.CI.134.RX.190
Movement: Hand Wound
Gender: Gents
Size: 44mm
Band: Rubber Strap
MSRP: $260,000.00
Description:Case in Black Ceramic. Bezel in white gold PVD set with 48 Black Baguette Diamonds for 2.80ct. Skeleton Black Dial with Black index. Black Rubber Strap, HUB 1400CT Manual-winding Tourbillon Chronograph Movement.
So I started to wonder what I could buy for that type of money if I didn’t want to put it in on a watch. I started with a car…a fast car. Could I buy a Ferrari with $260K? Well it so happens I could pick up a nice 2008 F430 for around $230+taxes.
Well if I could get some fancy Italian sports car maybe I could get something nice to fly me around the country in then? Not so fast, I quickly found out airplanes are a bit more expensive. This 1994 Learjet would set me back a cool $3,000,000. Yes that has six zero’s and it is old and used! Well I don’t know how to fly anyways so I’ll stick to the ground.
Which brought me to the final purchase. How about a nice investment into property! Oprah said buy land because God isn’t creating more earth. So what could I get for my money here in good old Salt Lake City Utah? Well not much I found out. Especially if I care what neighborhood I live in. This Bungalo/Cottage style Single Family Home built in 1949 has 4 bedrooms, 2.00 baths and is approximately 1810 sq. ft. Rooms include: Family Room/Den, 1 Semi Formal Dining, a basement Family Room/Den, Basement Laundry and includes other features like: Dishwasher, Disposal, Hardwood Floors, Free Standing Range Oven, and Vaulted Ceilings all on 0.20 acres of Earth. At $259,000 you definitely need a garage to hide your car off the street.
Watches have always been the weakness of man. This watch is definitely a heavy hitter and not meant for average Joe. This is more art made into machine and can be respected as one very fine time piece when you understand the craftsmanship that has gon into the building of this watch. So with that said, I think I will wait for the lottery and leave this watch for a true art lover.
It’s a new year so that means new training and education hours! Let us here at Brilliant help you fill that brain with gross amounts of jewelry information with one or all of our free jewelry training seminars that will make sure your adjusters know the difference between their karat, carats or carrots!
“Jewelry 101″ is our introduction to jewelry and all the terms and abbreviations that adjusters see while reading those appraisals and scheduled descriptions.
“Jewelry 102″ is our advanced course that starts talking specific value adjusting factors that jewelers don’t want you to know and we look at appraisals and learn what needs to be on an appraisal so that the adjuster can fill in as many blanks as possible.
“5 Ways to Make Your Policy Holder Happy” is a course on the philosophy behind handling jewelry claims, customer service and goes into detail on how to set up the claim for success rather than dealing with the disaster at the end.
“Adjuster Beware” is our last seminar that focuses on how an adjuster can protect the company from overpaying on the claims. We go through actual real life scenarios and look at how it happened and how it could have been avoided.
These are all independant seminars that can be combined into custom seminars to create your perfect training seminar…most are about 1 hour without questions but can be condensed into a 2 hour master course to take them all in at once in an abbreviated form if desired.
When one gem importer buys pink sapphire from Burma, they call it a ruby — and don’t like to be told otherwise.
Pink Sapphire cut by John dyer of Precious Gemstones Co.
When another importer buys pink sapphire from Sri Lankan dealers, they call it padparadscha (an extremely rare pinkish-orange sapphire) — and get upset and offended if you suggest otherwise.
The debate arises from the fact that ancient gem connoisseurs, lacking the science of gemology, named gems according to color, not chemistry. Both sapphire and ruby are made of the mineral corundum but because past gemologists did not know this the same mineral ended up with different names: Ruby when it was red, sapphire when it was blue, hyacinthus when it was yellow, and oriental amethyst when it was purple. When it was later discovered that all these gems were the same mineral, they decided to call all colors, but red, sapphire.
Starting around the turn of the last century, “all colors but red” began to include pink, meaning that pink corundum should be called pink sapphire, not ruby. But this creates a tricky border: when does red become pink?
Many dealers, as well as gemologists, contend that calling any pink corundum “sapphire” is a misnomer. Pink, they argue, is simply light red and, therefore, all such stones should be called ruby. If the trade must use the term pink, this faction urges that such stones be known as pink ruby rather than pink sapphire.
But pink sapphire specialists seem content to leave things as they are. “It’s a gemological issue. Pink is just different than red,” says one New York gem dealer. “So leave the pink corundums associated with sapphire and the red ones associated with ruby.” It is a sign of pink sapphire’s growing acceptance that more and more dealers agree with him.
Think Pink
The sapphire-versus-ruby nomenclature battle revolves around money. Since ruby is usually far more expensive than sapphire, it is hoped that being able to call sapphire ruby will entitle dealers to charge more for it. That’s hoping for a lot. A name change would help reddish-pink Burmese and Vietnamese sapphires that might qualify as borderline rubies. The gem name on the grading report, whether the stone is dubbed a light ruby or a dark pink sapphire, does make a difference in the selling price for these gems. But the rest of the time, calling pink red makes about as much sense as calling it white.
That doesn’t stop people from trying, especially dealers and gemologists armed with a smattering of color science. They’ll tell you pink isn’t even a recognized spectrum color, merely “de-saturated red.” Maybe so, but pink is, and has always been, recognized as a color distinct from red in the jewelry and, for that matter, fashion world. In fact, even dealers who long ago insisted that pink sapphire was the same as ruby implicitly acknowledged there is a difference between pink and red stones by diving ruby into two categories: “feminine” for pink and “masculine” for red.
Today, pink sapphire needs no favors or apologies. On the contrary, the recent popularity of white metal set with pastel gems has opened doors for pink sapphire and given it Cadillac status among the many gem varieties being used to meet the demand for pink.
“Consumers are waking up to the fact that there is sapphire that isn’t blue,” says a New York cutter. “It may sound crazy, but there was a time when even jewelers didn’t know or recognize any other color in a sapphire.”
“Best of the breed” in pink sapphire is often described as “hot pink,” a pure, vibrant color with no violet or purple. Less favored light pinks with highly visible amounts of violet and purple. Generally, explains one dealer, the more violet the stone, the lower its price. Strongly violet stones in 1- to 3-carat sizes present the biggest bargains for consumers.
While not as important as color, clarity also has a big bearing on the value of pink sapphire. Indeed, one drawback of Burma stones is their tendency to be more included than pinks from other sources. Because most pink sapphire is lighter in tone and less saturate in color than ruby, dealers advise buying only eye-clean stones. “Inclusions are much more noticeable in pastel-color stones,” notes a dealer.
While on the subject of quality factors in pink sapphire, we must cite brilliance. Although partly a function of clarity, brilliance is affected by cutting and polishing, too. A pink sapphire should be exceptionally well cut and sparkle with life.
My brain is not adjusting to the cold weather and snow that has come our way. So instead of reading about diamond cutting I found another great video for everyone to watch. The video gives you an idea of the entire process and some of the steps of how the rough stones are cut and cleaved to the final product. There is a lot of work that goes into the making of a diamond and the science behind cutting is incredible.
Thank you Antwerp Diamond Industry for putting together such an informative video.
Brilliant has diamond cutters available so that we can take your chipped stones and recut them to optimize the return value on salvage. Understand that cutting diamonds is a risk and that a diamond can “explode” on the wheel and shatter into small shards of diamonds. Cutting a diamond is always done at the risk of the stone owner. The cutters do their best but can’t always predict what might happen. We usually recommend selling the diamond “as is” unless there is significant gain to the potential loss. Most dealers will buy a chipped stone and recut it themself. That way they are in control of the process and the final outcome. We will always let you know the cost associated with each diamond, time frame and potential outcome. We look forward to helping you with all your colored stone and diamond cutting needs.
Our goal is to provide you with all kinds of informative posts that stir the mind. If you know me, then you know I will do my best to keep them fun.
There will be some informative articles about claim handling and processing.
There will be information for those of you who are closet jewelers.
We value your input and want to hear from you so please don’t hesitate to use the comment section. I also want you to let us know what you want to hear about. Our office works with so many different offices across the US that we see some interesting and different methods. We will do our best to put those ideas together to create some intersting concepts on claim handling and the psychology of claims.
Well, guess what those medals were made of, in part, white jade. Human rights groups say that the jade was from Burma. If the charge is true (and there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to support it), Michael Phelps took home medals made of a gem material that was banned from U.S. importation by Congress that very month—at the repeated urging of the First Lady. True, the ban didn’t take effect until after the Games, but there’s a feast of ironies in American athletes importing what is soon-to-be contraband material.
