Diamonds are forever.

11 March 2014

Well I don’t really know where to begin.  I have been asked many times about doing a jewellery blog but have never really had the time to do it!.  This is my first blog so I have decided to keep it simple and maybe something in it might be of some use to somebody reading it.

I have been valuing jewellery for over twenty years from my shop in Royal Hibernian Way.  Over that time I think I have seen everything and repaired everything too!.  I think that one thing that has stood out in my mind over all that time is people’s concept of diamonds and their ideas around diamonds.  Twenty seven years ago when I started there was no internet so the public had to rely on what they were told by their trusted jeweller about the diamond they were about to buy.  I hate to say but most jewellers were not gemmologists and knew little about diamonds and so most people did not really seem to know what they were buying – except for the fact that they were buying a diamond!.  Most people would not have a clue about what clarity, colour or even weight that they had purchased.  Today however, everything is different – there is so much information that the public seem to have become confused and mixed up as they read bits from here and there and try to piece it altogether.  Too much information can become confusing as well as educational.  I do not want to dispel everyone’s idea about diamonds but, I would like people to know some facts about diamonds that they may not have been told about or may not have read on the net unless they were searching for it but yes diamonds do crack, chip, break and get damaged!.  It never ceases to amaze me how shocked people look when I tell them this fact maybe after they have taken a chuck out of the side of their diamond because they wore their ring while washing the pots!. Real Diamonds (we’re not talking about lower quality lab created diamonds here) are a product of nature and for that reason they are not perfect.  Even though they’re made of compressed carbon this does not make them “break proof”.  The construction of bonding and forces of nature make them vulnerable to breaking if they are hit hard or at the right angle.  So therefore take care of your diamonds treat them with the love and care that they deserve as they are expensive and rare items of nature.   Remember to have your jewellery valued and diamond rings valued every year.  This way at least if you damage your diamonds they should be covered under your insurance policy.

 Jewellery is forever

Yes I agree that if you take care of your precious jewellery it will last forever but again from my experience as a working jeweller over the past thirty years I have found that generally people do not take care of their jewellery as much as they could.  Many people see jewellery as an heirloom and something to be passed on down through the generations.  Jewellery is probably the only one item that can be passed on to the next generation as it can be sized or remodelled to suit every generation but, yet still retain its authenticity and sentimentality.  Over the years we have changed many old items of jewellery into another new item of jewellery from old earrings into cuff links and old chains into bangles it can be all changed in order to keep it in the family!  Well getting back to taking care  of one’s jewellery every working part of a piece of jewellery needs to be maintained or changed at some point in its life.  It is rare for an item of jewellery not to need some kind of work carried out on it unless it is not worn very often.  There are a few things which are very obvious but yet many people do not do anything about them until it is too late – that being claws and settings.  The claws and settings are a very important part of a piece of jewellery especially if the piece is worn as a ring every day.  The claws and settings will be worn down over time.  From our experience gold claws now days usually need some work after seven years and platinum after ten years.  Unfortunately, the metal mix today is not as hard as the metal mix from years ago and so it wares down much more quickly.  So it is very important you have claws and settings on rings checked at least once a year and do not leave it until something falls out.  I recommend that you have your settings checked by a professional setter and not just somebody who works in a jewellery shop.  A setter is able to see something that a jeweller cannot after all that is his/her job.