Should This Gem be Recut?

The gems I offer on Etsy do run the gamut: some have amazing cutting that brings out the absolute best of the gem, others are look more like someone was still practicing on them.  Wouldn’t I be better off having those recut?

There are pros and cons to this question.  To me, there are three important factors to consider when asking myself if I should recut a gem: price, outcome, and what type of gem I'm recutting.

1.      Price: small melee size gems can be re-cut by machine, and that’s how it’s done nowadays.  That’s relatively cheap but of course the quality of the individual gems is not considered – or which way to cut it.  When I buy old material that has seen better days I occasionally have this done, but only if I think I can’t reuse the material as is. 

Re-cutting a larger gem, by contrast, takes time, expertise, and cash.  A good average time frame for a re-cut is one hour.  Prices vary, in NY I pay wholesale, which is about $50, but I have to tell the cutter exactly what I want, and many cheaper cutters are not that good, so a re-cut doesn’t always improve the stone.  Also, stones can break during cutting, especially the softer ones.  Retail pricing for re-cutting is about $100-150, or more.  When I have gems re-cut I usually send them through a gem dealer friend to his cutting factory overseas (India or Tanzania).  I pay $3 per carat, give or take, but it can take months to get the gems back and I can't specify any shape.  

Also: diamond prices are different.  Diamond and colored stone cutting are not the same in terms of equipment and training, so the two trades are separate, and diamond cutters charge more.

2.      Outcome: re-cutting a gem means weight loss.  If it just has a scratch and I need a facet fixed, it’s maybe a few points (and costs only a few dollars).  If I have a nearly unusable pebble, it might lose half.  The average weight loss for facet rough is 70-80%.  Also, you can’t always cut out an inclusion, but sometimes you can make it less visible.  Recutting, when it’s done right, can drastically improve brilliance, especially when you add facets (i.e. by going from a step cut to a Portuguese cut).  Windows can be closed by changing the angles of the facets.  And color can be improved too, sometimes unexpectedly so.  But each stone is different, and there are no general rules for predicting outcome.  On Etsy there are some cutters that allow you to send in photos of your gem, and they can give you a rough idea of what improvements are possible.

3.      Not all types of stones should be recut.  I don’t recommend it for most sapphires, for instance.  Ceylon sapphires, by law, are cut in Sri Lanka, and while that cutting is not always superb, Sri Lankans do know how to pull the color out of their sapphires.  Ceylon sapphires are often very light, and there’s just a little bit of color in the culet which distributes over the whole stone and makes it look dark.  If you cut away the bulk in the back, i.e. to make it fit better into a setting, you will lose the color – so the much criticized “native cut” that’s supposedly adds nothing but weight to a gem can have definite advantages.  The standard sapphire step cut, which has shallower angles, additionally preserves color. 

Emeralds are also hard to cut, and they can crack – many cutters prefer not to cut emeralds for that reason.  Nowadays much of the emerald material from Colombia is very light, so it’s hard to bring out the color without also adding depth. 

In general, my rule is that old mine material should be left alone unless it’s really worthless as is, or tiny.  This means that I often have to set bulky stones into settings made for diamond cuts.  So the prongs can be too short, the stone might stick out the back of the bezel, and it can move during setting because it doesn’t properly sit in the bezel, which increases the risk of breakage.  Setting colored gems, especially oddly shaped ones, is not for the un-initiated, that’s for sure.  (It’s yet another reason why I don’t accept a customer’s stones for setting.  I never know what I’m gonna get and if what the customer wants is even possible.)

Spinels from Same Lot: the darker one has been recut

Where does my Tanzanite Come From?

It is rare that one gets much insight into the actual method by which gemstones arrive at the gem dealer’s booths in New York, unless, that is, one knows buyers who shop direct – “from the mines,” so to speak.  I know two people who do just this: one deals in the crystals that are displayed at mineral shows, the other sells gem quality pieces.  The latter goes through his uncle, who is a gem dealer in Tanzania, the former, Jochen from Jentsch Minerals, is a geologist that has seen the process down to inside the mine.  Jochen, who has a Masters Degree in geology and mining, has spent decades travelling back and forth between Africa and Germany, his home country.  He consults mining operations by writing survey reports, explaining where they should mine and how.  His childhood dream was to cross the Sahara desert, and he saved up for the trip by collecting and selling minerals while he was still in college.  Three months he spent on the road, starting somewhere in North Africa and ending up in the Congo.  It might have been a shorter trip but his vehicle broke down in the Sahara and he had to wait for someone to pass by and give him a ride.  He waited three weeks.  Jochen speaks German, English, French, Spanish, as well as Swahili, the local language Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, among others.

Jochen from Jentsch Minerals

There is actually only one Tanzanite mine in the world, located near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  It is divided into four parts, named Block A-D (though the individual “mines” also have local names).  The C block is commercial and high-tech, it belongs to a South African Company called Tanzanite One.  It is high security and off limits to any outsider.  The B and D blocks are reserved for small scale local miners that work in groups, staking claims that look small on the surface but that reach hundreds of meters underneath the earth.  There is no regular pay check for miners – they receive only food: rice, dried fish, nothing much else, but they can survive.  They sleep outdoors, on trees (yes) and in simple huts.  All the rough that is found is collected by the stake holder who owns and manages the mine.  In small parcels, it is sold off to dealers, or to others that have the right connections, like Jochen.  The price of each parcel is negotiated between the buyer and the seller – often with the help of a gem broker (who, as opposed to a gem dealer, does not own any gems but helps facilitate a transaction for a fee).  The proceeds are split among the miners.  The hope of any miner is to find something truly valuable.  For most of them, that dream never comes true.

Mineral Display - Jentsch Minerals

But at least some of the money that is made off Tanzanite makes it back to the local workers this way.  And to the government, of course, which collects a tax on all the material that is exported.  To take rough out of Tanzania, it is packed up into tin boxes which receive a special government seal that indicates the tax is paid.  But there is also a second seal, which is in the hands of the more local authorities.  These must be paid what we’d call a bribe because it’s not official, yet it is understood that without the second seal there is no exporting the goods.  The “bribe” – which I bet in America would just be called a municipal tax (but this is not America), is again split between locals, and it’s another way for some of the money international buyers make off of the goods stays in Tanzania.  It is, perhaps, the only way, and as I see it is only fair, considering the markup Tanzanite enjoys once its cut, graded, and finally ends up in the hands of the American consumer.

And that is how the Tanzanite comes to me – with no middle man – and it provides me with some insight into the process.  What we pay the locals is not fair by our standards, but I know that it means survival to those who climb ladders leading hundreds of meters underground, who get killed by heavy rains and floods or by the occasional underground shootings that take place when lines between stakes are crossed.  Who work in rags and with poor equipment, eat dried fish and rice, not being able to predict life beyond the next corner.

Making New Out of Old: Restoring Antique Jewelry

I’ve been infatuated with antique jewelry lately.  It has a delicacy and detail that you don’t find very much in the mass produced styles of today.  Last fall I started collecting and converting antique stick pins, and a month or so ago I began looking at rings.  But working with antique jewelry can be challenging.  Here’s an example of how I refurbished an old Victorian ring.

Finding antique pieces that are nice, interesting, and reasonably priced, is difficult.  Good antique dealers, especially the ones on 47^th street, often know what they have and price accordingly.  Auction houses can be the same.  So I went to eBay instead.  After much sifting, I found a dealer who was selling off a bunch of busted up 1890s rings, and the one in this photo caught my eye.  I like how the cluster creates the layer of color.  This style is different from the current trend towards micro pave setting, which can only be done with diamonds anyway (other gems break and are rarely cut in that size anyway).  It’s also not like halo rings, which simply surround a (cheap) center stone with a lot of tiny diamonds.  Cluster rings are a nice “middle of the road” style that allow you to use more expensive gems in smaller sizes, but large enough not to require hours of setting labor – a reason why so much micro pave setting is done in India.

Anyway, this little ring, although dinged up and with missing stones, had a lot of presence.  It’s only 9 kt gold, which is very common for that era, but still, bidding went to over $100 before I managed to grab it.

Original Victorian Ring

When I got the ring, the first thing I did was loupe it very carefully.  After some thinking, I determined that all the stones had to come out. I know that antique pieces have the most value when they are left untouched, but obviously this wasn't an option. All the rubies were scratched, one was busted, one missing altogether.  Some pearls were missing also and the rest were scraped. Since pearls darken with age, finding the perfect color to match those was out of the question. The pearls didn’t appear to be glued, and they seemed genuine, which was too bad, but the gems I used instead made the ring look even nicer.

The setter almost had a heart attack when I showed him the ring and asked him to remove the gems, but insisted that the ring be left unharmed.  He had to drill out the pearls for the most part, and move the prongs that held the center cluster very carefully so they wouldn’t break off.

After that, I had the ring re-polished very lightly.  Polishing removes the outer layer of gold, and in the worst case scenario can decrease the weight of the ring.  This ring was so light that a serious polishing job was going to make it too thin.

I then began to search for replacement stones.  The settings for the pearls did not have prongs and no opening in the back, so any faceted stone was out of the question.  It would just fall out, or the setter would have had to drill holes into the ring to set them.  The tiny Burma ruby cabs that I found – which are also several decades old, did the trick, and they fit perfectly.  My setter carefully pushed the remaining gold over the cabs to hold them down, and he managed the feat without using any glue.

The center stones match the tone of the outer ones.  They are faceted, about 2.5 or 3mm, old mine cuts, which means fewer facets.  They have less brilliance but more of a glow.  Together with the outer row of rubies, they create a sea of color and make the ring look bigger than the initial ruby-pearl combo.  The result is extremely eye catching. The setting job, again, was a major challenge, because there was not much prong left in the original setting, but re-tipping them would have been visible because the gold is a funny color and 9 Kt is pretty much unavailable on the market.

Refurbished Ring

From the point of view of antique value, the ring probably has less than it did before.  It just has to be seen as its own thing.  Antiques are considered the most valuable when they are intact, and this piece has had a complete makeover.  On the other hand, it’s now a one of a kind, nearly impossible to replicate.

Outsourcing: What you Can – and Shouldn’t Do at Home

I produce an average of 20 items of jewelry per week, and if you assume that one item takes an hour, you can do the math of how long it takes to make everything from scratch.  If you then add the time to make listings, photos, convos, pack orders, shop for gems and supplies, it adds up to this: not gonna happen.  Not even if I quit my full time job.  Which I love.

So I do what most people do who have opportunity: I outsource.  Not to China or India, but to NY, where you can find professional casting and polishing services, as well as excellent setters and jewelers.  (And sometimes I outsource to friends and family who like beading…)

Let’s look at outsourcing in the order in which you might use it.

Casting:  When you have items that you want to reproduce in exactly that form, you can have them cast.  I cast my stacking rings and some of my filigree items, for example.  But you have to pay for a mold first, and there is a casting fee, so casting makes sense only when you want to sell the same thing more than once, and maybe also in different metals.  The downside to casting is some loss of detail – and of course there can be no variations.  My casting service, Taba Casting, is certified green, and they also take mail orders, so casting is an option even if you live in the boonies.

Pre-polish: All castings have to be “cleaned” – the sprue is cut, areas that didn’t come out well are polished, and the piece is tumbled.  I use a polishing service for this because they have a better tumbler, large polishing wheels and they can offer other services, i.e. steaming, ultrasonic, gold and rhodium plating.  My polisher also does minor soldering work: adding jump rings, bails and posts to earrings.  By using him I can do many pieces in one wash, which saves time.  Soldering also requires pickling and further tumbling or another round of pre-polish, so it’s a very good idea to do several pieces together.  Some casting services actually offer pre-polish, or polish, you might check into it.

Setting:  I utilize many different setting techniques in my jewelry line: my pieces are prong set, hammer set, burnished, pave set, bead set, etc.  Prong setting is the easiest – I can do it a little – but most of the rest, especially hammer setting and the fine pave and bead work, require lots of practice and training.  After inspecting my pre-polished items and making any necessary adjustments, I take them to the setter together with my stone.  Fitting a stone to the right setting it itself a work of art, but I am very good at that.  Plus I love my gems and I select well.  Most of my customers come to me because of my gems I think, not so much for the jewelry itself (I don’t want to put myself down but I think what I offer design wise is not that out of the ordinary.)

Final Polish: After setting, most items have to be polished again.  Setters often bend the metal, especially silver (which is soft), and their tools leave marks around and inside the bezel wall.  Many a prong or ear wire is bent as well.  Final polish can also involve sandblasting or satin finishes, all of which are done at this point.  So is rhodium and other plating.  This means that after setting, I inspect again, looking for nicks in the stone that the setter might have missed (that would spell a do-over), spots on the jewelry that need extra TLC, and take my stuff back the polisher for final polish. 

I also outsource my CAD designs to Belenki Girl Designs (Brandy lives nearby), and my fine jewelry work to Goldmaster on 47^th Street.  Vasken from Goldmaster does all my lazer settings and anything that requires fine jewelry work and gold soldering, where no mistakes can happen – he has nearly 40 years of experience, he’s worked all over the world, and he’s a great guy as well.  Both fine jewelry work and CAD work are expensive though.  Prices are fixed per piece but they are calculated by the hour, and a $100 per hour fee is not a-typical.  Fine jewelers have to pay for their shops, tools, and they have to take out extra time to discuss designs for you, all of which has to be rolled into their fee, or they can’t survive.  Just consider what you pay a plumber to come to your house for an hour or two, and you get the idea.

Casting and polishing work is the least expensive to outsource, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.  Setting is tricky, setters can charge anywhere from $2-$200 for a job, depending also on difficulty, stone size, and their own degree of expertise.  Expensive diamonds for expensive stores (like Tiffany's) can cost a couple hundred to set and not every setter is cut out for it, but if you want a quick prong set job with a replaceable stone, it should only be a few dollars.  The main reason I can offer such variety in my shop is because I have a couple of setters that are very reasonable in price, are willing to work in silver (many aren’t because there’s less money to be made) and who are very skilled.  Much of my appreciation for what I can do goes to them.  When you set as many unusual stones as I do, your relationship with your setter becomes essential, because I often ask them to do risky stuff for a low price (i.e. setting a large tanzanite in sterling silver).  The risk is one we have to share, and a broken stone can cause money but also heartache with the customer when it’s a custom order.  My setter needs me as much as I need him – when you do many pieces they count on the income from you and possibly turn down other orders because they know they need to set time aside for you.  Broken stones and botched orders strain the relationship and cost money.  Gold is replaceable and can be melted down, gems are often one of a kind.  Especially mine.

Making a Melt: Selling Gold Straight to a Refinery

When you sell gold on 47^th Street, there are two ways to go.  You can sell at any one of the small gold dealers (or the larger ones), or you can go straight to a refinery that melts it for you.  Prices are often in the same neighborhood, but when you have scrap that’s not identifiable, or that you suspect is thickly plated over silver, or lots of individual pieces that would have to be tested individually, going to a refinery and “making a melt” is best. 

This means that your gold scrap is melted into a little blob, or bullion, and then analyzed electronically for gold content.  You then get paid out the exact value of your melt in cash, and you are given a copy of the elemental analysis for proof.  You should bring a few grams at least (I’m sure there’s a minimum but I think so), otherwise it’s not worth doing.

Gold Bullion

 During the process, you actually stay with your gold the entire time.  First, your scrap is weighed on a karat scale to the last 1/100^th of a pennyweight and the weight displayed on a screen that you can verify, and you get a little receipt with the weight printed on it.  You bring the gold, in the aluminum bowl it was weighed in, together with the receipt, into the room where it is melted and give it to the person doing the melt.  You hold on to your receipt.  The melt takes about 5-7 minutes and you can watch the process.  The gold is heated to about 2000 degrees F, liquefied and melts into a blob shape.  So this is nothing you can do at home!  The guy doing the melt uses huge tongs and wears a special non-flammable glove.  For privacy reasons, I’m not disclosing any names or identifiable pictures of persons, but I was chatting with the guy, and he showed me he got badly burned a day earlier on his finger.

Making the "Melt"

When the melt is done, you bring the bullion to the next room for analysis.  The weight is checked again.  Then a tiny scraping is taken out and analyzed electronically.   The analysis shows the exact % content of every metal, including silver, copper, nickel, and zinc.  This particular melt was 40.57% gold, so it averaged out to 10 karats.  I got paid $131.61 for 4.1 dwt (6.38 grams), so that’s very close to the daily gold price (within a few %).

The analysis is then printed out for you and you take to the cash register to get paid.  You also get a receipt, and now it’s done, there’s no return, no coming back if you changed your mind.  The place I go to is for businesses only, you have to provide your business name, address, and bring ID, which is photocopied.  The melt is invoiced, and I believe it is kept for 24 hrs before it gets shipped out.  All this helps reduce the chances that the gold is stolen, but of course it doesn’t completely eradicate it.

Guest Blog: The Search for a Classic OEC

Guest Entry by Anya

If you read Yvonne’s entry on Vintage diamonds – OMCs (Old Mine Cuts) and OECs (Old European Cuts) – you will have noticed that she called them the only “truly rare” diamonds on the market today. That is because diamonds with this type of cut are no longer mass produced. Old-cut aficionados like me have to get creative to find the perfect stone.  Here are some tips on how to go about it.

There are several places one can look for a vintage diamond. Some vendors specialize in selling old stones, such as Jewels By Erica Grace and Old World Diamonds. Then there are vendors who specialize in cutting modern, perfected versions of OMCs and OECs, such as the people at Good Old Gold; but newly cut vintage-style stones are usually sold at a premium. Old cuts can also be found in estate and vintage jewelry shops, though nice stones are usually few and far in between. Lastly, an educated buyer can try her luck on eBay.

Buying through eBay has its risks and rewards. It’s risky because most sellers are not very good at taking photos of their diamonds, the color and clarity grades are often  overestimated, and the return policies aren’t always straightforward.  But the reward is finding a really good deal on a nice stone, if you know how to look.

In my case, I wanted to find an OEC that would be at least 7mm in diameter, one that would face-up white (most OECs available today tend to be on the warmer side, probably because the whiter stones were re-cut into Modern Round Brilliants), eye-clean (anywhere from VS2-SI2), and with the classic OEC characteristics of a small table, high crown, open culet and neat kozibe effect (when the open culet reflects around the center of the diamond). Lastly, I wanted classic OEC faceting that creates a flower or snowflake-like pattern in the center, and beautiful petal-like facets on the periphery. And all of this on a tight budget!

After weeks of searching, I found a potential candidate. The photos weren’t great, most of them taken at an angle and with a flash. But the description read well, there was a lab appraisal (you can’t really trust the specs from an appraisal, but it’s a good start) that indicated that the stone met my requirements. Most importantly, the seller was willing to give me a several-day inspection and return period.

When I received the stone, I checked for several characteristics. The most important thing is how well a diamond is cut. I  looked for any outright negative optic qualities, like the much-dreaded fisheye effect (usually seen in shallow stones, this is when a reflection of the girdle is visible inside the stone, creating a kind of hazy circle, or “fish eye,” around the table) or nailhead (when the central facets are dark and have no light play). Then I checked for general “wonkiness” or poor symmetry. Lastly, I used my 30x loupe to go over the diamond (which was set into a ring) as closely as possible to check for chips or cracks.

Once those were ruled out and I was comfortable with the quality of the diamond’s cut, I concentrated on the color. The appraisal stated the stone was K-L. Having seen OECs in whiter and lower colors, I judged the appraisal to be close to accurate.  Just to be safe, I thought maybe the stone could be a bit lower – perhaps L-M as opposed to K-L. OECs are known for facing up white in settings.

Once I decided that I would keep the ring, I immediately shipped it to Yvonne so she could run it by the guys in the NYC diamond district. The stone needed to be unset, polished (to clean up the tiny nicks on girdle after years of wear and tear), and set into a new setting. A great big thanks to Yvonne for helping me out with this! Not every eBayer has this kind access to the professionals in the diamond district.

eBay Photo of Anya's Ring

When the stone was loose, it was weighed, and turned out to be quite a bit lighter than the appraisal estimated. The estimated weight was 1.85ct, but the real weight only 1.78ct. Polishing the stone took a few points off, so the final weight clocked in at 1.75ct, and around 7.5mm in diameter. A pretty good size for me!

An additional step I could have taken at this point was to send the diamond to get graded by one of the major labs. A GIA certificate would have been great, but it takes at least three weeks and I was impatient to have the ring on my finger, so the stone remains un-certified for now. If I ever should want to sell this stone, a cert will definitely be a must.  A GIA cert would be best, since that’s the most trusted laboratory for diamonds.

Another thank you to Yvonne for setting the stone into my favorite 6-prong yellow gold setting, and shipping it back to me. I now have it on my finger, and can’t stop admiring it! 

The Finished Product

How to Sort Through Diamond Prices

Diamond pricing is tricky business.  You may have noticed this when you browse different listings and you see two stones that look just about the same, yet their pricing is totally different.  So how can you know what is a good price?

Diamond prices already start out artificially inflated.  Diamond is one of the most abundant gemstone in the world.  But diamond suppliers keep prices high by controlling the market:  most mines are owned or co-owned by the same supplier (de Beers), new mines are bought out and shut down or production slowed, and diamonds are stowed away when prices are too low so that supply is choked off.  Even independently owned mines in Australia and Canada adopt similar strategies because it is not in their interest to lower the retail market value. 

Because diamonds are a controlled market, it is easier for industry to then establish “list” prices, available to wholesalers via trading networks like Rapaport and other diamond exchanges.  These keep track of diamond sales and adjust prices accordingly – despite lists, prices do fluctuate, in other words.  This is how the price lists look:

http://www.ajediam.com/diamond_price_scope.html

In industry, gems are then traded at various “discounts” off “list price”.  Common discounts are just a few per cent, however.  Retail pricing is calculated by doubling list prices (or more).

There is also a market in used diamonds.  When old gold is sold (i.e. through pawn shops, or companies that collect old gold and pay out cash to consumers), any gem contained in the jewelry is broken out.  Refineries buy gold, not gems.  Some shops collect them and then resell unsorted parcels of colored stones at pennies.  Or the occasionally valuable gem at more.  Diamonds are sold to dealers and setters for cash, which is anywhere between 20 and 50% off list price. 

Your objective, when you buy a diamond, is to get as close to the Rapaport list price as possible.  For this, you need very exact information: the per ct size down to the last point, color and clarity.  This is because a half ct diamond for instance can cost a couple of thousand dollars if it’s flawless and colorless, and it can cost $50 if it is totally dead.  Many list prices stop at M color, I3 clarity, but there much is worse stuff out there.  When you decide what you want, see what color and clarity grade you can live with before you shop around.  I would be very happy with a G/H color VS2 when buying a fine diamond, but if I wanted a brown or yellow diamond, I might take an SI2 or SI3 – visible inclusions that is.  The most important thing in a diamond, for me, is brilliance.  Even an SI3 can be very brilliant and I then won’t care that it has bubbles in it.  

The next thing you need to find is a price list.  This is the trickiest part.  The above link is very useful, it’s not up to date but that’s ok (and I think it’s not entirely wholesale either).  You can also go to sites like Price Scope to see what their list prices are – or try to look around and get an average, then figure that wholesale is half of that.  Current Rapaport prices are a well kept secret, I don’t have access either but all the diamond dealers I know do, and so do the labs, so I can request a list price at any time.  You can average yours out over several websites.

When you are making a larger diamond purchase, you should definitely get a certificate as well.  Most 1+ carat diamonds are traded by the cert, meaning only the cert is shown around, not the actual stone.  GIA is the most commonly accepted, and the strictest in terms of rating.   EGL is also used (especially for vintage diamonds because they use a different scale for those, whereas GIA uses the same for all white diamonds, regardless if the cut is vintage).  With a non-GIA certificate, smart buyers assume a less stringent rating and can thus expect to get a lower price.  So, if I want a fine diamond and only an EGL is available which rates the stone SI1, I might assume GIA rates it SI2 and try to buy the diamond at the SI2 price.

Two last observations: many diamonds are irradiated for extra color, and white diamonds lazer enhanced to get rid of inclusions.  These treatments need to be disclosed by law.  Still, you should ask.  Someone may have “forgotten” to tell you, but when you ask, they can’t forget to respond.

Second: vintage stones and colored diamonds are often traded at a premium.  Vintage gems cost up to 30% above list, and colored diamonds are all over the place depending on what color and size.  Browns and champagne colored stones cost less than white, but natural yellow, pink, and on the extremely rare end, blue, green and red, can be very expensive.