CAN YOU GLUE DIAMONDS IN YOUR RING?

I always laugh at this question:

“Can you glue diamonds back in?”

I sometimes wonder what customers are thinking when they ask that?

But then, super glue is supposed to hold anything, right? It holds a man by his helmet in the commercial…

So why not diamonds?

It sounds pretty plausible. But is it?

No!

You should not glue your diamonds back in if they fall out.

SHOULD?

The question my friends is not should you… The question is can you?

Sure you can!

You can put glue on the bottom of your diamond and stick it back into the mounting or head.

No problem!

But will it hold?

Probably not!

Diamonds are very slippery suckers. The facets on diamonds are highly polished surfaces and the sides and edges are smooth. There are no rough spots on a diamond for the glue to cling hold of.

Granted, the glue may hold for an hour, day, or even a week, but sooner or later, that glue will come undone, and you’ll lose your stone.

“Pop” Goodbye!

So no, I wouldn’t try it.

Diamonds are not like foil-back gems. Foil-backs are fake diamond synthetics that look like glassy faceted pieces of plastic. These foil-backs are often glued into cheap gold plated costume jewelry. But they pop out of the mountings pretty easily. Just look at any of the old antique jewelry pieces found in flea market. Half of them are probably missing stones that were glued in place.

Glue fake gems

Fake gems and gemstones have often been glued into jewelry, but not real diamonds.

Diamonds need more elaborate means and devices to hold them into the mountings.

Things like:

• Prongs
• Bezels
• Basket Heads
• Beads
• Channels
• Wires…

These will normally fold over the top of the diamond (the crown) and hold it in place. This is how diamonds should really be set. Holding them down with metal. That is, if you want to keep them. Which I’m sure you do.

But diamonds have been glued in…

Now, I have seen some instances and particular cases where diamonds have been glued in.

(Hold onto your helmets!)

It’s extremely rare, and not advised.

Some rings that have bad mountings or problem settings that lose diamonds often. These can actually be helped by glue. Quite often, mountings with invisible set diamonds (see picture) can be aided by adding a drop of glue to the underside of the diamond puzzle pieces (read: What are invisible-set diamonds?)

That drop of glue is just an added degree of security for these diamonds. The diamonds are already held into place by the other diamonds, but invisible set stones have problems and tend to loosen and fall out. Glue helps prevent this.

I’ve only seen it done a couple of times over the course of many years. I can’t imagine the glue would hold for long (the diamonds probably fell out by the time they hit the parking lot). Eventually, the customers will have to spend the dough and have it professionally set.

So what about you?

Should you attempt to glue your diamonds in yourself?

No!

Glueing diamonds is tricky business.

You don’t want the glue to show. You don’t want globs of glue squeezing through the cracks and covering up your stones (plus, you’ll end up gluing your ring to your finger).

So if it must be done…

Leave it up to the jeweler.

(That is if you can find a jeweler willing to take on such an absurd request.)

And they’ll do this only if there are no other possibilities left.

Most jewelers will just laugh at you if you ask anyway.

“Glue diamonds in? You’ve got to be joking!”

Trust me…

Glue won’t last.

It’s silly, messy, stupid, and you’ll probably regret it.

Glue can help for holding in pearls, opals, foil-backs, doublets, cabochon gemstones…

But diamonds? NO!

Have the ring repaired the right way (with prongs), or your diamonds will be lost the quick way.

That I guarantee.

Cheers! :)