YOUR PRONGS ARE FLAT!

An acquaintance of mine comes over yesterday.

We’re talking, and as normal, I’m looking at her jewelry (I notice everyone’s jewelry and usually comment on them).

Well I ask her when’s the last time she’s had them checked?

She says “It’s been a while.“

So I grab my loupe (a BelOMO 10x triplet loupe/) and tell her to take them off. I look at them magnified and see that her one diamond ring, the big one, has a marquise diamond in the center, and all four middle prongs are so low and flat, that they look like paper.

Really, they’re so thin that I’m shocked that the stone is still even in the mounting.

The tips are so non-existent, that they’re perfectly smooth to the diamond surface.

That’s low.

The only thing truly holding in her rock were the two prongs on the tips of the stone. Other than that, it’s a gonner.

I tell her what I see.

She says she had a jeweler re-tip them about 20 years ago.

20 Years?

(Should probably be done every 7 years or so – depending on how often you wear your ring and how rough you are on your jewelry)

It’s like driving on bald tires, across country, in a snowstorm, uphill.

Definitely not safe.

I advised her to not wear her ring anymore until she’s had it repaired.

And you know what’s funny, when I tell customers this about their rings, they’ll thank me for letting them know, and then they’ll proceed to put the ring back on and wear it out (now that’s a very risky decision indeed).

But this just goes to show you that people really do put their rings on and forget about them.

They’ll literally wear them an entire lifetime, and never have them looked at, cleaned, inspected, nothing.

And then people wonder why their stones come loose, fall out, and they lose their precious little diamond.

Don’t be one of those people.

Buy yourself a loupe (they’re cheap enough), and look at your prongs from time to time (like now).

And if they feel flat to the touch, are jagged or raised, catch on clothing, or if the prongs are broken, bent, uneven, crooked, or cracked…

GET THEM FIXED!

Your prongs protect your diamond. They do wear down. They do need maintenance.

So get a closer inspection today.

Cheers! :)