Fine Jewelry. Some Owners…Not so Fine

Yeah, I know things are tough all over. My topic today is an on- going experience that is recent and never ancient history to me. Everyone likes to save a buck now and then but there are some things one should not cut corners on…like your eyeglasses, car brakes, mountain climbing equipment or a parachute for example.

Repairing nice expensive jewelry is another thing you should not skimp on either. I thought I heard them all during my fifty plus illustrious years in the business. “Can’t you just use brass instead of gold?” or “Just replace the missing diamond with glass instead of a real diamond!” It goes on and on it never ceases to amaze me what folks will do to save a buck!

I have even had people come in with their recently deceased spouse’s gold dental fillings, usually containing remnants of the poor soul’s last meal, expecting me to use the deceased choppers to make their rings larger instead of supplying my gold (Believe me those scenarios occur a lot here on Heaven’s Waiting Room Island.) The whole idea is a bit too morbid for me - my answer is always no. Besides dental gold is a strange color and has too many weird alloys and can’t be used to fix jewelry. Besides being asked to use brass instead of gold, the requests also included using lead instead of platinum, sterling silver in place of white gold and constant requests to replace missing diamonds with cheap cubic zirconia or white sapphire. 

I refuse to accommodate most of these ridiculous requests when in reality, replacing fake stones instead of real diamonds is a possibility only with me, the customer must sign a voucher it was done at their request. The signed voucher is to cover my aging derriere protecting me if in the future I am blamed when the piece of “altered” jewelry gets appraised by other family member years later along with the gold dentures and it inevitably becomes a dragged-out family estate drama that I wind up in some court case in a witness stand or worse…the defendant.

What’s worse than trying to cut corners? That’s having a nonprofessional (aka…a hacker) repair your fine jewelry. The damage they do can be, in some cases, impossible to remedy. With tears in my eyes, I have seen beautiful old early 1900s platinum and diamond Tiffany or Cartier cocktail rings butchered by being repaired with gobs of lead or silver solder. Once platinum is adulterated with other metals other than platinum it’s D.O.A.

My advice to the ladies out there is if your husband claims he can “fix” your jewelry himself and trots off to the garage workshop, I suggest you follow and threaten him with a rolling pin or golf club and rescue your jewelry before he massacres it.

The adulterated thing also goes with using aftermarket parts on one’s Rolex or other high-grade watches. I see this all the time - many watchmakers will refuse to work on them once they see unauthorized or bootleg parts internal or external.

I now refuse to perform “Frankenstein surgery” on pieces that many times return after someone tried the “cheaper way” somewhere else. 

I can say in the past couple of years the “jewelry cheapskates” aren’t so dreadfully predominant as they were years ago, especially when some of my readers realize the permanent damage that will occur to a cherished piece if it’s restored the cheap way. Can’t exactly be a cherished piece if they choose that decision, can it?

Twenty-three months, twenty-one days and umpteen hours until my final retirement.

Richard Alan is a designer/goldsmith and owner of the Harbor Goldsmith, Marco’s Island jeweler since 1994. He welcomes your questions and comments about All That Glitters.