In helping a customer with a problem, I just found out that what I thought was a unique and very rare occurance or possibly a home fix, apparently is somewhat more common place than I would have ever thought. So be careful when taking your jewelry in for repair, especially faceted gemstones in settings with prongs. It has come to my attention that some unscrupulous persons calling themselves 'jewelers' that when they repair jewelry where the stones are loose in their mounting in rings, pendants or earrings are 'super gluing' the stones into the mounts rather than repairing/replacing the prongs or suggesting new settings to their customers.
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There is no question that good reputable "Jewelers" do not partake in such practices and thus why one should deal with known and well referred "jewelers" when having, especially costly or vintage family heirloom pieces cleaned, repaired or remounted.
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Depending on which gemstone is mounted in a setting that has been 'super-glued' it is probably removable, but stone condition could be altered considerably. There is probably no question that the mounting will be destroyed in the process. Sometimes if the stones are lightly damaged, repolishing will make the stone usable again. To the naked eye, super-gluing is hard to detect and appears as 'dirt or gunk' on the underside of the gemstone next to the prongs. Under 'UV Light' this 'gunk' will glow slightly bluish if the stone is transparent or clear.
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This all goes back to the old saying "Know who you are dealing with when value or heritage is involved." I was totally surprised when advised recently that 'super-gluing' is not a unique repair process and is becoming seen more and more often by reputable jewelry repair persons.
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