Although gem settings are purposed to secure stones to a certain part of a jewelry, they often fail to keep their clasp firm in an event of damage or after a certain age. The settings then begin to loosen causing the gems to slip away one by one. If your engagement ring setting starts to show signs of weakness, it is not an isolated instance. Nor is there any reason to believe that the seller sold you a shoddy piece. It just means that your ring has grown old or has come to pick up some damage and is therefore in need of repair.
What should one do about the loose diamonds that come off their settings?
The most logical thing to do in the given situation is to take the ring off and keep it away in a safe place before further loss of diamonds. However, tucking it away to some safety box and forgetting it is not exactly the call of the hour. You still need to give it a brush every now and then. Don’t worry about further weakening the settings through cleaning, as long as you are not using ammonia or any highly acidic cleaning agent. However, a word of caution here is that you may lose more diamonds while cleaning if the settings have become too weak. In that case, spread out a cotton handkerchief and use it as the base to clean the ring. Also use gentle motions to clean the ring to make sure you do not whisk out any more stones in the process.
Time for Repair
When the settings start to weaken, the only thing to do is to get the ring repaired at your local jeweler. In the workshop, they tighten the settings so that the incident of losing stones does not recur. Depending upon the extent of the damage, the jewelers often replace the prongs to bolster the strength of the settings. Fixing such a setting costs only a little. It also takes a very short time, depending on the style of settings of your ornament. For those rings that are still in good condition, adopting a few measures can potentially deter the weakening of the settings. Always use a soft cotton cloth to clean the ring. Also be watchful of jagged sides like corners of tables and edges of walls to avoid bumps and knocks.
