There is a particular kind of jewellery box that exists in most families. A grandmother's engagement ring, a great-aunt's brooch, a ring from a marriage nobody talks about much, all sitting in a drawer because nobody wears them and nobody could possibly get rid of them.
Resetting is what happens when somebody decides that is a waste.
It is one of the most rewarding things a jeweller does and one of the most emotionally complicated things a family does, and the two parts need to be handled separately.
Jump to:
- The Conversation Comes First
- What Can Actually Be Reused
- Assessing An Old Stone
- The Australian Possibility Worth Checking
- The Process If It Is Done Properly
- Choosing Who Does It
- What It Costs
- Design Directions That Work Well
- Recording The Story While You Can
- Practical Questions People Ask
- The Part Worth Remembering
The Conversation Comes First
Before anything technical, the family question, because this is where resetting goes wrong far more often than at the bench.
A piece that belonged to someone who has died is not only yours in the way a purchase is. Other people have feelings about it, and they frequently have not said so.
A few things that help.
Ask before, not after. Telling a sibling you have reset your grandmother's ring is a very different conversation from asking them how they would feel about it. The first can cause lasting damage over an object neither of you particularly wanted.
Find out whether anyone remembers it being worn. Often the strongest attachment belongs to whoever watched it on a hand for thirty years, and that is usually a parent rather than a grandchild.
Consider whether it can be divided. A ring with a centre stone and several accent diamonds can sometimes become two or three pieces. Siblings each receiving something is frequently a better outcome than one person receiving everything.
Keep the original setting. This is the single most useful piece of advice here. The old mount can be kept in a box, photographed properly, or in some cases reworked into a pendant. The idea that resetting destroys the original is what stops most people, and it does not have to.
Photograph it thoroughly first. All angles, with something for scale. Whatever happens next, the record exists.
What Can Actually Be Reused
Not everything in an old piece is worth carrying forward, and a good jeweller will be honest about it.
The stones are usually the point. Diamonds survive essentially anything and can be reset indefinitely. Sapphire and ruby are similarly durable. Emerald, opal, pearl and tanzanite are comparatively fragile and can be damaged during removal, which a jeweller should warn you about before starting.
The metal usually is not. Old gold can be refined and reused in principle, but in practice metal that has been worked, soldered and worn for decades carries contamination and can be porous when recast. Most jewellers will recommend new metal and offer you the scrap value of the old, which is the honest answer even though it sounds like the self-interested one.
The design elements sometimes can. A distinctive pierced gallery, an engraved shank, an unusual setting detail. A skilled maker can incorporate an actual fragment of an old piece into a new one, which is a lovely thing and not always possible.
Assessing An Old Stone
Old diamonds are not like modern ones and the differences matter.
Stones cut before roughly 1930 are old mine or old European cuts, shaped by hand and judged by eye. They have small tables, tall crowns, deep pavilions and an open culet that shows as a small dark circle when you look straight down. Optically they behave completely differently, producing slow broad flashes and much more fire than a modern brilliant, because they were cut for candlelight rather than electric light.
People frequently arrive wanting the old stone recut into a modern brilliant. It is possible, and it will lose significant weight, typically a substantial fraction of the carat, and it will lose the character that made it distinctive. Most jewellers will gently discourage it, and most clients who see an old cut properly lit under warm light change their minds.
Check for damage before you plan anything. Chips along the girdle are common on stones that have been worn for eighty years, and they affect both how the stone can be set and what it is worth. Magnification is needed, so this is an assessment appointment rather than a guess.
Get it independently graded if it is significant. Old stones rarely have paperwork, and a current report from GIA or a comparable laboratory establishes what you actually have. This matters enormously for insurance, and frequently reveals a stone worth considerably more than the family assumed.
The Australian Possibility Worth Checking
One specific thing to look for in Australian family jewellery.
If a piece contains pink diamonds and was bought between the mid-1980s and 2020, there is a real chance the stones came from the Argyle mine in Western Australia, which produced more than 90 per cent of the world's pink diamonds before closing permanently in November 2020. Rio Tinto's final tender of remaining inventory concluded in October 2025, which makes 2026 the first year in which every Argyle pink changing hands comes from the secondary market.
Supply is now fixed and can only shrink. Documented appreciation has run at roughly 8 to 12 per cent a year since closure, and stones with verified Argyle provenance carry a premium of 20 to 50 per cent over comparable pinks from elsewhere.
The practical implication is blunt. A great deal of Australian jewellery containing pink diamonds is insured at valuations written years ago and is materially underinsured. If this describes something in your family, get it assessed before you do anything else with it.
The Process If It Is Done Properly
Consultation and assessment. The jeweller examines the piece under magnification, assesses the stones for damage and treatment, and tells you what is and is not feasible. Any competent studio will do this before quoting.
Design. Sketches, then usually a computer model, and ideally a resin or silver prototype you can wear for a few days. The prototype stage matters more in a reset than in a new commission, because you are working around a stone with fixed dimensions rather than choosing one to fit a design.
Removal. The stones are taken out of the old mount. This is the riskiest step, particularly with older and softer stones, and it should be done by whoever is making the new piece rather than by a third party.
Making and setting. The new mount is fabricated or cast, then the stones are set.
Valuation. The finished piece needs a fresh valuation for insurance, because its replacement cost is now completely different from whatever the old piece was insured for.
Choosing Who Does It
This work exposes a jeweller more than new manufacture does, because it involves handling irreplaceable material.
Ask whether the work happens on site. A business that sends jobs away is sending your grandmother's ring away, to a workshop you cannot visit and have not chosen.
Ask who removes the stones. The person doing the setting should be the person doing the removal.
Ask what happens if a stone is damaged during removal. A reputable studio will tell you honestly that it can happen with older or included stones, will identify the risk beforehand, and will have a position on it. A studio that promises nothing can go wrong is not being straight with you.
Ask to see similar work. Resetting is a specialty and not every jeweller does much of it.
Studios that handle resetting an heirloom diamond regularly tend to be small workshops rather than chain retailers, for the simple reason that the work requires a bench, a setter and someone willing to take responsibility for material that cannot be replaced. Stelios Jewellers is one of the Australian workshops doing this routinely, and the useful signal with any of them is whether they talk about the risks before you ask.
What It Costs
Resetting is frequently the best value work a jeweller does, because the most expensive component is already in your possession.
The cost is the new metal, the design work and the bench labour, which varies enormously with how elaborate the new setting is. A simple modern solitaire around an existing stone sits at one end. A hand-pierced period-style mount with millegrain and calibre-set accents sits at the other.
What it will not be is the price of an equivalent new ring, because you are not buying the stone. For a family with a good diamond sitting in a drawer, this is usually the single cheapest route to a ring somebody will actually wear.
Design Directions That Work Well
A few approaches that tend to produce results people love.
Keep the stone, modernise everything else. A low bezel or a simple solitaire around an old cut is a striking combination, because the antique optical character sits in a contemporary frame.
Keep the period, improve the construction. A new mount made in the style of the original, with modern durability and correct sizing.
Split a piece into several. Accent diamonds from a large old ring become a pair of studs or a pendant, while the centre stone becomes a ring. Three grandchildren, three pieces.
Combine stones from two sides of a family. Increasingly common and genuinely lovely, particularly for couples who each have something inherited.
Make it a pendant rather than a ring. Sometimes the honest answer is that nobody is ever going to wear an enormous cocktail ring, and the same stone on a chain gets worn every week.
Recording The Story While You Can
The most valuable part of an heirloom is the part that is easiest to lose, and it is not the stone.
Before the piece goes anywhere, write down what is known about it. Who owned it. Roughly when it was made or bought, and where. Whether there is a photograph of it being worn. Anything anyone remembers about how it was acquired.
This takes an hour and it is the only component that cannot be replaced or remade. Metal gets recast, stones get reset, and the story disappears entirely within two generations unless somebody records it.
Keep that note with the valuation and the photographs, and give a copy to whoever will inherit the piece next. Jewellers see a great deal of clearly significant old jewellery arrive with nobody able to say anything about it beyond a vague family association, and it is always a small loss.
Practical Questions People Ask
Can a stone be reset into a wedding band rather than an engagement ring? Usually yes, though the profile of the stone matters. Tall old cuts sit high and may not suit a band worn beside another ring.
Can I use a stone that is chipped? Often, depending on where the chip sits. A setting can be designed so a claw or bezel covers the damage, which is a common and entirely legitimate solution.
What if the stone turns out not to be a diamond? It happens, particularly with older pieces where white sapphire, zircon and paste were all used. A jeweller will identify this at assessment. It does not make the piece meaningless, and the same design can be built around it.
Can I have the old engraving carried over? Sometimes the original inscription can be reproduced in the new band, either copied by hand or scanned and reproduced. Worth asking early, because it needs planning before final polishing.
How long does it take? Similar to a new commission, so four to eight weeks, plus the assessment appointment beforehand. Do not start this six weeks before a wedding.
The Part Worth Remembering
The reason most heirloom jewellery sits untouched is a fear that changing it is a kind of disrespect.
It is worth turning that around. An object in a drawer does nothing. A stone that belonged to someone, set into something a person wears daily and thinks about when they look at their hand, is doing precisely what jewellery is for.
The material is the same. The metal around it was always going to be replaced eventually anyway, because that is what happens to rings over a century.
This article is general information only. Confirm feasibility, risks and valuation with a qualified jeweller and valuer before proceeding.
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