Jewellery terms you should know

Alloy

An alloy is a combination of two or more metals used to lower the purity percentage of precious metals.  Common alloys used in jewellery are silver, copper, brass, ruthenium and palladium.

Baguette cut

A baguette cut is a stone that has been cut into a long, rectangular shape.  Baguette means “rod” or “stick” in French.

Bezel setting

Bezel stones are set inside a tube of metal, which holds them secure without inserting metal between them.  Since the metal edges fold over the stones to hold them in place, it can make stones look slightly smaller.

Brilliant cut

This round cut is the most common and popular style of cut for diamonds and many other gemstones.  This is because it has been designed with 58 carefully proportioned facets to maximise the amount of light reflected and refracted by the gemstone.

Cabochon

A smooth and dome shaped stone in oval, round, marquise, cushion or triangle cut.  It has either no facets on top, or sometimes a chequerboard cut dome.

Carat

The word carat or the ct.  abbreviation is used to indicate the weight of a gemstone as a standard measure of weight used for diamonds and gemstones.  One carat weighs 0.2 gram.  One hundredth of a carat is called a point.   A five carat diamond weighs one gram.

Channel set

Channel set jewels are seated in a metal channel, secured by a rim of metal running along the edges of the channel.

Claw setting

A claw setting is one in which three or more metal prongs holds a stone securely in a setting.  These claws grips the stone just above the girdle (the outer rim of the stone), with no metal directly under the stone.  This allows light in under the stone, so this type of setting is usually used for transparent, faceted stones.   A claw setting will make a diamond  more visible from a three dimentional side view, but such a setting will not make the diamond shine more, as it is not transparrent and only reflects light from the top.

How to see if a diamond is real

Cluster ring

Cluster rings are set with a group of stones in a pattern, forming the focal point of the ring.  They usually have one large stone in the center surrounded with several smaller stones.

Cubic zirconia

Cubic zirconia (CZ for short) is the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide.  The synthesized material is hard, usually colourless and optically flawless, but may be produced in a variety of different colours.  Under shortwave UV light cubic zirconia typically luminance in a yellow, greenish yellow or “beige”.

CZ can be treated to resemble other precious and semi-precious stones, and used in high quality costume jewellery.

Cubic zirconia has an 8.5 to <9.0 on the Mohs hardness scale.  Cubic zirconia has a refractive index of 2.176, compared to a diamond’s 2.417.

Cushion cut

Cushion cut stones are cut in the shape of a square cushion and rounded at the edges.

Dress ring

A ring which is worn purely as a fashion accessory.  It can be either plain or set with gemstones.

Emerald cut

This cut features a rectangular or square stone with step cuts and cut corners.  It is used on gemstones and diamonds.

Engagement ring

A gemstone set ring used to symbolise a strong commitment of love.  Diamonds are the most popular choice of gemstone because of their value and traditional symbolism of lasting love, with the solitaire design being the favourite choice.  An engagement ring is traditionally worn on the ring finger of the left hand, because it was believed that the vein from this finger ran directly to the heart.

Engrave

Engraving is a method of 3D surface decoration in which a design, date or name is etched into the inner or outer surface of a ring or jewellery piece with a sharp tool.

Eternity ring

An eternity ring is a narrow band with a straight row of diamonds or gemstones.

Faceting

The cutting and polishing of the surface of a gemstone into a distinctive, and specifically proportioned, pattern of flat panels or ‘facets’.  This is done with the intention of increasing the stone’s reflection of light and its brilliance.

Ring size

To size a ring for a finger, a finger-ring gauge is used.  These rings are marked with their size in numerical or alphabetical order, and the jeweller determines which one fits best.

The Ultimate Guide to Ring Sizes

Gemstone

A natural gemstone is a mineral or an organic object which can be cut, polished and shaped or otherwise treated for use in jewellery.

Gold

A precious metal, yellow in its pure natural state.   It is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable of the known metals.  Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewellery, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, colour and other properties.  The gold used in jewellery is defined by the proportion of pure gold to other metals and is expressed in terms of its karat.

Karat – Percent.  24ct = 100%, 18ct = 75%.  14ct = 58.3%.  9ct = 37.5% Gold.

Gold can be alloyed into different colours, with copper, palladium and silver.

Links

The series of loops that make up a chain or bracelet.  They can be of different designs, both plain and fancy.

Marquise cut

An oblong cut with tapered, pointed ends.

Mohs scale

A scale measuring a mineral’s hardness in relation to other minerals, based upon the ability to resist scratching.  It is used to classify the hardness of gemstones.  It was developed by the German Friedrich Mohs, in 1822, and he used 10 minerals, ranking them 1 to 10 based upon their ability to scratch each other.  Whereby, each mineral will scratch the one below it in the scale, but can only be scratched by those above it.

The scale is as follows:1 – talc ; 2 – gypsum ; 3 – pearls ; 4 – fluorite ; 5 – apatite ; 6 – turquoise and opal ; 7 – amethyst ; 8 – topaz, garnet and aquamarine ; 9 – sapphire and ruby ; 10 – diamond.   This is an exponential scale of hardness where 10 is much harder than 9.

Moissanite

“Imitation” diamond with better refractive index than cubic zirconium.  Much cheaper than real diamonds and not easy to tell from the real thing.

Necklace

An ornamental piece of jewellery worn around the neck.  They range in length from 37cm up to 100cm.

Oval cut

An oblong stone that is cut similar to a brilliant cut stone, but in the shape of an oval.

Pavé

Pavé settings are stones set very close together with small beads of metal.  The stones hide the underlying surface.

Pear cut

A pear cut diamond or gemstone is teardrop shaped.

Pendant

A hanging ornament on a neck chain.

Plating

Plating or electroplating is a process in which one metal is coated with another metal using an electrical current.  In jewellery, metals are sometimes electroplated with rose gold, yellow gold or rhodium (white gold or Platinum look).  The thickness of the metal coat varies; gold-cased metals have a coating thicker that 0.00018 mm.

Platinum

Of the three precious metals, platinum is the rarest.  It is silvery-grey to white in colour and, unlike silver it does not tarnish when exposed to the atmosphere.  It is even more dense than gold and about twice as dense as silver.  To make it easier to use, the platinum used in jewellery is an alloy mostly containing 95% pure platinum and 5% alloys.

Princess cut

A stone that is cut into a multi-faceted square or oblong shape.  This cut is designed to refract the maximum amount of light.

Rose gold

An alloy of yellow gold that has been coloured using copper and silver.

Setting

The method of securing a gemstone into a jewellery piece.  There are a variety of styles used to mount gemstones in  jewellery pieces, some common ones are: claw setting; bezel setting; channel setting; pave setting; bar setting; chevron setting; the box setting and illusion setting.

Shank

The shank is the portion of a ring encircling the finger.

Shoulders

The upper part of a ring that joins the shank and the setting.

Silver

A precious metal with a white colour and a metallic lustre.  Silver is quite soft in its pure state, when used in jewellery It is alloyed with other metals like copper to form ‘Sterling Silver’ (usually 92.5% silver with 7.5% copper).

Solitaire ring

A solitaire ring is set with a single stone, usually a diamond.

Tennis bracelet

A flexible chain-link bracelet set up with evenly matched diamonds or gemstones all around the wrist.

Trillion cut

The trillion cut is a triangular shaped cut based upon a brilliant style cut.  The corners of the triangle are cut to a sharp point and there are a variety of facets, giving this cut a sparkling brilliance.

Trilogy ring

A ring set with three diamonds or gemstones.  The stones represent the trilogy of the past, the present and the future.

Vintage jewellery

A style of jewellery that collectively refers to styles from past decades: retro, antique, art deco and art nouveau.

Wedding ring

A band of precious metal used to symbolize the union of two people in marriage.  The band can be plain, two or three-toned, patterned, diamond set, have bevelled edges and grooves and even shaped to fit the engagement ring.

White gold

An alloy of yellow gold that has been ‘bleached’ using silver and palladium to whiten the yellow gold.

Yellow gold

Yellow is the natural colour of pure gold.

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