Entirely self-inflicted grumping

A friend has asked me to make a ring and a pair of earrings from scrap gold. The stuff was bought overseas, so isn't hallmarked; I'm treating it as 9k (and to be fair, it handles like it). It's prone to cracking, so the resulting ingot has been remelted a couple of times before being worked down (and yes, anything with solder on it has been cut away - although some of the solder looked more like plumbers solder...). I've got the ring made, now I'm trying to set the stones. They are ostensibly diamonds, but with the worst cuts I think I've ever seen - the largest is sort-of roundish but with a square corner; most of them I'm not entirely sure what is supposed to be table and what is culet, so carving seats for them is keeping me entertained. I'm also handling them as if they're quartz, just to be safe.

I really, really should have followed my own advice - sell it for scrap and buy nice, new, *known* gold with the proceeds. But... The gold has sentimental value, despite my insistence that all gold is atomically the same. In future I think I need to claim that all gold is linked and that an emotional attachment to one nugget equates to an emotional attachment to all of them - but I'd probably be asked for a detailed explanation of how that works.

Just say no!!!