Setting charges

[Goldsmith]

I'm confused, the setter provides the stone and sets it for £15? that seems insanely cheap! Actually it seems cheap to me even if it were just the setting cost. How much prep do you have to do up front?

1.5pt diamonds are tiny and you would get approximately 66 in a carat. I buy good quality diamonds and my dealer would charge me about £5 per stone for this size of diamond when buying a packet.So that gives a charge of £10 for setting a stone. Any professional setter would be very happy with this rate per stone for this type of setting.

James

[Lucie]

That's my regular price - a 1.5 pt diamond is pretty titchy? This actually seems to be a bit more than most folk pay - my local guy will set a birthstone (half pearl / yellow topaz, etc) for roughly £8, but most people ask for diamonds.

[ps_bond]

With the last carat pack I bought I paid more than that - but a) there are a number of larger stones in the packet and b) they're VVS.

[Lucie]

Medusa - James has it exactly; £5 for the diamond & £10 for the setting.

[Goldsmith]

With the last carat pack I bought I paid more than that - but a) there are a number of larger stones in the packet and b) they're VVS.

For small stones I buy VS, I only buy VVS when buying 10 pointers or larger. As to setting costs, it really depends on the size of job, the last multi stone grain setting job I paid to be done for me cost me approx. £3 per stone, based on 140 stones set.
This was the job;

James

[ps_bond]

I only had the option of VVS or SI - and I don't much like SI; don't think there's anything quite at 10pt there (close though). £3 per stone is more-or-less what I'd expect for a decent amount of grain setting, possibly a bit more for micropave depending. Nice to have a job like that to work through.

[medusa]

is VVS, SI etc a way of grading the diamonds?

[ps_bond]

Part of it - the clarity of the 4Cs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_clarity

[Gemsetterchris]

Pricing can be tricky, mine vary quite abit depending on the customer...volume they send you, quality expected, time..ect.
Marking out spacing & drilling takes time before the setting, so if you need to do that add some.
Just keep it reasonable, don`t underprice your time nor take hours fussing over stuff at x 20 magnification.

[ps_bond]

...nor take hours fussing over stuff at x 20 magnification.

Who, me?