What Happens If My Gemstone Breaks?

Written By Allie Perry August 30, 2024

You know that horrible feeling…

You look down and the previously beautiful, sparkling gemstone in your favorite ring is broken!

Maybe you whacked your hand on the kitchen counter when you rounded the corner too quickly. Maybe, before realizing your ring had spun around on your finger, you exuberantly did a cartwheel and smashed your stone into the concrete. Maybe you have no clue what happened! That happens to the best of us.

Either way, your beloved stone is now scratched, cracked, or shattered into a jillion pieces like your broken heart.

Or, there *is* the outside chance that you don’t build irrational emotional attachments to physical objects like I do. You do you.

Either way, if you wear gemstone jewelry it’s important to know how to avoid emotional devastation breaking your stones,  and what can be done about fixing them.

What Causes My Gemstones to Break?

1. Impact and Physical Stress
• Accidental Dropping: Dropping your gemstone on a hard surface can cause fractures or chips.
• Sudden Impact: Hitting your stone on anything harder than the stone itself can cause damage.
• Pressure: Excessive pressure, such as from a tight ring or a heavy pendant, can lead to cracks.
• Improper Setting: A poorly set gemstone can be more susceptible to damage. Gemstones that were properly set but are now loose in their settings can also be problematic.
• Exuberant Cartwheels: Ok, not just cartwheels. Any activity that will cause impact to your stone can cause damage- lifting weights, working in the garden, or even clapping your hands can damage stones.

2. Thermal Shock

• Sudden Temperature Changes: Exposing your gemstones to rapid temperature changes can cause them to expand and contract quickly, leading to cracks. For example, placing a gemstone in boiling water and then immediately in ice water can be disastrous.
• Heat Exposure: Extended exposure to high temperatures, such as direct sunlight or being near a heat source, can weaken your stones. In some stones, this can also change their color!

3. Chemical Exposure

• Harsh Chemicals: Certain chemicals found in cleaning agents, perfumes, and hair sprays can erode or damage gemstones.
• Acidic Substances: Exposure to acidic substances can cause etching and weaken your stone’s structure.

4. Natural Inclusions and Flaws

• Internal Inclusions: Natural gemstones often have inclusions or internal flaws. While these are common and often add to the uniqueness of the stone, they can also be weak points that may cause your stone to crack or break under stress.

Can Gemstones Be Repaired?

The possibility of repairing your broken gemstone depends on several factors:

• Type of Gemstone: Some gemstones are more resilient and easier to repair than others.
• Extent of Damage: Small chips or surface scratches are easier to repair than large fractures or complete breaks.
• Value of the Stone: High-value stones are often worth the investment in repair, while it might not be economical to repair less valuable ones.

How Can Gemstones Be Repaired?

1. Polishing
• Surface Scratches and Minor Chips: Polishing can remove surface scratches and minor chips, restoring your stone’s shine. This process involves using fine abrasives to smooth the stone’s surface. Depending on the extent of the damage, sometimes the repair can be invisible, and sometimes it can have a minor effect on the shape of your stone.

2. Re-cutting

• Severe Damage: In cases of severe damage, your broken gemstone can be re-cut to remove the broken parts. This method is often used for larger gemstones where the loss of some material is acceptable, since the repair will result in a smaller stone. If the damage is extreme, and a lot of material has to be cut away to complete the repair, your stone will likely not fit back into its original setting. Re-cutting can also be cost-prohibitive, depending on the value of the stone.

3. Filling and Bonding

• Fracture Filling: Small fractures can sometimes be filled with a clear resin or glass to improve the stone’s appearance and stability. This is a common practice with stones like emeralds, which are prone to inclusions.

• Epoxy Bonding: For stones that have broken into two or more pieces, a jeweler might use a clear, high-strength epoxy to bond the pieces back together. This method is less desirable as it may leave visible lines. Since epoxy bonding can affect the stone’s value, this method is usually done on inexpensive stones.

4. Re-setting

• Supportive Settings: Sometimes, your broken gemstone can be set into a piece of jewelry in a way that hides the damage. For example, a bezel setting can cover chipped edges, or a well-placed prong can hide damage to the girdle of a faceted stone. This doesn’t fix the existing damage, but it helps prevent further damage while disguising the problem area. I’ve successfully reworked jewelry to incorporate the break of the stone into the design itself so you’d never know the stone was broken!

How Can I Prevent My Gemstones From Breaking?

• Proper Care: Regularly inspect your gemstone jewelry for signs of wear and damage. Clean them using mild soapy water and avoid harsh chemicals.

• Safe Storage: Store your gemstone jewelry separately to prevent scratching. Use padded boxes or pouches.

• Professional Maintenance: At least once a year (and more frequently than that if you notice any damage) you should have your fine jewelry professionally checked and cleaned! Your jeweler can help you understand what maintenance needs to be done to protect your jewelry from damage or loss.

Realizing your beautiful stone has been damaged can be heartbreaking, especially in sentimental jewelry items, but it’s not the end of the world! Sometimes your broken stone can be fixed, and even if it can’t there are often steps you can take to continue to enjoy your jewelry while taking steps to avoid additional damage.

If your stone is beyond repair, the silver lining is that you now get to shop for a brand-new stone to take its place! I’ve had customers who weren’t upset at all when their stone broke, because it gave them the opportunity (and justification) to select a new stone in a different color, or change the setting and pick a new shape or size!

Either way, I’ve armed you with the knowledge of how to keep your stone safe, and what to do if things go a little sideways and something gets broken.

And if you don’t have any gemstone jewelry of your own, I can help with that too. Find your next favorite piece of jewelry by clicking here!