Ronnie Mervis: Hello! This is Ronnie Mervis from Mervis Diamond Importers. I would like to talk to you about, setting styles. There are so many different ways, of setting a diamond. Both for the engagement ring and for the wedding rings. But I'm going to talk about, the setting mainly as it applies to the wedding rings now.

The most common form, of holding the diamond in place is by means of prongs, and these days, we are so clever that when we're holding four or five diamonds in a row instead, of having a separate set of prongs holding each diamond. Now, with four prongs around a diamond, we're able to share the prongs between stones. So, that way, we have less metal in the way and more diamonds. We can get the diamonds closer together and create that band of light with less metal hold you're getting in place.

So the most common form, of setting diamonds in a wedding ring today is what is known, as the shared prong setting. Most times, that is what you'll find. As an alternate, we use the channel set, where if you could imagine two rails going down either side of the wedding band and the diamond is set in the channel and they are held firmly in place, by the channel. As an alternative means of the channel setting, instead of the two rails going all the way along, the long edge of the band, we could have little bars acting as channels between each diamond and we set the channels across, the diamond rows and run with diamond. That is still a form of channel setting, but it's known as bar set.

Another way of doing it, is what is known as micro-pave or just pave which is the French word for paved. Lots of little diamonds sit along side each other very tightly each one holding the next one in place, and that is called pave. Then we have the bezel set, which is almost like a ring of gold or a cup of gold around, the diamond holding it in place. It's also known as rub-around or gypsy setting. But the most common name for it is bezel.

So we got prongs, channel, bar, pave, and bezel. And the bezel cannot be all the way around 360 degrees or we can split it and it could go two different bands of a 180 degrees or two different bands of 90 degrees, all elements of bezel setting.

There are other little styles which come and go, but those are the principle ones. So if you've those down, you've got everything. Which one is best? There is no best. Which one is worst? There is no worst. It's whatever you want. They are all equally good, they are all equally strong, they'll all hold your diamond absolutely, in place. Take your pick. It's a matter of style. Thank you.