Citric soak

[A. G. Maisey]

The "gold-back-into-hole" job?

My personal favourite adhesive for anything like this is Araldite, its a two part epoxy glue. There is a version that sets within 5 minutes, and another one that sets overnight --- they say an hour, but it only sets in an hour in warm to hot weather.

The surfaces need to be roughened up a little and be very clean and free from any grease, acetone is good for this, and the job needs to be firmly clamped while the stuff sets.

Not clamped to the point where the adhesive gets squeezed out, but just a good firm pressure. With the 5 minute stuff you can just hold it tight with your fingers while it sets.

Once set, but not cured, you trim off the excess with a sharp blade. You can also wash off barely set excess with water, and set excess with acetone, but I have seen jobs come adrift if too much of the fluid is used, or too little care is used, its safer to let it just set up firm, then trim. You can only get as neat as you can see, so bright light and magnification is essential.

In Indonesia they use one of the 'super-glues' for anything like this, but these adhesives dry out after a while, usually a few years, and everything comes loose and you can lose little bits. This is particularly true of the stones in mendak and selut --- if its an old mendak or selut and had stones replaced in Jawa you can bet its been done with Alteco (a super-glue); eventually the glue will give way and you'll lose a stone, and rose cut rock crystal is not all that easy to find outside Jawa --- even in Jawa its not that easy any more. If the stone is a rose cut diamond its even more difficult to get one.

Sorry for the long answer.

Short answer:- Araldite.