How to judge a piece of jewellery before you buy it

Trinket File publishes practical guides to jewellery and accessories: how materials and construction behave over time, what the marks on a piece actually mean, what to check in a second-hand sale, and how to resize, repair and look after what you already own.

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A banner of three photographs: gold rings set with rubies, emeralds and sapphires resting on an open book, a pearl in an oyster shell held in a pair of hands, and a gold chain laid out on white
A gas torch playing over brass rings laid out on a soldering block, with a ring mandrel and hand tools beside them

Materials and construction

Decoration is easy to see from across a shop counter. Construction is what decides whether a piece still looks right in five years, and most of it is visible if you know where to look.

  • Where solder, prongs and clasps fail first
  • Plated, gold filled and solid metal: how each one wears
  • What a hallmark does and does not prove
Start with construction
Mineral specimens grouped on a wooden table, among them a black tourmaline crystal, a quartz point and a banded carnelian pebble

Metals and stones, without the mystique

Two pieces that look identical can need completely different care. We explain which metals suit daily wear, why hardness decides how careful you have to be, and what only a jeweller, gemmologist or laboratory can confirm.

  • Gold, silver, steel, titanium and platinum compared
  • Stone hardness and what it means for cleaning
  • Treatments, fillers and the questions worth asking
Read the mark guide
A gold bracelet chain photographed in close up with its box clasp open

Buying, repairing and care

The practical half of owning jewellery: vetting a second-hand piece, asking the right questions about a resize or a repair, and keeping chains, clasps and straps sound for years.

  • A checklist for second-hand pieces and sellers
  • What a workshop can and cannot resize
  • Cleaning and storage that does no harm
Read the care guides

Latest guides

The newest articles on the site, each one a single question answered from the construction of a piece outwards.

A titanium chronograph on its metal bracelet

Watch Straps and Everyday Accessories: Materials, Fit and Care

Most advice about watches concerns the movement, which you cannot see and will probably never touch. The strap is the part you feel all day, the part that fails first, and the one you can judge and ch

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A metal strip with one end polished bright next to the dull, tarnished section

Tarnish, Plating Wear and What Can Be Restored

A dulled piece of jewellery is usually called tarnished and treated with a polishing cloth. Sometimes that is right. Sometimes the dullness is not a film on the metal but metal that is no longer there

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Plain bands worn on two hands resting on white linen

Everyday Jewellery: What Survives Daily Wear

The jewellery that survives daily wear is not the most expensive jewellery. It is the jewellery with enough metal in the right places. Two pieces can carry the same hallmark and the same price, and on

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A velvet jewellery box holding a tray of silver rings

Caring for Jewellery at Home: Cleaning, Storage and Wear

Very little jewellery is ruined by cleaning. A great deal is ruined by wearing it in the wrong places, storing it in a heap, and cleaning it with something more aggressive than it needed. The right ap

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A silversmith at a workshop bench with hammers and stakes behind him

Resizing and Repairing Jewellery: What a Workshop Can Do

Most jewellery can be repaired and much of it can be resized. The useful question is not whether something is possible in principle but whether it is sensible for this piece, which depends almost enti

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Gold rings set with coloured stones along the band

Settings Explained: Prongs, Bezels, Channels and Pave

A setting is usually chosen for how much of the stone it leaves visible. That is the wrong criterion, or at least an incomplete one. The setting is the structure that holds a brittle stone inside a me

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A hand lifting a gold bracelet from a tray of price-tagged jewellery

Buying Second-Hand Jewellery: What to Inspect and What to Ask

Second-hand is where a modest budget meets well-made jewellery, and it is also where a buyer has the least protection. Estate sales, pawn shops, auction houses, vintage dealers and online marketplaces

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An open pearl oyster shell holding a single pearl

Pearls and Organic Gemstones: Judging and Care

Pearls and the other organic materials used in jewellery are graded with language borrowed from diamonds, which is where the confusion starts. A mineral stone is judged on colour, clarity and cut, and

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A ten-times jeweller's loupe on a plain surface

Judging a Stone: What You Can Check and What You Cannot

The gemstone trade runs on the gap between how a stone looks and what it actually is. Colourless stones can be diamond, moissanite, cubic zirconia or glass, and the difference is invisible to the nake

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All the guides

Start with the guides

We do not publish to a schedule, only when there is something useful to say. If you are buying, start with construction and the marks on a piece. If you already own the piece, start with care.

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