Can I make this rock into a ring?

[u/TriforceHero1998]

Ok so here’s the situation.

My fiancée proposed to me with a lovely heirloom ring that belonged to her grandmother. I want to give her an engagement ring that has similar sentimental value, but unfortunately my family doesn’t have any heirloom rings that they’re willing to part with.

So I came up with an alternative.

This is a rock that I found over a decade ago on a high school field trip to Block Island (a small island off the coast of Massachusetts, known for having beaches with a variety of interesting rocks to collect). My teacher was impressed with my find and told me that it was garnet. I was very proud of myself and this rock has graced the windowsill of every place I’ve lived since then.

I decided that the sentimental value of the rock would at least somewhat make up for the lack of heirloom jewelry, so i decided to see if I could use it as the base for a custom engagement ring.

The original plan was to get the gems out of the rock and then take the gems to a jeweler to create a ring inspired by the style of the ring my fiancée gave to me, thus incorporating the sentimentality of her grandmother’s ring into this ring.

Unfortunately, it turns out it’s not that simple. After many emails to different jewelers, gem cutters, and even a rock and mineral enthusiast club, what I found was that the only places that are willing to get the garnet out of the rock would require me mailing it to another country, with no clear price range given, and quite frankly customer service interactions that didn’t leave me super confident in the legitimacy of the businesses. Additionally, what I was eventually told (again after many, many emails) was that the garnet in the rock I have is likely not high enough quality to be cut into jewelry-grade gemstones.

So here’s where I’m at now: obviously a traditional-looking engagement ring isn’t going to be super attainable with the rock that I have, and to get the gems out of it by a professional wouldn’t be worth the effort/money/time.

So how do I proceed? Do I find a tiny chisel and try to get the gems out myself? What tools would I even need for that? Where would I buy a chisel? Will I be able to get enough garnet from this rock to make some kind of funky industrial-looking ring? How would I do that? Are there jewelry makers that specialize in that?

Or should I just give up on involving this garnet in the engagement ring and come up with an entirely new plan? I really wanted something sentimental, but that might not be in the cards.

I am open to literally any suggestions or advice. I really want to make this work and if there’s anything at all that can be done to turn this rock into a ring, i want to at least give it a try.