Harold Gerstel, known from his TV ads as “Harold the Jewellery Buyer,” is back at work after being pistol-whipped during a robbery at his Bathurst St. store on Friday afternoon.

“I’ve got a headache,” said Gerstel, who sported a purple left eye and wounds to the left side of his head that needed between 10 and 20 stitches and staples.

“My head was completely split open. But apparently nothing permanent happened. But it was a close call and I’m kind of lucky to be here today. But I’ll be okay in a few days.”

Gerstel has known danger before. He has been robbed several times and his previous shop was destroyed in an arson attack that remains unsolved.

Gerstel wants to put up reward of up to $50,000 to get information into that arson, which happened in December 2010.

His store relocated after the fire.

This is the first time he has been attacked personally. But he wasn’t going to allow these injuries to keep him from the business he has known for 30 years. He was back on the job Sunday.

Gerstel suddenly breaks off an interview with a reporter when a customer comes through the heavily barred doors.

“Sorry, business first,” Gertsel says to the reporter as he walks over to examine a ring. “How much do you want?”

This happens a few times before Gerstel returns to the reporter. And during the course of the interview, his cellphone keeps going off as word spreads through the community and media outlets.

Gerstel was attacked around 2 p.m. Friday. And it wasn’t a conventional type of jewelry heist. He said he had seen his assailant earlier in the week. “He had been here three times previously that week.”

The man left some diamond rings with Gerstel on loan. He had also left his name.

The act, looking back, was “was a bit bizarre,” Gerstel says.

The man’s image was on the surveillance camera as well, and he made no attempt to disguise himself. Gerstel admits that when the man returned Friday, he let his guard down.

“He came back on the pretext that he wanted to sell them,” Gerstel said.

Gerstel took the rings out of his safe and was shocked to see the man pulling a gun from his waist.

“I panicked and leaped at the gun,” the jeweler said. “He started banging me on the head with the butt of the gun. I kind of blacked out for a few minutes.”

The events were recorded on the store surveillance video.

“Apparently, he grabbed his diamond rings and put his hand into my pocket and stole the buzzer to let himself out of the store.”

There was another witness in the store at the time. Gerstel was taken to hospital, where he was treated and released.

On Saturday, police executed a search warrant at a home in the Pinehurst Cres. and Anglesey Blvd. area, where they seized a 9 mm handgun and arrested a 29-year-old Toronto man.

Khan Facey was charged with robbery while armed with a firearm, aggravated assault and careless storage of a firearm.

In 2010, one of Gerstel’s employees was arrested in what police alleged was a murder-for-hire plot targeting one of his competitors. The charges were later dropped.