Does anyone have experience of Durston ring stretching/reducing
devices?
I’m in the middle of losing a significant amount of weight, and will
maintain my weight when I reach my goal weight. After losing two
stone, my wedding rings (18k band, half eternity and engagement
solitaire) are getting to the point of almost falling off. I’ve
stretched them up a couple of times, but have no way of reducing
them now my fingers are slimmer.
I’m considering purchasing a stretcher/reducer, so that I can do my
own rings, but also be able to stretch or reduce others’ rings for
them. I figure itwould be a good investment. However, I would really
prefer one which will reduce stone set rings too. One model says it
does not work with stone set rings, while the other model
description does not contain that sentence. Does anyone know of a
device (Durston or otherwise), that will do stone set rings as well
as bands?
Helen- Well done on your weight loss. It’s no easy task to try and
defeat evolutionary hard wired biological desires.
I have used any number if different ring stretchers/ shrinkers. They
all work fine but only on rings with no stones.
When ever you increase or decrease the size of a ring set with
stones, especially something like an eternity band where the stones
are set into the band itself, the stones will either pop out or break
depending on whether or not you are going up or down. Often with
channel set rings we have to leave them oval after sizing because we
don’t want to shift the stone seats.
You’ll just have to size them with a torch.
A note on band shrinking with a stretching/reducing tool. If the
band has a decorative finish like say millgrain, florentine finish,
or engraving, I take a small plastic zip lock bag, one of the
millions that seem to reproduce over night in our shop, and line the
receiving die with it. Then I put the band in. The plastic baggie
gets trashed, but not the ring finish.
Well done on your weight loss. It's no easy task to try and defeat
evolutionary hard wired biological desires.
Thanks very much Jo! The first stone and a half was easy, but the
rest is proving more stubborn!
eternity band where the stones are set into the band itself, the
stones will either pop out or break depending on whether or not you
are going up or down
Of course! I should have remembered that from reducing a ring of my
daughter’s a few years ago. The sapphires popped out and I had to
reset them.
line the receiving die with it. Then I put the band in. The plastic
baggie gets trashed, but not the ring finish.
I also do something similar. My sterling silver sheet is delivered
with a blue plastic film stuck to both sides for protection. When
dapping, I always leave the plastic on until after shaping, to avoid
marring the surface. Savesme a fair bit of filing!
Thanks for the advice Jo. What you say makes perfect sense. I’ll
rethink.
Yes, it is called a Goldsmith :-) To my knowledge there are no
such beasts as stone set ring shrinkers.
Fair enough. I was told by a goldsmith that there was. Thinking
about it, hewas probably just referring to the stretching part of
such a machine, the sort which stretches by rolling the shank,
saying that you could use it to just stretch the part of the ring
which has no stones. I’m usually quite a logical person so should
have realised that it would be impossible to reduce such a ring,
unless I wanted to make all my diamonds into dust of course!!!
Thanks for the advice good Orchid folk. I’ll just have to wait until
I get down to my goal weight and size them the normal way.
To my knowledge there are no such