Im working as an in house repairer and currently my jewellery shop
has been asking me to piece up lightweight (nasty) hollowed out
castings that have very thin wire beneath the head up to 8 sizes (i
can get the same rings going down up to 8 sizes creating a crumpled
effect on the wire behind the head).
What is the standard response to this?
Ive told him its not practical to size this style ring that far and
to maybe buy a larger ring of the same style off his stockist. I
feel its not doing me, him or the customers any favors and
potentially damaging our names…
Do jewellery shops generally stock one smaller and one larger size
of the same ring to avoid this occurance or am i an inferior
goldsmith who should be able to deal with these situations?
Thanks,
Jon
Hello Jon, Forget trying to size a ring 8 sizes. The store manager
should believe you after all; you are the resident expert. Show them
a piece of gold 8 sizes long. It would probably weight more than the
ring. Perhaps the ring can be ordered in the correct size.
Have fun.
Tom Arnold
I;ve found that when a ring needs to go up this far (Im thinking
Australian / English sizing and I cant relate to American) I would
normally suggest a new half shank which is a more expensive repair.
Chances are the boss wont go for it. I would head down the path of
getting a ring cast to the right size.
Roger
Forget trying to size a ring 8 sizes. The store manager should
believe you after all; you are the resident expert. Show them a
piece of gold 8 sizes long. It would probably weight more than the
ring. Perhaps the ring can be ordered in the correct size.
I didn’t read the original post but know how difficult it can be. It
can be done, the ring will for sure not be round, depending upon the
thickness of the top. A finger isn’t round either.
The secret can be that underneath the top of the ring, at about 11
o’clock and 1 o’clock to cut a “V” into the ring top where it would
touch the finger. This allows you to expand more when making it
spread apart so much and not disturb the top. The after sizing, fill
that in.
David Geller
JewelerProfit
www.JewelerProfit.com
Do jewellery shops generally stock one smaller and one larger size
of the same ring to avoid this occurance or am i an inferior
goldsmith who should be able to deal with these situations?
Jon - Yes, No. I just had a consultation with a lady who has a
princess cut solitaire. She wanted a certain ring of a certain look,
and what they gave her was a stock Stuller band with a stock Stuller
bezel soldered on top. Meaning that some people’s brains just don’t
reach that far… People have already said most of the practical
issues, but there’s another one, too.
Proportion… Good jewelry doesn’t just get larger in size, it also
gets larger in scale. Then the ring looks “the same” for the given
size. Convincing your boss of any of this might be a tough sell, just
the same.
Jon, Your advice to the jewellery shop sounds correct. If the ring is
flimsy to start with then it will be more flimsy when sized up that
much. A small dainty ring will survive better on a small dainty
finger than on a very large finger. If the under wires look like
breaking when stretched to the new radius you can leave the ring
off-round and slightly egg shaped. (Measure the ring size by fitting
on one of your fingers and comparing with a sizing ring).
If the jewelery shop is willing to take responsibility for the flinsy
ring and off-round outcome then it’s just another sizing for you. Do
note all existing faults and unexpected outcomes and get agreement
before starting the job. A few sketches and notes on the job packet
will suffice.
Cheers, Alastair
Depends, mostly.
If its a stock ring (size 6?) going up 8 sizes, I could pretty much
guarantee its not available in a size 14 except by very special
order so I doubt anyone would normally stock anything near that size.
Time delay, additional expense, he’d rather sell from inventory.
Look at it this way… if you can pull this off most of the time,
you make yourself more valuable to the shop.
Something like a quality weight solitaire should be no problem, just
make a dovetail joint for extra strength. If its some more convoluted
shank or extremely heavy or extremely light it gets more difficult.
Still almost anything is doable if you throw enough time/money at it.
The question becomes do you(or your boss) really want to? The more
stress you put on the ring the more likely it will be to have
problems, either now or post sale. Any cost savings your boss is
drooling over now may be offset if/when stones pop out in use, not to
mention egg on face(mostly your’s I’m afraid).
I’ve done stuff like this, including the near impossible and
conventionally thought of as ill advised. Once in a awhile its fun,
but usually not. Sometimes you just have to do it though.
The type of ring you describe is indeed a challenge. Might be good
to explain to the manager that for a nice job you’d have to replace
the underbezel or the gallery or do this or do that and tell him it
would cost $X now and maybe $Y later when the customer brings it
back, which might give him/her second thoughts.
If the stones allow, anneal and when changing the base circle of the
shank go slowly, watching out for crinkles and whatnot so you can
catch them before they cause catastrophic failure. For hollow thin
stuff have some dapping punches handy, maybe along with a lead
block, you might try filling the hollow with pitch before you coerce
it into shape, maybe while the pitch is till a bit warm, maybe not,
depends.
Oh, and good luck.
Neil hit the nail on the head with this.
Since i started working in house, the manager of the jewellery shop
has become slightly obsessed with the whole same day repair and
sizing service.
He want everything done instantly and for cheap therefore casting or
whole new shanks are out of the question. Generally these cheap
rings are heat sensitive stones with rhodium around the head so
cutting and piecing the shoulders and re-rhodium would cost him more
than the rings themselves…
So for now, egg shaped rings are the way to go (or larger stock
sizes)!!
Thanks all for your replys.
Jon