This lady just asked me if I sell eyeglass frames. Ummm, no. “Where
would I go?” “An optician”, I replied.
Other strange requests I’ve been asked over the years…
Polish a TV screen
Remove dents from an MG radiator shell
Solder a bracelet ON the wrist
Set a diamond in a ring without metal touching stone
there must be other strange requests you all have gotten. Hmmm?
Nice thread to start…
yes, I had one…
“please set a diamond in my front tooth…”
Make a frame for a glasses to be worn around the neck on a chain…
The local casualty have my details and occasionally bring the odd
patient to have titanium or steel bands cut off when fingers are
damaged or broken…(They can manage gold with side-cutters it
seems…)
ever heard of a “slave ring”?.. it is two rings joined by a chain
that fit the same finger. One above and one below the knuckle… done
heaps of those…
my own personal favourite… setting kids teeth into a pendant for
"mom" to wear…
gwen
Yesterday a customer came in to pick up her tiny white gold chain
that we repaired for her. She looked at it and said in a very angry
tone, “This is longer then when I brought it in.” It use to be 16"
and now it’s 18". Of course there is no way that could have happened.
But she insisted. I have to say, that’s a new one!
One of my all time favorites was to melt down a stolen monstrance
from a cathedral…it was gold plated for starters…
another was appraising a wooden scarab that a customers mother had
brought from egypt to find out what gemstone it was made of. i too
had an eyeglasses repair request- but they were antique18 kt gold
frames that someone’s great grandfather wore…they wanted me to
preserve the lenses that were original, but asked if i could grind
them to their prescription because they couldn’t see through them!-
go figure…
the topper:a man came to me fairly recently and asked if I could
modify some ku klux klan pin he had for years, to give out to the
groups membership…he wanted the hoods to be “pointier” and to have
the KKK initials followed by a 10 point diamond after each "k"
instead of periods in metal…he also wanted the hoods in silver on a
red enameled background…need i say more?
Solder a bracelet ON the wrist
That I’ve done many times.
Including a chain around a lady’s waist.
David Geller
www.JewelerProfit.com
Here’s a good one from when I first started out: “Can you take all of
these tiny little diamonds and melt them into one big one?”
Set a diamond in a tooth!! While still in the persons mouth!! I
don’t do teeth!!
Frank Goss
Most days I work at a large shopping mall, where my work desk is in
full view of the general (and very curious) public. Mostly the weird
requests are about random pieces of “antiquities” people have
acquired, and want me to evaluate them - mostly colored pieces of
glass from the 40’s. I’m also often asked to repair eyeglasses,
watches, wallets, watches, shoes, watches and the occasional toy.
Some want to buy my tools. A lady once desired her eyeglasses to be
repainted, as she didn’t like their color any more. A gentleman
brought in his steel watch frame to be polished. A hobbyist collector
even carried in an excuisite but broken pipe-and-cigarette stand with
a built-in music box that’d been bought from the World Fair in Paris
in 1900. For a young couple I built a large bronze oriental-style
cabinet latch with a fish motif - one of my favorite projects so far,
actually.
I’m sure there have been weirder questions, but I’ve forgotten them
in the insane rush that the place sometimes fills with. I need to
start writing them down.
How about appraising a monkey skull damaged in shipment from
overseas? Setting stones so they touch the skin (multiple times)?
Leaving so little metal around a stone that it was guaranteed to
fall out (and then making me redo it after another jeweler said there
wasn’t enough metal to safely hold the stone—and yes I told them
that over ten times but they insisted anyway)? Set a bullet? Set
human teeth (did it–twice)? Set dog’s teeth (did it three times)?
Set a piece of the Berlin wall (came out really cool)? Set rock from
the top of Mt. Everest (9 times)? Set a tyrannosaurus rex tooth
(only once)? Have a dominatrix (her professional name was
Leopordella) come in, show you her just pierced belly button and tell
you she wants you to design something for it that needs
measurements–before the darn thing had healed up? Those are just the
ones that come to the top of my head. Give my brain a little time and
I’ll come up with some more.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
Neil,
You didn’t say whether or not you fulfilled any of the requests.
When I was much younger and more foolish I had a request to solder a
bracelet ON the wrist. It was a fairly solid sterling chain and I
wrapped her wrist with a few layers of wet asbestos and proceeded
with no discomfort or problems. Would I do it now in these very
litigious times? Absolutley not.
Joel Schwalb
www.schwalbstudio.com
I wonder if I was one of your clients? I have my medic alert bracelet
soldered on my wrist and finally have a permanent bracelet that I
could not take off and lose. My life depends on this bracelet and the
jeweller that did solder it on put wet towels all around the bracelet
fixings and a wet cloth underneath all worked out fine. Thank
goodness because I have been found dead to the world a few times and
with thanks to my medic alert bracelet received exactly what I needed
when I needed it.
Leslie
I had this guy walk in and put a trashed watch on the counter. He
asked me if I would set the ‘ruby jewels’ in the watch into a ring
for him… I had to make a pendant out of a spent bullet head
that the dude had killed a robber with. I was asked to make a choker
out of a complete set of baby teeth…eeeewww
Hans Meevis
http://www.meevis.com
Solder a bracelet ON the wrist
I’ve soldered MANY bracelets on wrists over the years.
Set a diamond in a ring without metal touching stone
This too: Costume jewelry. Glue.
I met some very colourful characters during my years in a weekend
market stall. Some strange requests:
Solder a heavy silver neck chain permanently on the neck; I soldered
the link there and then with no injury to the customer, and with full
disclaimer if it needed to be got off in a hurry.
Make a silver bracelet out of 4mm wire and exactly 2" diameter for
her infant daughter (yeah right), and the bcith never paid.
Make a lead helmet to block out eletromagnetic radiation. (Referred
him to the radiation department at the local hospital).
And a memorable incident - A woman asked me to make an open bracelet
smaller. It was extremely heavy and solid and I could only bend it in
the jaws of the vice. Having done so, she squeezed it on to her wrist
and seemed very pleased, but then she could not remove it. Tried soap
and creme to no avail and she became increasingly agitated to the
point of panic. She was not acting, she nearly ripped her hand off
and her whole body language was quite alarming and infectious, if the
bracelet did not come off soon then the next stop would be the
emergency department or an ambulance. I managed to remove it by
inviting her into the stall, positioning her arm so that one end of
the bracelet could be gripped in the vice, and levering the other end
with a bar. Tragedy averted, palpable relief, and no charge because
the bracelet was back to the origional size. She went off to sit down
and recover, and I needed a spell to recover also.
Aaah those were the days…glad to be rid of them!
I actually had a male customer asked me to cast a “replica” of a
certain “body” part. I immediately said NO and returned to my bench.
I couldn’t even figure out how one would achieve that. Have had
female customers ask for certain jewelry that I will not do also.
I’m not measuring that much less touching it…lol…Charolette
After appearing on Home & Garden Television 2 weeks ago, I received
a call from a man, who wanted me to make a ring with a glass eye.
He assured me that it wasn’t one he had worn. (As if that would make
the difference between my wanting to do it or not!) 
My other favorite was a request for a chain between nipple piercings.
All I could think was “OW!”
Victoria
Victoria Lansford
first you make a rubber mold, then pour in plaster or investment then
piece the metal sheet onto it, soldering the top on last, a final
polish and whatever other acoutrements are requested and pocket
about 1,000 bucks ( in silver, more in gold, platinum, etc.)
This isn’t really strange. A friend of ours who is a Mason referred
someone to us for a repair. There’s a knock on the door and the
nicest, sweetest black woman of about 90 years is on the doorstep.
She’s a Rainbow Girl, which is the female side of the Masons, I
gather, and she’s going to the convention in Virginia or somewhere.
She has a crown that she earned by her rank and years in the
organization, and one of her grandchildren has broken it. She
presents me with a potmetal crown - more of a tiara - with glass
stones glued all over it, and painted with gold paint, that is broken
in half. She’s in tears, and I know that it’s certainly her last
convention, and maybe even her last trip of any kind. Something I
would never in a million years even touch if it weren’t for the
story. So, I lead solder it back together, buy some gold paint in the
hardware store, and make it like new. She picks it up, and I know
that I’ve done much more than just repair a piece of cracker-jack-box
jewelry. I heard later that she had left it in the elevator on the
way out, but recovered it in the building office by good fortune. The
people in the office told me how they were also affected by this
woman - just a nobody, really, but the sort of person that makes you
feel good about the human race. Often the best part of jewelry isn’t
the jewelry at all…
I was once presented with some gold colored lumps. The customer
explained that she had gessoed and gold leafed these lumps. They
were the larger cremains of her mother and would I kindly drill them
and assemble them into a necklace.
Bruce D. Holmgrain
JA Certified Master Benchjeweler
The wierdest request I ever had was a from customer that brought in
a 45 caliber slug, nicely mushroomed on the end. He wanted it set
into a ring. The slug, he said, was one he had accidentally fired
into his brother’s leg. (being a 45, it’s lucky his brother still has
the leg!).
David L. Huffman