I have to get my engagement ring repaired. The very tip of a prong broke off. Thankfully, I noticed it before the diamond fell off (though it seems it’s still fairly safely confined within the prongs). Anyway, I am so clueless when it comes to jewelry, I’d like advice on what to do/say/ask when I take it to a jeweler to make sure I get a decent job done.
I looked up & read GingeroftheNorth’s horror story and have heard from my mom/grand aunts tales of jewelers switching diamonds behind your back. Now my ring isn’t exactly 2 months salary (actually it kind of was; we were starving students at the time he gave it to me), but I still don’t want to be gyped. I don’t even know what to expect.
Do they just ‘weld’ on a bit of gold to the old prong?
Do I have to buy a new setting or what?
Can they take off the diamond & hand it to me, then go fix the prong, then put my diamond back in?
How much should I expect it to cost to repair? It’s a white gold prong, not platinum.
Also, I’ve been meaning to get it resized since it’s gotten quite loose. Is it possible to do that by filling in a bit more gold, rather than cutting it & removing some gold?
Pretty much, yes, if just the tip’s gone. If the prong has some serious damage you may need a new head (set of prongs)
Almost certainly not.
Not really, no.
Not much if it’s just a retipping. It’s been a while, but I’d say under $20.
To resize a ring they just nip a bit out of the middle and solder the edges. A “refill” job would be highly unusual. I’d think most wouldn’t want to do it, and if they did it woudl be pricey.
I’ve done the fill repair and it’s good for one size down. The advantage to cutting is that most rings are eventually re-sized up, by stretching, and you don’t want to get them so thin they break.
Most rings are resized by cutting in the middle and adding a bit of gold, I believe. The only rings I’ve ever “stretched” or “shrank” were wedding rings that only needed a small change. I wouldn’t want to stretch a ring set with stones for fear of warping channels or popping out pave’ or snapping the shank (most engagement rings have much thinner bands than plain wedding bands).
there are small metal inserts that can be added to thin-shanked rings that will reduce the size. you can buy them through catalogs yourself and attach them if you’re at all handy with tweezers or pliers. there are also little clear plastic tubes with a split up one side that you can slide onto the shank (think a less-messy-looking version of wrapping bandage tape around a guy’s high school ring when a girl would wear it).
but yes, repairing a broken prong end is most likely just to be a weld-on tip job. $20 is pretty low, at least for jewelers in our area – i’d expect more like $30-50. and no, they won’t take the diamond out during the repair. i had my engagement ring shank expanded after i broke my ring finger. it was set in platinum, which requires welding rather than soldering. they STILL didn’t remove the diamond – the little buggers are plenty strong enough to withstand the heat.
the only time i’ve had a repair via adding additional gold was to a pendant that i wear constantly. the jumpring was getting worn thin (possibly from my occasional habit of sliding the pendant back and forth on its chain). the jeweler added some gold to bring it back to its original thickness – but this is a much smaller repair than adding to the entire back portion of a ring shank.
Wow, thanks for all the replies & details, they were just what I was hoping for. I’ll bring my ring to a jeweler nearby and see how it goes, now that I know what to expect.