After a wedding ring has been worn for many years, the metal will start to wear down. Once the ring becomes thin enough to the point where it might break, it’s time to do a repair called a shank.

A rink shank repair is done by cutting out the old thin section of the ring and replacing it with a new thicker piece of gold.

BEFORE

This bridal set had been worn for many years and the gold on the bottom of the ring (the shank) had worn very thin.

Step one: Cut out the thin portion of the ring.

Using a jewelers saw, cut out the thinnest section of the ring. In this particular case I am doing a “half shank” and will cut about half way down the sides…a bit lower than my pose here.

Thinnest section removed! This will be replaced by thicker 14kt gold stock. When ordering or rolling your gold stock, make sure it is the same width as the original shank, and at least 1.25mm thick.

Step Two: Measure the distance needed for the new piece of gold and then cut that new piece with the jewelers saw.

As you can see, the new piece that was cut is at least twice as thick as the original. There is a good chance the ring started out as this thickness, but due to gold being soft and worn over many years, the shank starts to thin out.

[Read more…] about Ring Restoration: How To Repair A Thin Shank

I wanted to document a cool restoration project I did recently. There’s something incredibly satisfying about fixing a ring that has seemingly been destroyed.

The damaged ring

This sterling silver dolphin ring got ran over by a car! It got super smushed and also suffered many scratches and dings in the the process.

These dolphins used to be so happy, so shiny. Let’s see if we can’t do something about that.

Step 1: Bend the dolphins back into place

When the ring got ran over it was smashed in the process and the dolphins turned on their sides. I used pliers to gently bend them towards the top, or back into place.

Step 2: Removing the dings and scratches

Using a soft sanding disc and a flex shaft, I sanded over much of the ring. You want to make sure to keep a nice fluid motion as to not create “flat spots” on the ring from over-sanding.

Sanding complete! You can see how I did not sand over the dolphins eyes and mouth, thus preserving those carvings in the ring.

Step 3: Use ring bending pliers to reshape the ring

This dolphin ring was originally designed to have a “bypass” look to it, meaning that the dolphins kind of overlapped each other. These pliers do the trick in bending the shank of the ring, thus changing the look at the top.

Step 5: Polishing

At this point I used a small bristled wheel to polish the ring. A wheel like this works great in getting in all the hard to reach areas.

After using the small bristled brush, a larger soft polishing wheel is used to give the ring a bright finish.

The Final Result

Restoration complete! It’s really shiny! Sterling silver has a very bright appearance when brought to a high polish. You can see how reflective it is.

The mission

The mission is simple, we need to show how to convert ring setting from “4 prong” ring to a “6 prong”. Many people might be wondering if this is even possible or what the benefits or drawbacks might be for each prong style. One of the main reasons to opt for a 6 prong style would be for security. Simply put, a 6 prong setting is going to hold a diamond more securely than it’s 4 prong counterpart. 

Most people wear their engagement rings daily, and as a result these rings will be subject to the abuse of everyday “wear and tear.” It is not terribly uncommon for the prongs of a ring to be bent out of place as they sustain impact with another object. When this happens the center stone has a much better chance of staying in place if there are 6 prongs protecting it rather than 4.

Proponents of the 4 prong head usually like the way they can see a lot more of their diamond, as a 6 prong mounting generally covers the center stone a bit more. It’s important to note that even when a 4 prong head sustains a heavy impact, the center stone still has a good chance of staying in the ring. This is especially true if the head is platinum, which is a very durable metal.

For those people who want the extra piece of mind of a 6 prong setting, or just like how they look in general, there is definitely a way to make it happen!

Let’s dive in.

Removing the 4 prong setting

The first thing that needs to be done to covert a 4 prong ring setting into a 6 prong setting is to remove the existing head. If a stone is already set into the ring, it will be removed beforehand. For this example the ring setting was brand new and had never held a stone before.

In order to remove the head, the ring is placed in a soldering clamp and turned upside down. At this point the base of the head is slowly heated up by the goldsmith’s hand-torch. Once the solder that is holding in the head in places reaches “flowing” temperature, the head is pulled down and out of the ring mounting with tweezers.

6 Prong setting replacement

Once the old head has been removed from the ring mounting, you can see the leftover solder where the old head had once been. [Read more…] about How To Convert Ring Setting From “4 Prongs” To “6 Prongs”