AboutThomas Expertise Have a question about jewelry repair or working with gold or silver jewelry and gemstones? I am a working professional bench jeweler, involved everyday with setting stones in mountings, designing and making jewelry, repairing and some custom manufacture. Over 30 years experience. If you work with jewelry as a hobby or as a profession, I might be able to help. I deal with the retail business, not mass production. Ask privately if you wish. See the box for that: It keeps your question between us. Please DO NOT ask MAKER'S MARKS, but metal quality marks are fine to ask. Please DO NOT ask diamond prices. See a gemologist for that.
Experience Education is English/Physics!Started in human resources, to advertising, to jewelry...wow, what a road. Now a jeweler for many years. I have had formal training in jewelry work and many shared experiences with top grade jewelers. We just never know were we will go or be. Follow your best, your dreams, with some discretion!
Expert: Thomas Date: 7/2/2008 Subject: Resizing rings with Invisible settings
Question I bought my girlfriend a diamond band and it as an invisible setting. She went to get it resized from a 7 to a 7.5. The store she took it to advised her that they would not resize it because it was an invisible setting. Is that the case with most stores or can you just not resize an invisible setting ring?
Answer Hi, Dan. Thanks for this question, the second on invisible set stones in the last week.
The first question to answer is this: Can invisible set rings be resized? The answer is “yes” with reservations. Much has to do with the number of stones and where the stones are on the ring. If the stones are two or more rows running down the shoulders of the ring from the top, the question of sizing becomes complicated. I will explain this in a moment.
First, what is invisible setting? There is one general method of setting diamonds in the invisible fashion. In this method a tiny groove is cut in the side of the diamond just at the girdle (waist) of the stone between the top and bottom of the stone. When set a hidden and quite narrow band of metal goes into the groove then again on the other side, and then the next stone is set, etc. The less usual method but one I have seen is for the diamonds to be cut almost with a tongue and groove, as with wall paneling. The edge of one stone is fitted to the groove of the one beside it. This last method is much more risky since if one stone is loosened, the one beside it and virtually all will be loose and may come out of the ring.
With the general metal in the groove method, the problem is the fine metal part holding the diamond. If one stone comes loose, the others may or may not be loosened. That cannot be predicted by the jeweler. If stones are on the side of the ring, bending the sides inward to make the ring smaller will tend to separate the diamonds from the metal setting and all become loose. If the ring is made larger, any extreme bending to make the curve of the ring larger will cause the diamonds to press against each other and may very well distort the metal holding the stones in place. Also, if forced closer together, one stone may cause a chip in the one next to it. Those are the problems a jeweler faces. The largest problem is the labor intensive work to reset stones which might come out or loosen. Retightening is almost impossible without removing all the stones and starting fresh or adding metal with a jewelry laser. Most jewelers do not have the $30,000 laser and ones who have may not have experience with repair of invisible settings.
A ring going up ½ size needs about 1 1/4mm of added circumference. (One size is about 2 ½ mm or 1/10 inch in circumference.) I would think it is possible size your ring this amount even if the ring was made slightly oval. The jeweler would cut the ring, add the correct size piece of metal and braze then finish. The jeweler would not attempt to round out the ring if the stones are set on the sides of the ring. This small amount of oval shape would be perfectly acceptable.
So, why won’t some jewelers do the work? The answer is bad experience in the past for one thing. Any jewelry has to be totally clean before any heat work is done, such as resizing. Results with the earlier invisible set rings were not good. Placed in an ultrasonic machine or blown clean with high pressure steam, jewelers found a ring with stones either in the bottom of the cleaner or scattered and lost from steam pressure. Resetting was a nightmare and generally meant sending the ring to the manufacturer or to a specialist in invisible set jeweler. This was both time consuming and expensive.
The possibility of stones coming out with little resource for resetting in-house is the primary reason jewelers will often not accept invisible set jewelry for resizing.
What to do? I would take the ring to as many jewelers in your area as possible and tell them for the ring to be slightly oval is ok: Add the metal and do not round out the ring.
Someone may do it. We judge each ring individually and do resize some invisible set jewelry. Some we do not accept.
Dan, if this does not work out for you, try contacting the place the ring was purchased and inquire about resizing. This is the best advice I can provide.
I do wish I could provide a more positive answer but knowing other jewelers and experience in the past with invisible set jewelry, the fact some will not do the work is not surprising. If you need more info, please do not hesitate to use the follow-up option to get back with me. Fair enough?
