Can you resize a ring from 7 3/4 to 5 1/4 safely?

Hello
Hope someone can help me out please. I made a big mistake when I
bought my girlfriends engagement ring. The ring I bought is a size 7
3/4(56mm) and my girlfriends finger is only 5 1/4(49.6mm). Is it
possible to resize?

The engagement ring is 14ct gold. The diamond is 1/3ct and set in
white gold. I bought the ring in Germany and am living in Japan. If I
want to exchange the ring, the shop in Germany said they charge $135
postage one way, so postage altogether will cost about $200.

The jewellery smiths in Japan are worried the joints connecting the
white to the yellow gold will snap when resizing. Also 14ct jewellery
is very rare in Japan. Even if it snaps, will the repairs work out
cheaper than the exorbitant postage charges?

If someone can help, you'd be a lifesaver. If you need more
information, please email me.
Thank you
Paul Callaly

The jewellery smiths in Japan are worried the joints connecting the
white to the yellow gold will snap when resizing. Also 14ct jewellery
is very rare in Japan. Even if it snaps, will the repairs work out
cheaper than the exorbitant postage charges?

If it's a typicle tiffany style engagement ring, there should be no
problem. The ring probably started out as a 6 or 6.5 anyway. They should make
sure the stone stays tight, but other than that there should not be a problem.

Sounds like you may have to re-shank the ring. The Japanese jewelers must
have suggested this? They could use 18K or 22K or whatever. Shouldn't cost
that much.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Hello
Hope someone can help me out please. I made a big mistake when I
bought my girlfriends engagement ring. The ring I bought is a size 7
3/4(56mm) and my girlfriends finger is only 5 1/4(49.6mm). Is it
possible to resize?

The engagement ring is 14ct gold. The diamond is 1/3ct and set in
white gold. I bought the ring in Germany and am living in Japan. If I
want to exchange the ring, the shop in Germany said they charge $135
postage one way, so postage altogether will cost about $200.

The jewellery smiths in Japan are worried the joints connecting the
white to the yellow gold will snap when resizing. Also 14ct jewellery
is very rare in Japan. Even if it snaps, will the repairs work out
cheaper than the exorbitant postage charges?

If someone can help, you'd be a lifesaver. If you need more
information, please email me.
Thank you
Paul Callaly

Sounds like you may have to re-shank the ring.

What possible reason would there be for reshanking? Even if by some wild
stretch of the imagination the solder broke free, just resolder it. There's
probably more chance of the stone loosening, than the solder joint breaking.
Cost should be low unless they are trying to rip you off.

The Japanese jewelers must
have suggested this?

If they do, run away. Quickly. I've seen nothing in your post that tells me
that this is anything more than a simple down sizing.

They could use 18K or 22K or whatever. Shouldn't cost
that much.

Hell, If you're going to go to all of that trouble you might just as well
have it completely remounted. Take it to someone that knows what they are
doing, that isn't trying to rip you off, and get them to do a realitivly simple
sizing.

Thank you all for the replies
Shops here seem to be afraid to do anything with the ring, because
it's 14ct gold. One guy said if the joint broke it would cost over
$600 for him to fix it. Other places will only repair if I sign a
waiver. They are charging around $500.

It's really getting to me now. The reason I bought it in Germany was
that everything is outrageously expensive over here. But now instead
of getting ripped off buying the ring, I going to get caught repairing
it.

Its a very simple ring. It's a gold band, with a plain, white gold
holder for the diamond. You can get a good look at it on the shop
website at http://www.christ.de. It's the ring in the advertisement in
the bottom left of the page. "Ein solitaire sagt..."

If I was to get it repaired in Hawaii or something(friend going soon),
how much roughly would it cost to repair, worst case scenario?

Thanks again for your time
Paul



"Lamedeer" wrote in message
. ..
Sounds like you may have to re-shank the ring. The Japanese jewelers must
have suggested this? They could use 18K or 22K or whatever. Shouldn't cost
that much.

If you pay attention you will notice that the man said there was difficulty
obtaining 14K solder.

"NE333RO" wrote in message
...
Sounds like you may have to re-shank the ring.

What possible reason would there be for reshanking? Even if by some
wild
stretch of the imagination the solder broke free, just resolder it.
There's
probably more chance of the stone loosening, than the solder joint
breaking.
Cost should be low unless they are trying to rip you off.

The Japanese jewelers must
have suggested this?

If they do, run away. Quickly. I've seen nothing in your post that
tells me
that this is anything more than a simple down sizing.

They could use 18K or 22K or whatever. Shouldn't cost
that much.

Hell, If you're going to go to all of that trouble you might just as
well
have it completely remounted. Take it to someone that knows what they are
doing, that isn't trying to rip you off, and get them to do a realitivly
simple
sizing.

If you pay attention you will notice that the man said there was difficulty
obtaining 14K solder.

No thats not what the man said. He said 14K jewelry was very rare in Japan.
14K solder is easily ordered anywhere in the world. For that matter, any
jeweler worth his salt could make the solder he needs and probably already has
it on hand. Or use higher karat solder. Or use the solder which was on it
originally, which is probably what would end up happening.

Thank you all for the replies
Shops here seem to be afraid to do anything with the ring, because
it's 14ct gold.

I think it's probably more of a design thing than a 14K thing (though
higher karat might be softer). Now that I've seen the ring, that particular
design can, at times, be a pain. Usually because the bezel holding the stone
can deform, loosening the stone when sized down that much. Unless they see
something wrong with that particular ring, I wouldn't consider the head
breaking from the shank to be of major concern. A good jeweler should still be
able to deal with it. If push came to shove you could always pull the head,
size the shank down, cut a new seat for the head and resolder it.

One guy said if the joint broke it would cost over
$600 for him to fix it. Other places will only repair if I sign a
waiver. They are charging around $500.

That amazes me. If I melted the ring away to nothing, bought the parts from
Rio, assembled it, sized it, set your stone, and really ripped you off, I'm
STILL not sure I could get the price all the way up to $600.

If I was to get it repaired in Hawaii or something(friend going soon),
how much roughly would it cost to repair, worst case scenario?

I can't speak to the prices in Hawaii but I'd still send it there with your
friend. If you were in Florida I can't see any way the sizing/repair/whatever
could possibly exceed $150.00. If things went well maybe $25.00. I'm guessing
you'd probably be around $60.00, partially because of the probable need to at
least tighten the stone and partially because of the pucker factor. Make sure
you get the size right this time )

That is what I would charge ( $30 - $80 ) yep there is a bit of pucker
factor with the bezel. Another thought is to not completely "round" up the
ring after sizing. This is a standard thing I was thought with bezel or
channel set stones . That is what we would tell the customer when they
brought in that type of ring. ( your finger is not perfectly round anyway )
That said ...... SHEESH I'M Moving to Japan ...$500 is a total rip off.
Just my $.02
Mark

"NE333RO" wrote in message
...
Thank you all for the replies
Shops here seem to be afraid to do anything with the ring, because
it's 14ct gold.

I think it's probably more of a design thing than a 14K thing (though
higher karat might be softer). Now that I've seen the ring, that
particular
design can, at times, be a pain. Usually because the bezel holding the
stone
can deform, loosening the stone when sized down that much. Unless they see
something wrong with that particular ring, I wouldn't consider the head
breaking from the shank to be of major concern. A good jeweler should
still be
able to deal with it. If push came to shove you could always pull the
head,
size the shank down, cut a new seat for the head and resolder it.

One guy said if the joint broke it would cost over
$600 for him to fix it. Other places will only repair if I sign a
waiver. They are charging around $500.

That amazes me. If I melted the ring away to nothing, bought the parts
from
Rio, assembled it, sized it, set your stone, and really ripped you off,
I'm
STILL not sure I could get the price all the way up to $600.

If I was to get it repaired in Hawaii or something(friend going soon),
how much roughly would it cost to repair, worst case scenario?

I can't speak to the prices in Hawaii but I'd still send it there with
your
friend. If you were in Florida I can't see any way the
sizing/repair/whatever
could possibly exceed $150.00. If things went well maybe $25.00. I'm
guessing
you'd probably be around $60.00, partially because of the probable need to
at
least tighten the stone and partially because of the pucker factor. Make
sure
you get the size right this time )

"Mark" wrote in message
. ..
That is what I would charge ( $30 - $80 ) yep there is a bit of pucker
factor with the bezel. Another thought is to not completely "round" up the
ring after sizing. This is a standard thing I was thought with bezel or
channel set stones . That is what we would tell the customer when they
brought in that type of ring. ( your finger is not perfectly round anyway )
That said ...... SHEESH I'M Moving to Japan ...$500 is a total rip off.
Just my $.02
Mark

"NE333RO" wrote in message
...
Thank you all for the replies
Shops here seem to be afraid to do anything with the ring, because
it's 14ct gold.

I think it's probably more of a design thing than a 14K thing (though
higher karat might be softer). Now that I've seen the ring, that
particular
design can, at times, be a pain. Usually because the bezel holding the
stone
can deform, loosening the stone when sized down that much. Unless they see
something wrong with that particular ring, I wouldn't consider the head
breaking from the shank to be of major concern. A good jeweler should
still be
able to deal with it. If push came to shove you could always pull the
head,
size the shank down, cut a new seat for the head and resolder it.

One guy said if the joint broke it would cost over
$600 for him to fix it. Other places will only repair if I sign a
waiver. They are charging around $500.

That amazes me. If I melted the ring away to nothing, bought the parts
from
Rio, assembled it, sized it, set your stone, and really ripped you off,
I'm
STILL not sure I could get the price all the way up to $600.

If I was to get it repaired in Hawaii or something(friend going soon),
how much roughly would it cost to repair, worst case scenario?

I can't speak to the prices in Hawaii but I'd still send it there with
your
friend. If you were in Florida I can't see any way the
sizing/repair/whatever
could possibly exceed $150.00. If things went well maybe $25.00. I'm
guessing
you'd probably be around $60.00, partially because of the probable need to
at
least tighten the stone and partially because of the pucker factor. Make
sure
you get the size right this time )


Thanks all for your advice. I finally found a back street shop that
fixed it. A nice old man who said even if it breaks it's easy to
fix(like you all said). My girlfriend(fiance) said the other shops
were afraid of losing face in case it broke(bad luck or something),
and that's why they didn't want to do it. I don't know what the reason
was, I'm just happy it's fixed.
By the way, it cost about $50. Small complication when he was cutting,
he said. He didn't know the gold was hollow.

Thanks again
Paul