QuestionI have a gold 4-band puzzle ring that i got from my mom. I love wearing it but it seems to break a lot, even when I'm not taking it apart and solving it repeatedly. Is there anything i can do to keep it from breaking so much?
AnswerAJ, puzzle rings are fascinating and many people have no idea how to take the rings apart and reassemble. I am glad you got that secret learned. As to the breaking, if you look closely at the rings you will see where the edges fit neatly into then next ring. This is because the rings are often hammered to assure a final fit, forcing the shapes to fit edge to edge. Hammering like this makes the metal work hardened and often hardened to near the breaking point. Because of this, thin areas of the rings are quite likely to break with much repeated assembly.
You will likely not want to do this but the real cure is to not take the rings apart very often. Some people have the bottoms soldered together to make the ring permanently joined.
The breaks will need to be repaired and the rings left assembled most of the time. A jeweler may be able to gently heat the rings to anneal the metal, that is heating just enough to let the metal rest and lose the hardness. Still, thin areas will be stressed from repeated "apart, together, apart, together", etc.
Thanks for this question. God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
