QuestionI have a wedding band bought about 9 years ago. It is a mens band with 2 gold wires woven together running along the center of the band. This is somewhat similar:
http://www.goantiques.com/scripts/images,id,1848528.html
The woven wires keep breaking and sticking up. I snag clothing and even my kids skin when bathing or lotioning them. I've had it into the jeweler 4-5 times for barb repair, and have stopped wearing it for long periods of time. What can be done to stop these wires from breaking and needing repair? We are somewhat sentimentally attached to the ring, yet a lifetime of repairs every 3 months does not sound that great either. I'm disgusted that the jeweler did not warn me of this when I purchased it.
AnswerDave,
I am sorry you are having these problems with the woven wire on your wedding band. I had a good idea of the style you speak about and the link confirmed that. Always, explanatory links or photos are appreciated since jewelry is so much a visual content in the first place.
I have repaired several rings like yours over the years but rarely have more than a spot of two on one ring to repair. I do not remember a patron coming back again and again. That makes me wonder a little of why your ring is having such a difficulty with broken wire. Certainly, I cannot answer without at least having followed the ring around as worn for a year to see the normal environment encountered. Then again, the problems may be in the original manufacturing and not in external contacts at all.
Two things generally lead to metal breaks: 1. Overly worked metal 2. Stress corrosion
Once in a while there may be basic defects in the metal but with wire that is not generally a problem since milled gold such as wire is not prone to defects of cast items.
1. Overly worked metal
This would mean "work hardened", either by stretching by ring sizing( a rare reason) or pounding from everyday wear. The effect is like bending a coat hanger wire back and forth and it eventually breaks. Wires on the ring may be being pounded and hardened from contacts in everyday wear. Are the breaks from recent years or from the get go? If work hardening is a cause, breaks would be from more recent years, logic would tell me. The ring can be annealed by a good jeweler carefully heating to a low red heat. Yellow gold can be quenched (cooled) immediately and white gold just as soon as the red vanishes to the eye in subdued light(do not allow white gold to cool down since quenching is needed to prevent another form of brittleness). This info should mean something to a jeweler. Care would be needed since some repair has already been done abd solders could re-flow.
2. Stress corrosion
Normally affects white gold but some yellow may also be affected. Metal which has stress in it such as twisted or braided wire which has not been annealed (heated to relieve stress as above) is subject to damage from certain chemicals. The primary one is chlorine as in swimming pools, bleaches, etc. Contact of an extended or repeated sort can cause breaks or subsurface damage which become breaks at stressed areas of the wire of the ring. Annealing the ring as in the previous paragraph can almost totally remove this as a future problem.
Dave, do you know the manufacturer name for the ring? If not, maybe a jeweler can help if the trademark is familiar. Unfamiliar trademarks are almost impossible to rundown and may be a rabbit trail and the rabbit wins. If the maker can be named, search out contact info for that company and write about the situation. In all honesty, what will the maker do? Some will do nothing and some will possibly try to help you out. It is worth a try.
Dave, we likely would not have warned a customer about breaking wire problems because we would not have considered it a problem at a place I formerly worked. Today, we do not sell these designs since each should be ordered to proper finger size. The breaking you are experiencing is more than the normal, that is certain. Not even one break is desired but more is truly not a good situation. I do wish I could provide a solid answer for you. Perhaps what I have said will help; it should.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
