QuestionHello Thomas,
I hope you can help me. My husband and I recently ordered lovely 18k white gold wedding bands (for our anniversary) that have a matte finish and a raised "shiny" design of ivy leaves. Unfortunately, we ordered my husband's ring too large and due to customs concerns cannot have it shipped back to the manufacturer for resizing.
We have taken the ring to two different local jewelers who both concluded: "Can't be done!" The second jeweler told us it was because the matte finish on the ring would be blackened during soldering and couldn't be polished clean. The rings do have resizing bars in the back.
Is there any way to resize these rings? I am concerned since of course I expect to need to resize the rings from time to time throughout our lifetime.
The ring in question can be viewed at: http://www.brilliantearth.com/rings/wedding-anniversary/mens-wedding-bands/246/?...
Thanks for any advice you can give!
AnswerSarah, thanks for the link so I may see the band designs.
Apparently if the manufacturer did not expect the rings capable of being resized, there would be no sizing bar on the back. We sell some carved and decorated bands with no sizing bar and these do go back to the maker in exchange for the correct size needed. If your rings came into the shop where I work we would most likely accept the job. We would advise you that if we needed to match the matte finish that would be very difficult to do exactly. These finishes are applied in different ways and each has a matte but slightly different texture. Then, using the space provided by the sizing bar we would either remove metal or cut and add metal, depending on the new sizes required.
What would we do about the blackened matte surface? Likely we would not need to do anything since the first step on any white gold work is to clean the item thoroughly and cover the surfaces with a protective flux(chemical coating like boric acid). When the soldering work is done, all would be placed in a mild acid (the jewelers pickle pot) to remove the coating and residue from the soldered joint. The white gold protected by the flux coating should look like it did prior to any work being done. We would not have a black coloration to remove in the first place.
If for some reason the gold did darken near the soldered area, we would reapply the matte finish as best we could to match the original. That is why we would tell you up front that a match of the finish will most likely not be an exact match to the original.
I believe the rings can be resized and with proper protection of the white gold surfaces the matte will remain matte as in the original form and color.
I believe you need to check some other jewelers.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
