Reputable Gold Ring Melting & Recycling - Preserve Your Family Heirloom

Question
Hello Thomas,

I would like to find a good reputable person/jewelers who are able to melt down 3 rings left to me by my Grandmother, and make a new wearable ring including the ruby's and diamond which are in the old ones.
Im not sure on the the carat of the old ones, that part isnt so important to me. I just dont want to sell, throw away or have the old ones sit in a drawer forever, it would be nice to wear them.

Many thanks for any help you can give me.
Helen

Answer
Helen, likely we live far from one another and I will not be able to recommend a specific jeweler for the work.  You do need a reputable jeweler with bench jewelers working in-house.  The bench jewelers are the ones actually doing the work.  Check stores that advertise custom work or ask the better stores in your area if they do custom work. Many of the better stores (not the chain stores generally) will do custom work even if not advertised.  We do very high quality work designing and making jewelry from the customer's metal and stones or provide all of it...yet we offer a full line of merchandise and do not advertise the custom work.  

If a store says they do custom work, go by the store and simply look around. Get a feel for the place.  Look in the show cases and see if the jewelry appears to be of better quality.  They likely purchase the stock jewelry from vendors but if they stock the cheap items their custom work will likely be of the same sort of level.  A better store with better goods can ill afford to offer poor quality custom work. You don't want a poor quality product.  If something looks "handmade" it is often simply poorly designed and poorly finished.  Good work is a fine or better than bought items in the showcase.

See if they have any custom work they may show you. (We rarely do, since all is made to order.)  Ask the procedure in coming up with a design and how then the metal and stones are made into that item. The design is quite important and you might want to look at any similar items to see what you do NOT want as well as what you do want put into your custom jewelry.  They should be able to provide a sketch, model or something which will clearly shows the design of what you have in mind. Designs may be altered easily prior to hard work in the metal.

I do hope this will assist in some little bit. Get back to me with a follow-up if need be.

Best Wishes. God Bless and Peace.  Thomas.

What you want to do as a "non expert" is get a feel for the professionalism and attitude of the business toward doing the work for you.