QuestionI recently had an antique ring resized at a local jeweler's, unfortunately, they
decided to "do me a favor" and clean the ring... thus removing all the nice
antique patina! Is there any way that I can restore the look of the ring without
waiting 100 years? The ring has rubies and diamonds set into it.
AnswerFollow-up...well, I was so happy to see images not available on allexperts. Then, I went back to the question a minute ago and it was not there! "Question has been removed from our server or does not exist" was the page heading. Well, who knows what happened. I am glad to have seen the picture this morning.
I would not recommend any sort of repacking of the edges by the gemstones with some dark substance. The gold on the edges can be darkened a bit with chemical treatments and polished just at the outer edge to give a look of "age". That would be my recommendation.
If the original look you really liked came from dirt, I must say be glad it is gone. Why? When we clean rings for repair often following ultrasonic cleaning we will find a loose stone or even stones have fallen out. These are caught in the cleaning machine and not lost. What happens is this: Stones may become slightly loose, dirt accumulates between the stones and the setting for the stone. The stone will still move slightly and the abrasive qualities of the dirt (which generally contains lots of hard stuff like silica) will wear at the prongs or the setting in general. If the stone moves and touches the metal of the setting, the wear is even more intense. A time comes when the setting is useless and is worn to a breaking point or is worn enough a stone may be lost. All holding in the stone seems to be the dirt! This is why I recommend cleaning jewelry often.
The worse ones are rings people say with pride, "I never take it off" and that is a big mistake on their part as far as keeping the ring clean and stones secure.
What might come in as a simple resizing may turn into a major restoration and stone replacements..all of which is preventable.
I suggest you speak to the jeweler about darkening the rim a bit and see how it looks. I do not recommend trying to redo the smudges of years gone by.
Thanks for the question and very much thanks for the picture. That does help tremendously.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas. September 26,2007 7:04pm
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Sonia, cleaning is a needed process when a ring is exposed to heat from resizing with a torch. Otherwise, any residue on the ring will blacken and will cause diamonds (if present)to look brown. If the ring was "stretched" to a slightly larger size, the problem is miniscule but the jeweler automatically cleans and polishes to restore the original shine.
Generally the patina may be restored by a chemical treatment with the highlights buffed off to leave the patina in recesses. This treatment is not exactly the same as the natural tarnish developed over time but quite close.
God is more difficult to "antique" than silver. If gold, the effect is less like the original and more gray in color. If silver, just about any degree of color can be restored since the chemical (liver of sulfur for silver) pretty much duplicate the reasons for the original patina.
Sonia, this is not a do it at home project. Please check with the jeweler on restoring the patina. I suspect you did not expect the patina to be removed and the jeweler likely did not know you wanted the patina intact. Soldering heat will generally remove a patina and that cannot be prevented. Just to let you know there is hope in restoration of a patina to your ring!
God Bless and Peace. Thomas. September 25, 2007 8:56pm
