Advice sought regarding resizing of a gold ring.

[Shaun]

I know there are many experts on here so hopefully one might know ?
My wife has an 18k Gold wedding ring that is unworn (Long story) the ring is of a woven design .. and she needs to reduce the size from an American 6 to a British i
And the local specialists can only do it with gold solder and seem unwilling to take on the job as in their words "The join will stand out a mile"

Someone has mentioned it can be done by laser ? is this a viable route ? And if so any suggestions as to where might be able to do it ?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or for pointing me in the right direction

[draftsmann]

Do a search for a business called "Handmade by me"- very nice semi-retired chap by the name of Viv in NW London who makes amazing handmade signet rings. He's also done repairs for me- his work is excellent.

[mart broad]

Try these guys they are inhouse and top notch

http://www.lambertzacks.com/

[animalone]

If you have a picture of the design? that might be helpful for offering advice,

It will possible to laser weld the ring keeping the join line to a minimum.
The ring is going down just over 2 sizes so typically the jeweller will need to cut a small section out the ring, so you may find that the pattern no longer matches up where the two ends join.
If the "woven" pattern is on a solid ring the mismatched pattern will be quite localised (I would advise the customer to wear the ring with the join facing into the palm of their hand that way most people won't see it)
If the ring is woven from separate bands of gold then how visible the join is really comes down to how the ring is constructed and how easy it would be to cut and rejoin the separate elements that make up the band.

[Shaun]

Hi. Here is a photo of the ring hopefully it shows how it is made

[Dave O'Sullivan]

I wonder if it would be possible to remove a couple of rows of links like a mech watch bracelet?

[animalone]

Hi. Here is a photo of the ring hopefully it shows how it is made

Thanks for that Shaun, I'll ask my jewellers opinion tomorrow and get back to you.

[IAmATeaf]

Not an expert but surely if the ring is cut parts of it will fall apart as although I can't quite make it out in the picture it looks like each link is connected to the rows around it?

Again, I know nothing but would it be possible to reduce the size by tightening each link? A hell of a job but should reduce the size and keep the overall look.

[animalone]

Hi Shaun,

Spoke to the jeweller about this today. He said you can never be sure of how the ring will react to being cut, sometimes they are fine, but he has had one that completely fell apart (resulting in many hours of fiddly re-building)
His thought for an easy solution would be to laser tack a smaller solid band inside the ring, reducing the size that way rather than touching the delicate woven links.

Don't know if that helps or not but good luck getting it sorted.

Ian