Melting down an existing ring?

[lovelylulu]

Hello.

I think that i will be using my grandmother''s diamond as my center stone. My BF thinks that is a sweet idea and told his mom about it. She offered him one of his grandmother''s rings thinking that he could take it to a jeweler and have them melt it down and use that platinum to make my new ring (maybe some of the stones as well)-- sort of a physical manifestation of the union of the families...

I think that the idea is lovely, but it''s the execution of that idea i know NOTHING about.

Is it common place or even possible for a jeweler to melt down a ring and reuse the plantinum for a different ring. Also, is this an expensive proposition?

 

[oldminer]

Using old metal is not a problem in itself, but if any little bit of dirt goes in with the melting, then the piece will probably be porous or brittle instead of properly alloyed and clean like freshly mixed metal and alloy. A careful jeweler who does customer work might say okay, but no commercial place will handle it. Unforeseen problems can result. It is a very nice sentimental idea, however. Using the old stones from both families make more sense. You might make the old metal into a plain wedding band simply to be used during your wedding cermeopny and then passed onward to future generations. Then, if the metal is not so wonderful, it won''t matter at all.

 

[diamondsbylauren]

I agree with Dave- it''s not really a practical idea to melt down an exisiting ring to re-use the metal.
Stones, absolutely, but not the metal.
You should be able to get scrap value at least- or maybe take the diamonds out of Grandma''s ring and replace them with Sapphires or something.

 

[AndyRosse]

I like DBL David''s suggestion of putting another stone in grandma''s setting. You could wear that as a RHR or something and still use the diamonds from grandma''s ring in your e-ring.