My antique diamond turns in its setting

[vivianv]

My recently inherited antique ring has a lovely old diamond in that unfortunately turns about a 1/4 turn in the setting.Prongs need tightening for certain if I am going to wear it much.
Here''s the thing. I took it to a very reputable local jewelers and they told me that because it was 18k white gold the prong would probably break and they would need to keep the whole ring for about a week and half to rebuild the prong. They said to just tighten the prongs I needed to leave it that long because of the white gold 18K. Is 18k fragile?? These prongs are hardly worn as my grandmother only wore the ring for special occasions and even though the stone is a bit loose the prongs do go over the edges of the stone as they ought to..apparently not quite tight enough. I can''t see that the prong needs more than a little tightening...am I wrong? Are the prongs some weird sort of thing that requires special treatment? I am confused and do not want to leave the ring that long. I thought it only took a little time to tighten a prong??

Here is a link to the thread with photos of the prongs .
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-grandmothers-ring.128315/

Thank you

 

[Karl_K]

Take it to a different benchman.
There is no reason I can see they cant be tightened.
Thousands of 18k WG gold prongs are tightened every day.

 

[freefly]

I''m not a jeweler, but looking at the pictures, it doesn''t look like the prongs need to be rebuilt. I would take it to another jeweler and get a second opinion. I wouldn''t just take it to anyone though, I would take it to someone who deals with antique jewelry if possible. Gorgeous ring!

 

[stone-cold11]

ya, looks like a beauty, and no reason to take that long, get a second opinion.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 11/9/2009 2:50:43 AM
Author: Karl_K
Take it to a different benchman.
There is no reason I can see they cant be tightened.
Thousands of 18k WG gold prongs are tightened every day.

Agreed.

 

[glitterata]

Don''t wear the ring until you get the prongs tightened, though. You''re in danger of losing the stone.

And it''s possible there''s some damage to the prongs that we can''t see from the picture, so if your second opinion also thinks they need rebuilding, take it seriously.

 

[clgwli]

Date: 11/9/2009 9:20:57 AM
Author: glitterata
Don''t wear the ring until you get the prongs tightened, though. You''re in danger of losing the stone.

And it''s possible there''s some damage to the prongs that we can''t see from the picture, so if your second opinion also thinks they need rebuilding, take it seriously.

I agree with this. I also agree that you should take it to a jeweler that does regularly work with antique jewelry. I have a local jeweler that I only trust to do work on my antique pieces I have been given. They actually do take longer than the other jewelers but they have done fabulous work when I have had to had rings repaired. Good luck!

 

[vivianv]

Thank you!!
I was really wondering why anyone would buy an 18k setting if every time you needed a prong tightened it would take a long time. Just did not seem right. Maybe the fellow did see something wrong with one but he did not say so.

Does it really take that long to rebuild a prong if it is necessary??

Does anyone know of a good antique jewelery person in Seattle area??

 

[clgwli]

Honestly the time will depend on the work load of the place you are taking it to. The one I take my antique jewelry locally is top in the city for what they do. My turn around there is about 2.5 weeks on average no matter what work is being done. They just have a long list of items to fix and resize I guess. Of course it took them that amount of time to not only fix a couple prongs, but replace the shank as well as fixing some delicate filigree work that was bent/broken, as it did to resize a ring.

Another jeweler I trust with my regular pieces only takes 2-3 days to do prong work. The other places take an average of a 5-7 days to get work done. So in my opinion it varies.

Good luck finding a jeweler though. I admit I am lucky and there are many local owned places around here so I just stumbled on a few awesome ones by accident.