Repairing my ering: do it here or do it right?

[Echidna]

Psers, I need some advice.

My ering is a beautiful Sholdt semi-bezel. I noticed today that the stone is loose. It twists slightly left and right inside the semi-bezel and rattles when you shake it.

Question: Should I even attempt to get someone local to repair it (in Brisbane, Australia-not a jewellery hub by any means) or just suck it up and send it back to Sholdt to do it properly (significant $, lots of time)?

I'm scared to make a wrong call here I LOVE this ring.

 

[kelpie]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

Darn, that setting is one of my favorites. It is really a tough call given your distance but I learned the hard way to never go cheap with repairs on a designer ring. I have a vintage Graff ring, really a spectacular piece totally 5cts and instead of getting it sized and authenticated by Graff upon purchase like an idiot I got it sized locally and not only was the job lopsided, it appears they complete buffed out the "GRAFF" hallmark I had told them to be careful to preserve like they thought it was a personal engraving from the previous owner. So now my ring is still a great ring but it can not be proven to be Graff. So don't do the local benchman. Are there any sholdt dealers in OZ? Maybe, just maybe you can find the best reputed benchman in the whole area and get their opinion on their level of confidence to repair.

 

[Miss Sparkly]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

I would send it back to Sholdt. My fear would be that some benchman would just pound down the bezel around the stone to tighten it and screw up it's perfection (LOVE Sholdt's pieces btw and finally got one myself ). I was in the same boat with one of my pieces, give it to a local PS vendor to have him do the work at 3x the cost or take it to somebody I've worked with before but didn't know the skill level. In the end it was worth my peace of mind and money to know that it would be done right and that if anything happened to it, it would be taken care of.

 

[stone-cold11]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

Call Stoldt and ask if they have any suggestions on benchman to use in Australia?

 

[movie zombie]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

back to its maker. take no chances that a local benchperson will botch the job and/or stone.....and maker will not want to right that wrong!

MoZo

 

[blackberry16]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

I didn't listen when all the PSers told me to send my ring back to JM for sizing beads and boy was I sorry! I ended up in a 6 month battle with the local B&M b/c they ruined it. I finally got my insurance company to agree to pay for it and it is on it's way to JM. It is worth it to just send it to the jeweler that you know will do it right the first time!

 

[Echidna]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

Thank you Kelpie, Sparkly Blonde, Stone-cold, Movie Zombie and Blackberry. A unanimous vote (and so many horror stories )!

I emailed Sholdt and they replied very promptly to say that a good jeweller shouldn't have any trouble tightening the bezel but that sending it back would ensure the work was done by someone familiar with the setting. Sholdt don't have people in this area of the world so they didn't make any recommendation about particular vendors.

I'm going to take Kelpie's advice and see if a recommended benchman has a high level of confidence about repairing it. I'm going to need a really good benchperson here at some point...

 

[gemgirl]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

Call Stoldt and ask if they have any suggestions on benchman to use in Australia?

I would defintely so what Stone-cold suggests. It makes sense to me that in a large country like Australia, there *has* to be a jeweler that Sholdt can recommend. I'd hate to see anyone without their ring for as long as it probably would take to ship it here, have the repair, then return it to you.

 

[Rae~]

Re: Repairing my engagement ring: do it here or do it right?

Echidna, if you find anyone great please let me know! A good, reliable benchperson would be invaluable.

I can suggest someone to at least talk to in Brissie if you like, although I can't speak for their ability with bezel. They/he made my engagement ring (designed by FI), which I am quite happy with. It's just hard to be 100% confident after only one item. I will try him again in the future - we are likely going to have our wedding rings made there (well, mine at the very least) - and assuming all goes well I'd like to do other projects further down the track. He's quite easy to talk to. I do find his prices a little expensive, but then I am comparing them with PS vendor prices from the US - probably not really a fair comparison.

(I recall he said he worked mainly in platinum but would work with gold if requested.)

 

[Echidna]

I just wanted to follow up on my post and let you know that my ering has been fixed and is back in my possession I missed it!

After the lovely people of Sholdt let me know the fix shouldn't be difficult for an experienced bench, I took the ring to my favourite antique jeweller in Brisbane (Penfolds on Adelaide St, for those of you playing at home!). Penfolds don't take just any repair (I didn't get to clarify exactly what that meant!) but took a look at my ring and said I shouldn't give it to "just anyone". I gave them my best dazzling smile and told them that's why I'd landed on their doorstep. Apparently this flattery worked because they agreed to fix it for me.

They had the ring for just under a week and it was returned to me with a tightened bezel, new rhodium plating, and some polish. The bezel isn't EXACTLY as Sholdt had done it originally but I only know this because I'm a picky Pricescoper The edge of the bezel is slightly more rounded now, which means I love the new side profile better than the original but the top profile isn't quite as nice as before. At the time I was just pathetically grateful it hadn't been butchered, but now that I've had time to appreciate it I can see they did a genuinely lovely job with the repair.

So Rae, possibly an option for you too? Who were you going to recommend? Stephen Dibbs gets a bit of kudos locally but I've heard he's on the exxy side. Did I guess right?!

ETA: The cost of the repair was also VERY reasonable, especially for a CBD business. Very happy about that!

 

[mayerling]

I recently had a similar problem with a prong that needed tightening and resulted in my stone rattling. The place I got it from required two train trips; one to get the ring to them and one to get it back. I decided I didn't want to part with my ring for that long, and that I didn't have time to get to London twice (on weekdays), so I asked around my city and found a local jeweler to fix it for me. They only exist in my City, have their own workshop on site, and they tightened the prong in an hour and a half very cheaply. And they threw in a professional cleaning as well. I was impressed.

I'm not saying you should do the same, but asking around your town couldn't hurt.