Ring Sizing Dilemma: Leading Edge?

[Smith1942]

When using a mandrel for ring sizing, do you consider the leading edge of the ring to be the correct size, or where the middle of the ring falls on the mandrel?

I've got a great mandrel that I bought on Amazon, and yesterday I picked my new aquamarine and diamond ring up from the jeweller's in the UK and brought it back to America. I had asked for it to be sized to an American 5, which is a British J and a half. They said they'd look up the measurements for an American 5. The ring size is almost right, but when my hands were cold on the plane I noticed it seemed a bit bigger than my other "true 5s". I put it on my mandrel, and sure enough, the middle of the ring falls on the 5 mark, whereas my tighter rings (which I prefer) have the leading edge falling on the 5 line. So if you consider the leading edge to be the correct size, my ring is about a quarter size too big.

I realise this only applies to quite narrow rings, and this shank is about 2.5 mm. But, do you consider the leading edge to be the correct size, or the middle of the ring falling on the size line of a mandrel? When I asked for size 5, I didn't realise I should have specified "leading edge size 5". It's a little annoying, because with the winter coming and the ring being just slightly large, I think the ring is bound to fall to one side a little. Wondering if I should ask them to do it again when I go home at Christmas, or if it's too small a difference to bother. But in general, I'm quite interested in whether people think the leading edge or the middle of the ring on the mandrel is the "true" size?

 

[Circe]

I always go by the middle ... but keep in mind, mandrels aren't quite as standardized as they ought to be. It could well measure a "true" 5 on theirs. The best thing is usually to get sized using their ring sizer on the spot, and let them work from their own tools. Makes you wish there were some oversight, doesn't it!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I've never asked according to the mandrel size...I have gone in and had them look and adjust the size based on how the ring looked on my finger and had them resize it according to how it fit on my finger. My solitaire doesn't stay centered on my finger during the fall/winter but during the summer, when my fingers swell, it stays right where it should. There is no win-win due to weather conditions (and possibly knuckle-to-finger ratio)...if it fits perfectly on you now, it may be uncomfortable during the summer, you know, so keep that in mind.

 

[yssie]

It is annoying that there's so little standardisation. I usually send a band of about the same width and tell them to match the inner diameter (and err larger if there's any uncertainty). I detest too-tight rings so like Circe's mine spin in winter but are perfect in summer.

Even that has its pitfalls though - my WF eternity has a not-insignificant amount of negative space between the Us so it fits probably a quarter size larger than the actual size on the mandrel would indicate. And I told them to err big to begin with. Oops.

 

[JewelFreak]

At Tiffany's we measured the middle of the shank if it was a wide-ish one. I didn't realize mandrills aren't standardized, dumb. MC is right, to think about whether summer weather causes your fingers to swell -- a couple of my rings are uncomfortable in the heat, a couple others kind of tilt in winter.

Any good jeweler can resize it here for not much cost if you decide to -- you don't have to wait to go back.

I WANT TO SEE PICS!

--- Laurie

 

[texaskj]

One jewelers 6 is not another's 6. Count me in for the could-we-standardize-this-please? club.
My biggest problem is I almost need two sizes of every ring, one for summer and one for winter.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

This discussion pops up quite often among metal workers and it rarely reaches a consensus.

In my view, since the size is given by the internal diameter, it should always be measured by the leading edge. If it is measured in the middle of a wider band, then the diameter must be bigger, since the leading edge will be further down the measuring mandrel. However, because of the differences in mandrels (often made worse by people who hammer on their measuring mandrels, adding further distortions *shudder*), I prefer to measure the inside diameter with a sliding caliper and compare it to a sizing table.

 

[ringthing!]

I had this conversation with my jeweler just yesterday. I found out that our mandrels aren't in sync! I think the next time I need a ring resized, I will take one of mine that is the exact size I need.

 

[Smith1942]

Thanks everyone! I too wish there was more consensus.

I just picked up my Tiffany ring from being resized. It's a plain gold Peretti ring that I got for my 30th from my family, and it's always been too big. I finally got it sized, eight years later, and now it fits like a glove. I asked for a 5, and sure enough it's a leading edge 5. It's a good quarter size smaller than the aqua ring I just had sized to a 5. Annoying!

 

[Smith1942]

So, I've just measured most of my rings on my new mandrel. I found something quite annoying. Over the last couple of years I've had quite a few rings sized to a five, at different places, in both my US and UK towns. Except, they now all turn out to be five and a quarter. That's six rings that are wrong.

It's not the mandrel. My Tiffany size 5 ring that I just had done sits perfectly on the 5 line. My size 4.5 18th birthday ring sits perfectly on the 4.5 line. And, with one of the wrongly sized rings, I took it into E. B. Horn to replicate the size 5 for the custom rose gold scatter ring I was ordering, and the SA measured it on their mandrel and said it was actually larger than a 5.

Why is it so impossible to size a ring to a 5? Why do jewellers want to make it a quarter size bigger? Come to think of it, I've always had the same problem with bracelets. I always ask for 6.5" and they frequently come back as 6.75". That happened with both Tiffany and Whiteflash among others. With Tiffany, the work order even specified that the bracelet was supposed to be 6.5" including the clasp and it still came back as 6.75". I sent it back, so it took a month total to get a bracelet sized to 6.5".

Perhaps jewellers find it difficult to size to lower than average, if average bracelets are 7-7.5 inches and average rings are size 6? But size 5 and 6.5" isn't THAT small.

I also have a universal problem like this with bangs and hairdressers. Wherever I go, US or UK, hairdressers want to cut me huge thick bangs. And they do, without asking. I've spent years growing them out, only to relax for a minute with a magazine and - hey presto! They've cut big thick bangs again!

Of course, now I watch them like a hawk, and I'll be doing the same with future ring sizings.

But isn't it weird that every jeweller and hairdresser gives me rings a quarter size too big, bracelets a quarter inch too long, and thick bangs that I don't want? In two different countries!!

Do you have any small but annoying "service mistakes", for want of a better phrase, that follow you around like this? My friend says that wherever she goes in the world, she is - almost without fail - seated by the salad bar in every restaurant she goes to, and since she doesn't like to eat with lines of jostling people right next to her, she asks to move. And when my husband and I were dating in London, and we needed a taxi, we couldn't get one until my husband lit a cigarette. We'd stand for ages, and the minute he lit a cigarette a taxi would turn up. This happened over and over and over. Waste of cigarettes - they're expensive. He gave up smoking in 2005 so we haven't been able to test whether this works in Boston too!

 

[JewelFreak]

we needed a taxi, we couldn't get one until my husband lit a cigarette. We'd stand for ages, and the minute he lit a cigarette a taxi would turn up.

Haha! My mother said that about buses; wait & wait, finally light a butt & the bus rolls up: magic.

I can't get over mandrels not being standard. That's just plain weird & soooo dumb. Lady D, you're right about people who jam a ring down on one too -- until I bought my own, I'd take a ring into a jeweler & ask them to size it & they'd cram it as far down as their strength could do it. That resulted once in my giving Sally the wrong ring size -- it arrived too big & I had to take it to a local jeweler for re-sizing.

Smith, with hairdressers for me, they always try to cut my hair real real short. I look AWFUL with very short hair; it needs to be a little below the collar. If my attention wanders, it gets cut up by my ears, making me look like a little Dutch girl. Every hairdresser. Every time. Bizarre about your bangs, though, if you don't ask for them!

--- Laurie

 

[Smith1942]

I should probably make clear that I do have bangs, but sideswept wispy ones, which are then turned into a three-in-thick thatch! It's not as if I have no bangs at all to begin with - sorry, I wasn't clear!

I usually do my colour myself, because I always liked what I did better than the hairdresser, which has held true over twenty years. However, about once every seven years I cave and I go to the hairdresser for highlights. I did so a few weeks ago when I had my medical issue, to cheer myself up. For once, the colour was fine, and no tiger stripes! BUT, the hairdresser put the highlights a long way from my roots. So now, a month later, I look as if I haven't had my hair coloured in three or four months. Now, I will have to do the roots myself and the body colour will be somewhat altered (because you have to blend the two). So I paid all that money for colour which has lasted one month.

At the same time, in a cheer-up effort, I bought some posh hair products from Sephora, by Alterna, root lift cream and hairspray. It was all organic etc, instead of buying cheaper Garnier Fructis products. A few days after the spray was opened it started smelling like fish, and the products leave my hair gummy and make it look as if it hasn't been washed.

Hairdressers, products, ring sizing...I just get fed up with throwing money away on crappy goods and services, you know? Especially things that were supposed to cheer me up!! The three things I just mentioned probably add up to about $500. That's the price of a nice pair of diamond rose gold hoop earrings that I currently want in the BN sale!

And, when I get a crappy good or service, usually I complain. But some things you don't realise till ages later, like the rings and I didn't realise about my roots until my hair grew a bit. And, I never dreamed that $50 worth of hair products from Sephora would be so crap, so I didn't keep the receipt.

We should start a list of goods, services, and products that are a total waste of money, and things that you have to watch like a hawk if you want them to come out right, like ring sizing.

ETA: I am somewhat comforted to hear that you also have the hairdressers who want to do exactly what you don't want!