Sautering/Soldering platinum rings

[kathyinjapan]

As you can see in the pic below, there is a slight gap between my wedding band and engagement ring. Can platinum bands rub against one another and wear each other down? (I''ve heard this happens with white gold) If so, is it possible to have them soldered together?

Thanks

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Your problem is not platinum to platinum, which is not usually a big issue - it is diamond to platinum because the shared prong setting will be hacking its way thru the sides of your prongs.

So yes please - solder them together to stop this, or wear another platinum spacer between them.

 

[kathyinjapan]

Great, thanks!

 

[Kissmark]

Hi Kathy both rings are from Tiffany''s right? I read from another post that Tiffany shared prongs are set very low so they shouldn''t rub against the prongs of the ering. I haven''t seen them togethery myself but that is what another PS''er posted

 

[kathyinjapan]

Yes, they are both Tiffanys. The shared prongs sit roughly at the base of the e-ring setting (don't know the technical terms sorry)

Will the shop assistants at the store be knowledgeable enough to offer me proper advice? I'm worried that they are just shop girls

(which is why I'm asking here first)

 

[kathyinjapan]

Here''s a photo showing the side view of the rings.

Any further advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Kissmark]

Hi didn''t want to change the subject of this thread so I left you a message in your "Show Me the Ring" forum. Please check it thanks!

 

[kathyinjapan]

Well, I emailed my inquiry to Tiffany.com and their response was for me to ring them since they needed "additional information". That''s not very helpful

 

[kathyinjapan]

After being given the run around I have finally received a proper response. They suggested I have it resized down by 1/4 and it should give a better fit and sit more flush.

And according to them their diamond band rings are designed to compliment their solitaires so I shouldn''t worry about the setting being damaged, etc.

 

[WorkingHardforSmallRewards]

yea, In that picture it looks to be against that little hump in your ring, rather than against the prongs right? I suppose that will be a problem for me in the future, not having that gorgeous little hump those tiffany''s have.

Incredible rings by the way, absolutely beautiful.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

You can see for yourself - does the edge of the dimaonds rub on the under bezel - or the base of the prong. If it is the latter - you will have problems in a few years which might cost about $100 a year in maintenence.

 

[WTNLVR]

Check your rings with a loupe. I just did in response to this post and I''m horrified! I can see gouges already in the platinum on my e-ring from where the diamond in my wedding band is rubbing against. I have only had my new mounting for 2 months! I''ll have to take it in and see about soldering it. I hate to do it as I like to switch out e-rings, but these rings cost a fortune and I don''t want them damaged. What does soldering cost roughly?? My rings don''t spin either as they are snug, so I don''t buy Tiffany''s claim that a resize will fix the issue. I can''t do a spacer due to the curve, but that might be your best bet.

 

[kathyinjapan]

I ended up having my rings resized down to a 6.25 when I was in the States last month and they fit a lot better now.

The experience was a bit of a nightmare however. They misdirected my rings to the wrong workshop in the wrong state, they wern''t sure of the exact whereabouts of my rings, very poor communication and handling of the situation, etc. It took twice as long as the time they quoted me and I was left very worried that they had lost my rings. I don''t want to go into detail now but let''s just say I was pretty upset when it happened.

Pretty disappointing after the good experiences I''ve had with Tiffany & Co in Japan

 

[shminbabe]

I personally would not have the rings soldered together. You have two lovely and different Tiffany rings. From the picture it doesn't seem to me that the diamonds in the shared prong setting are really rubbing against the solitaire prongs. I have the same set more or less. True there will be some friction btwn. the two but w/ platinum prongs are you really going to see that much wear and tear? You'll never be able to wear your rings alone, and each are lovely in their own right. I have the same shared prong ring (7 stone tho) and it's so pretty by itself that I want to keep that option. I also have the e ring as a solitaire. The two fit nicely together but they aren't totally snug which is good for me b/c it = less friction. I have the e ring sized a tad smaller than the band and I think that helps. Personally unless you have a true matched set that is designed to fit together, I wouldn't solder them, ever. I'd put up with the friction and have the prongs checked, etc. If it's scratched under magnification, so be it. My rings are still new and shiny but I've been warned that the patina will change and repolishing will be necessary if I don't like the scratched patina. Maybe that's the same thing that's happening to you. Anyway, that's just my take on it. I'm not a big fan of two rings welded together. ETA: the image of the diamonds "hacking" their way through your setting just isn't what I see happening in your case. Firstly, the band is so much lower than your setting and secondly, I'm sure you remove your rings when you are doing tasks that require hard work from your hands and fingers. I asked my jeweler about this very issue when he was making my band and he concluded that the diamond girdle would not protrude enough to be scratching its way through the prong although yes, there will be friction and inevitable scratches. Just as there would between any two rings you'd wear. Since I do have a very similar set of rings and I can see that my band sits very low as yours does and my solitaire sits higher I have concluded that while there will be scratching that's about all there will be - no "hacking" and compromising the integrity of the prongs. I respectfully disagree wtih that one

 

[SpeedracerII]

This is a picture of platinum on platinum wear on my wife''s rings. Now these two rings are designed to fit together about as ideally as two rings could. They almost lock together. There is no contact between the stones and the metal of the shank or bezel. When I had these two rings made I realized they would scratch each other but I was surprised that it looked like this after only ONE DAY! They have gotten a little more dinged up since then but they are still pretty young rings. Hopefully this can all be polished out and with platinum there will be no loss of metal. I was thinking that when we get them re-polished that I would put a little dab of clear nail polish on the inside of the wedding band as a sort of spacer to keep them from rubbing together so much.

 

[SpeedracerII]

Date: 9/18/2007 11:03:37 PM
Author: SpeedracerII
This is a picture of platinum on platinum wear on my wife''s rings. Now these two rings are designed to fit together about as ideally as two rings could. They almost lock together. There is no contact between the stones and the metal of the shank or bezel. When I had these two rings made I realized they would scratch each other but I was surprised that it looked like this after only ONE DAY! They have gotten a little more dinged up since then but they are still pretty young rings. Hopefully this can all be polished out and with platinum there will be no loss of metal. I was thinking that when we get them re-polished that I would put a little dab of clear nail polish on the inside of the wedding band as a sort of spacer to keep them from rubbing together so much.

and the wear on the wedding band... (sorry the picture are so large)