Thin Shank Question

[rebski]

First, a bit of background: My husband and I are remaking my engagement ring. We have a 1-carat diamond from my original ring and a .4-carat diamond from his great-grandmother's engagement ring, and we are working on getting another .4-carat diamond to match so that we can have a three-stone ring. We wanted to have something made that would match the thickness of my plain, 2mm platinum wedding band, but the band is rather thin--just over 1mm thick. We talked to one jeweler who said that he wouldn't make a three-stone ring with a shank that thin because he'd be concerned that it would be too weak.

So, we decided to go ahead and remake the wedding band, too, since I really want the rings to go together well (my band was thinner than the shank of my original engagement ring, and it ended up bugging me; that's not at all why we're redoing the ring, but it's something I want to avoid with a new ring). However, we really wanted to use the old band somehow. We went in to talk to a jeweler (a different one than the one who wouldn't make the thin ring, since we moved), and he said that it would be no problem to remake both rings and melt down the old band as part of the materials for the two new rings. This sounded good to us, so we paid a deposit, and he got to work designing a new engagement ring. He did try to push me to go for a diamond band, and he mentioned that he could use the bottom half (or so) of my old band and solder it together with a new top piece with diamonds. I wanted to stick with something more similar to my original band, so I told him to just make a thicker, plain, 2mm-wide band.

We eventually settled on a design for the engagement ring. Before he sent the design out for a wax model, he talked with the caster and found out that we actually can't have the old ring melted down for the new rings. My husband wanted to try to convince him to have it done despite the caster's concerns, but I researched a bit and ended up agreeing with the caster that it was a bad idea. Then, I thought back to the conversation about the diamond bands. Maybe we could go ahead and have the jeweler use part of my old band and join it together with something new to make a diamond band that would match the thickness of the engagement ring at the top and partway down the sides. So, we inquired about that and found out that the caster said that can't actually be done, either.

At this point we're really frustrated and concerned that the jeweler doesn't know what he's talking about (and maybe what he's doing). He's trying to push us to just have the new rings made and then turn my old band into something else, like a pendant (not what we want), or to make the shank of the engagement ring thinner to match my band. He says that having the shank this thin won't be a problem, but I'm concerned because of what we had heard before (from a jeweler I think I trust more). For reference, the new engagement ring will have a width of 2.5mm. Would it be too weak if it's just 1mm thick? Does anyone know of any other solutions?

 

[tyty333]

Are your rings going to be platinum or gold? Not sure if I missed that.

 

[rebski]

The current band is platinum, and the new rings will be platinum as well.

 

[rebski]

Does anyone have experience with using part of an old platinum band for a new ring? Or understand why it couldn't be done?

 

[kenny]

Does anyone have experience with using part of an old platinum band for a new ring? Or understand why it couldn't be done?

If it could be done I think it would not be economically viable.

New platinum is processed in a large batch.
Processing a small batch of platinum, one ring's worth, would cost a lot in labor if it is even possible.

I suspect if the old ring has sentimental value and you don't care what it costs they can use the old metal.

I think the usual path is to sell the old ring as scrap platinum and use that money to help pay for the new ring.

 

[denverappraiser]

The problem with directly casting old platinum is with contaminants. Platinum melts at very high temperature and contaminants in the metal, like solder or white gold parts, will boil. That causes bubbles in a BIG way, and those bubbles make the finished piece impossible to polish and it makes prongs weak, among other things. Your caster is right. Don’t do it.

 

[rebski]

Sorry--I should have been clearer. I understand why we can't melt down the old band to make a new one. I meant to ask whether people had experience with using a portion of an old band to solder together with another part to make a new ring. The jeweler said that this could cause problems if the ring needed to be resized later on. Would this only be a problem when resizing, or are there reasons to be concerned that it wouldn't hold up to being worn regularly?

 

[rebski]

I also maybe should clarify that this isn't an old wedding band. It's two years old and hasn't been repaired. So, it seems like there would be less of a chance for problems with it than if it were a really old ring of unknown origins. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

 

[rebski]

Also, I'm really not feeling comfortable with the jeweler, so I think I'm about ready to give up on my insistence on working with someone local and ready to forfeit our deposit and start over (and maybe not with a custom design). So, I welcome recommendations for three-stone settings. What we were going for was something similar to White Flash's Butterflies but designed so that it would sit flush against a wedding band (and with some other differences). I also really like ERD's Anna, though. I like the smooth, natural curves of Butterflies and the unique floral design of Anna. Suggestions for other settings I should be looking at?

 

[tyty333]

I dont see what the problem would be. Rings get reshanked right? You would probably need someone with a laser soldering
Machine.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I would start over with a new band. 1 mm in height is pretty thin. I have one from my mother like that, but it doesn't look good with my rings since it is lower. I would continue looking locally for 3 stone settings, but look for brands such as Vatche that make high quality settings. They have a few really pretty three stone settings. You can find retailers who carry Vatche on their site.

http://www.dvatche.com/index.php?page=collection&catID=2,9

 

[rebski]

tyty333, that's what I thought--if rings can be reshanked, what would make this so different?

diamondseeker2006, do you mean that you wouldn't use my original band at all, even if soldering part of it together with something new were an option, because it's not good to have 1mm even at the bottom? Vatche does have some very pretty rings, like the 3 Stone Royal Crown, which is very similar to the WF Butterflies. Unfortunately, there are no Vatche retailers in our state (or any of the surrounding states for that matter).

We went to look this evening at what the local stores have. Unfortunately, only the mall chain stores were still open, and there aren't too many other stores anyway, so the options were pretty limited. I found two rings that I liked. One (http://www.paradedesign.com/Jewelry.asp?Style=R3010/R1&Collection=Hera%20Bridal) is a three-stone ring but already has the side stones, which are smaller than what I have, so that setting couldn't be used as-is. I don't know that I totally love everything about it, anyway, but it is really pretty. The other (http://www.paradedesign.com/jewelry.asp?Style=R2928/R1&Collection=Hera%20Bridal) is a solitaire, which is not what we have in mind, but I really love it. It would be nice to have a three-stone ring with a similar style.