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To solder or not to solder..

L

Lofi

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
401
Help!

I am working with a jeweler on a custom wedding band for my wedding on October 9 (nothing like waiting till the last minute - eek!). Anyway, she is urging me to solder my wedding band to my engagement ring . Her argument is that I have two bezelled diamonds on the side of my band (see pic below) that will rub against the wedding band. She said she feels it will only be a couple months before they rub off or are damaged because of the rubbing.

I have such hesitation with soldering my rings together... I don't know why, though??!!?! I have contridictary feelings about how I like rings to look. On the one hand, I like the look of two clearly separate different rings. My ring, however, does not look good with a straight band next to it. I've tried about a 1,000 straight eternity bands, and no matter how much I like a gap on other sets, it simply doesn't work for mine. So I put this curved band on a couple weeks ago... It looked pretty perfect, and I was ready to pull the trigger - the mold is even made! Butthe jeweler told me of the rubbing issue...and now I'm second guessing...

My question is: am I being unreasonable? Should I simply solder them together and quit my crying?! Or do you think this gal is just trying to cover herself if anything were to happen?

... Then there is also the question of... will it spin and get off-centered?? Oy! I love my ring so much... I just wish there was an easier wedding band option. :cry:

Here are two pics of the ring with a curved wedding band similar to what mine will look like...

Ring%201.jpg
Ring%202.jpg

Here is an image of the side of my ring with the bezelled diamonds:

ProfileERing.jpg
 
Personally, I wouldn't solder. I think your band is too pretty from the side to solder a band permanently to it. Also, I think a curved band would have a harder time spinning b/c it's meant to fit closely to your ring.

In your case, I'd just buy a wedding band to wear alone, rather than risk a curved band rubbing, or having it soldered together. On the other hand, I think your e-ring is gorgeous enough to wear alone.
 
I'm just not a fan of soldering - I'd just take my chances and see what happens!
 
ya, if it is a fitted band it should not spin independently of the e-ring, rubbing should also decrease significantly.

I say, don't solder first. Only if the wear is becoming serious then solder is still not too late since you will be covering up the worn part anyway.
 
I would leave them alone for now, you can always solder them together after your married.
Something to remember is its not a big job to take them apart if you solder them together and don't like it.
 
Don't solder!!! I don't think you'll have a problem with spinning if the wedding band is custom made to fit against your ring. Is there a way that the jeweler could add two "indents" on the side of the wedding band to accommodate the side diamonds on your engagement ring? That way the rings would almost be interlocked.
 
I wouldn't do it ... You can always add a spacer ring if need be... But see how it goes.
 
No soldering!

If you don;t want spinning, sice the wb a wee bit tight and it will not move.
 
don't do it. :!:
 
I wouldn't. You might miss seeing that gorgeous profile.
 
THANKS ALL!!! My jeweler made it sound like I was crazy not to want to solder, so I'm so glad you are all on the same page as I am. =) Putting indents on the wedding band is a great suggestion... I'll ask her if that's an option tomorrow when I see the mold!!!
 
I did have my solder and I hated it, there were solder for about a year and it drove me batty, I had them undone.
 
LFVDoll, will your new band have any diamonds on the side where the two little diamonds are? If it is just metal, it is not as
hard on the ring as if it were two stones rubbing together.

I wear a spacer that separates my 3 sided pave band from my eternity. The plain band has a few scratches, but I haven't noticed
any wear to the diamonds on the side. I haven't looped it but it seems fine. I have had mine a little over 3 mos.

Plus, if worse case is that you have to replace the small diamonds on the side-I don't think that is to expensive or difficult.
I would not personally solder them ever.

The two rings that you should look really nice together. Congrats that your day is coming up so soon! I hope it is wonderful.
 
Ditto everyone! There may be days you want to wear your e-ring alone- who knows.

Your ring is beautiful, do have any other pics?
 
I think I do see what the jeweler is saying. I was also urged to join mine and chose not to. Ultimately the ering did sustain undue wear that wasn't apparent until it was, you know? It wasn't gradual (or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention?) Now I have a new set, and I didn't do it again-because I don't learn easily apparently. I just really prefer them to be separate. One set I have does have a little hook that joins them and keeps them ever-so-slightly apart. I think it's a very interesting little detail, circumvents the problem nicely, but have no idea how feasible that is for most rings. I can say that it wasn't there when I bought it though-I did have it added. The difference may be that the particular style often had those hooks but maybe it's worth a question? Good luck and it's beautiful. The rings look like they were made for each other.
 
:wavey: Hi mrs. taylor - any chance you could upload a picture of this "hook"? I am intrigued...

Thank you in advance, if you are able!
 
I am on a great hunt for my camera which I suspect is missing as a result of my husband "borrowing" it. LOL. I have a photo that I can send you, but I can't seem to minimize it enough for this forum.

It's kind of like an itty bitty spoon. It is housed in the wedding ring (or can just be soldered to it.) You attach the two rings by inserting it sideways into a spot on the engagement ring, and as it rotates to match up (so you can wear them) they are joined. Again, it may only be an option if the ring style allows it.

I'll fiddle with the photos and see if I can get one up.
 
Okay, this is the one this particular set has (i'm sure this photo is going to be gigantic.) This ring style was made to have this particular hook. My jeweler showed me others as well. My original ering was a trellis style and he had said I could have done it on that as well. Either way the ones I have seen were meant to prevent spinning and rubbing. HTH.

IMG_8997.JPG
 
.... not :nono:
 
Kaleigh said:
I wouldn't do it ... You can always add a spacer ring if need be... But see how it goes.
Click to expand...

i would ditto this. i think a super thin spacer would look gorgeous with your ring. it would make a clear separation between your fabulous engagement ring and wedding ring, get rid of the space-between-rings issue, and let you wear both rings on one hand.

sounds like soldering is a big commitment and is very difficult to reverse, def don't do it if you have doubts.
 
Thanks all! Your comments have been super helpful. Amazingly, the jeweler let me take the band this weekend to see if it had spinning issues. I think she wanted me to be irritated by it and decide to solder it, but I had zero issues with it moving around. If I do, I will cross that bridge when I get there.

The hook idea is very interesting... Question, if you wear the rings alone, does the hook look funny?? Or is it not noticeable?

Thanks again! Really appreciate all the responses...
 
with mine, it doesn't collapse into the ring. so yes, it's noticeable and for that set I can't (wouldn't) wear the band on it's own. I had another set where the hook folded in so that you could just pop it in and wear the band. I actually really like it. I can't imagine adding the hook after the fact and having it be collapsible...but I'm no jeweler.
 
Thanks for the pic, mrs.taylor. :mrgreen:

I'm still having a brain-fade / hard time imagining it, but I sort of get the idea. Certainly is another option I hadn't heard of before!
 
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