Will soldering rings together make them fit more snugly?

[glaucomflecken]

Hey everyone

Well when I wear both my rings together, with the sizing beads in each, they of course fit more snugly than each ring alone. I know everyone is against soldering a tacori ring but the clanking will drive me crazy and I have a seperate band to wear on its own. so im pondering it.

Does the actual solder material used to weld the rings together add any thickness or bulk to the inside of the ring as to make it fit tighter?
thanks

 

[Demelza]

I don't believe so. Depending on how they're soldered, they will ususally add tiny drops of solder at several places around the ring. It shouldn't add any thickness or bulk. It might, however, make it more difficult to take the rings on and off because of the thickness (in width) of the 2 rings fused together. I'm not a big fan of soldering, but it does solve certain problems.

 

[ame]

Can you not add more beads to prevent it?

 

[koko]

I had my original yellow gold wedding set soldered, as well as my new white gold set. I think they fit slightly more snug, but my jeweller told me it''s because the ring is now larger, not because of the soldering material....I can''t stand rings that separate & turn on the finger.

 

[fire&ice]

Not that you are going to be selling these - but just to offer a different perspective - soldering the rings together will seriously hurt the value. The pieces have been altered - a big no no in the estate jewelry world of value.

 

[oldminer]

The wider the ring, the tighter it will seem to fit at a given finger size. More skin is compressed and a small allowance for width can be necessary.

You can solder engagement and wedding rings togehter and not worrya bout resale value. The residual value of such items is the diamonds plus the scrap value of the metal. Unless the rings are from a famous, important maker, no second hand dealer cares about mountings to any great extent. Sure, rings in perfect condition have a shot at being sold as-is, but worn rings are going to be replaced before re-selling.

If the rings have a famous trademark inside or have a known provenance (history of important previous ownership) then the advice to avoid damaging them in any way could apply. Just don''t get hyper over it.

 

[njc]

PnP - can you take both rings off at the same time? Does that make sense? That may give you an idea of getting them on/off with them being soldered.

And a small side note... I was told that if i wanted to solder mine together (platinum as well), to make sure it was done with white gold because it has a lower melting point than platinum, making it easier to take them apart if they ever needed to be.

 

[WinkHPD]

That may be BAD ADVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recently reshanked a platinum ring that had been sized with white gold solder. The white gold eventually discolored and look horrible where the solder had been applied. My bench informed me that this had contaminated the shank and that the only way to completely fix it was to do a new half shank.

I am not a goldsmith and do not claim to know the science behind it, but my bench has told me in no uncertain terms not to mix gold solder with platinum.

Wink

P.S. Dave is correct, we frequently will size a wide ring one quarter to one half size larger so that it can be pulled over the knuckle and fit more comfortably than a narrow band. If you are soldering two bands that are both very thin, say 2mm, then you may be able to keep them the same size, but if they are both 3mm bands then suddenly you are wearing a 6mm band which may need to be larger to take on and off with the same ease with which you remove them now.

 

[nhwhazup]

I wanted to have my rings soldered due to the style and where they spooned together, they would separate. So I asked my designer in CA his opinion of soldering them together and what I should be aware of if I had a local jeweler do the soldering.

This is what he said:

The thing with platinum when they are soldered together you want a good clean polished line where they are joined. Also the higher the qaulity of platnum the better. If the rings do ever need to be sized you would want to reseperate the rings remove all the platinum that was used to solder them together and resize each ring seperatly with the highest temp welding platinum. The one problem that you need to watch for with platinum is any discoloration in the area of the weld.
If it is done properly you will not see any color varation or any line. A slight gray will appear if any contamination is present. The area that they are soldered does not need to be large, but it should only be at the bottom maybe 10mm of area. the rings will look natural at the top. Please give the goldsmith a little freedom in the amount of time needed to do the task properly, rush jobs are not always the best. There is no way in the world your diamond could be removed from that setting. the risk is with the high temp. of soldering platinum. Diamonds can become frosted if over heated. This is not likely to happen when soldering at the bottom. He must use platinum and not white gold solder .White gold solder will ruin the rings. I am sure he knows this ,just take a close look when you pick the rings up.Check how well the rings line up and look at the joint very carefully.Of course take a close look at you diamond. It should look like new when you pick it up.
The rings and especially the diamond need to be perfectly clean, they will need time to clean the diamond before any work can be done. If any dirt is heated under the diamond it will turn black and not look good under the diamond.It will also be harder to remove.
If I was doing it I would repolish the rings clean and then solder them together and then polish and clean again. You may ask them to take this approach .This will make sure the platinum is polished in the areas which may be hard to get to after they are soldered together.

With this in mind I wasn't taking any chances, I sent the rings back to him to be soldered and they are perfect.