My wedding band is literally grinding away the prongs on my e-ring. What would you do

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MedicWifey

MedicWifey

Member
Jun 8, 2014
103
21
#1
So the short version of a long story is this:
I had an heirloom e-ring which was ruined during routine repairs but I had already purchased a curved band to match it. When I found out about my e-ring I kept the band I had picked and my then FI bought me a new solitaire. It's been 8 months since we got married and I just noticed the other day that the prongs on the wedding band side of my e-ring are literally ground down. I have to figure that the diamonds on the band are wearing away the gold as both are 14ct white gold.

So the question is this:
I can't solder them together because they're from two different stores and I would lose one warranty if not both.
I don't think a spacer would work because the band is quite curved.
I don't really want to buy a new band in a totally different style.
But I also don't want to either let my ring keep wearing away, have it replaced every year or wear them on 2 separate hands.

I'm kind of at a loss. What would you do??

ImageUploadedByPurseForum1433272278.795956.jpg

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#2
The same thing happened to mine. If it's been 8 months, it's probably worn away as much as it's going to. When you wear them now, is it flush with where it's worn away now? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I didn't do anything about it for mine. By the time I realized, it'd worn away as much as it was going to and just sat flush.. perfect! Your prongs look nice and thick/strong so it doesn't look like it it'll get so bad that it would damage the integrity of them. Here's how bad mine ended up before it stopped.

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#3
Holy crap! Yours are really worn down! I'm not sure if mine will get worse as my band doesn't actually touch the prongs just sitting there. I'm a paramedic and I think what is happening is when I wear gloves it's pushing the two together.
Here's a pic of mine from the side:

ImageUploadedByPurseForum1433277782.876051.jpg

P.S. Thanks for sharing the pic of yours, it puts my mind much more at ease from feeling like the prongs could snap at any second.
 
#4
Would you be open to redesigning / resetting what you have? and work with a known jeweler (try researching that on pricescope or speak to AME about it)
 
#8
Yea, I'm not worried about the prongs since I have the reinforcement going around the prongs also. I may be a little more wary if I just had the 4 prongs like yours. If you dont want a spacer and cant solder, I'd just keep an eye on it over the next few months and see if it gets any worse. If so, then take action. If not, then damage is all done and no need to worry about it getting worse.
 
#9
MedicWifey said:
So the short version of a long story is this:
I had an heirloom e-ring which was ruined during routine repairs but I had already purchased a curved band to match it. When I found out about my e-ring I kept the band I had picked and my then FI bought me a new solitaire. It's been 8 months since we got married and I just noticed the other day that the prongs on the wedding band side of my e-ring are literally ground down. I have to figure that the diamonds on the band are wearing away the gold as both are 14ct white gold.

So the question is this:
I can't solder them together because they're from two different stores and I would lose one warranty if not both.
I don't think a spacer would work because the band is quite curved.
I don't really want to buy a new band in a totally different style.
But I also don't want to either let my ring keep wearing away, have it replaced every year or wear them on 2 separate hands.

I'm kind of at a loss. What would you do??

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I want to hear the story of how a jeweler ruined an heirloom ring? I hope you don't use that jeweler anymore. I'd solder them together. Your ring is gorgeous. I use my grandmother's wedding band as a spacer (more for sentimentality) but I'm glad I do. It never would have dawned on me that this could happen.
 
#10
katieny said:
I want to hear the story of how a jeweler ruined an heirloom ring? I hope you don't use that jeweler anymore. I'd solder them together. Your ring is gorgeous. I use my grandmother's wedding band as a spacer (more for sentimentality) but I'm glad I do. It never would have dawned on me that this could happen.
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Okay here goes:

We were in the store one day looking at wedding bands and I ended up getting my heirloom ering cleaned. I had been told previously that the shank needed replaced because of thinning and the prongs were worn down so I was curious to see if they would say anything. Well it turns out the diamond had gotten loose so it definitely needed fixed. I opted to have the prongs re-tipped and half of the shank replaced. I was told the repair would take 2-3 weeks.

After going in to pick up the ring I wasn't super happy with the job they did on the prongs but I didn't mention it right away because I was so happy to have my ring back. However after less than a week I noticed that the prongs and the shank were turning yellow so I took it into the store for the manager to look at. They admitted that the repair had been done with white gold that was of a lesser quality that what the ring was originally made out of. So I sent it out for repairs again.

The next time I got the ring back it was a size and a half too small and the prongs looked even worse. So I sent it back again.

The next time it came back it was the right size but the prongs still looked terrible and the filigree on both sides of the shank was broken. I finally ended up talking with a corporate manager and meeting directly with a head goldsmith for the store and they did eventually make the ring wearable again but you can still see where the prongs aren't quite symmetrical and where the new shank was put in. All in all I think I was without my ring for 4 months give or take.
 
#11
MedicWifey said:
Okay here goes:

We were in the store one day looking at wedding bands and I ended up getting my heirloom ering cleaned. I had been told previously that the shank needed replaced because of thinning and the prongs were worn down so I was curious to see if they would say anything. Well it turns out the diamond had gotten loose so it definitely needed fixed. I opted to have the prongs re-tipped and half of the shank replaced. I was told the repair would take 2-3 weeks.

After going in to pick up the ring I wasn't super happy with the job they did on the prongs but I didn't mention it right away because I was so happy to have my ring back. However after less than a week I noticed that the prongs and the shank were turning yellow so I took it into the store for the manager to look at. They admitted that the repair had been done with white gold that was of a lesser quality that what the ring was originally made out of. So I sent it out for repairs again.

The next time I got the ring back it was a size and a half too small and the prongs looked even worse. So I sent it back again.

The next time it came back it was the right size but the prongs still looked terrible and the filigree on both sides of the shank was broken. I finally ended up talking with a corporate manager and meeting directly with a head goldsmith for the store and they did eventually make the ring wearable again but you can still see where the prongs aren't quite symmetrical and where the new shank was put in. All in all I think I was without my ring for 4 months give or take.
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That is terrible. Filigree is a bit finicky. My jeweler refused to work on one of my antique filigree pieces. Thanks for sharing your story.
 
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