Your Top 5 Jewellery Repair Questions Answered

We sat down with Lisa, who leads our repairs department here at Baker Brothers, to ask her some of your most frequently asked jewellery repair questions. From ring sizing to discovering how often an item needs servicing, Lisa shares her knowledge and hopefully gives you a better idea of how jewellery repairs work.

1.Why would I need to repurpose my jewellery?

You may wish to repurpose your jewellery because jewellery does have a lifespan. Especially if an item has been inherited. A grandmother may have worn that ring and then passed it down to their daughter, and then maybe to their granddaughter, over time that's going to have a lot of wear on it. Whether it’s the ring band itself, the setting, the claws, and eventually it's going to become too thin or too worn for security of that gemstone.

2.Does jewellery require servicing?

Jewellery requires servicing. It's very easy for us to wear a ring and forget that we are wearing it, but we are wearing it every day in everything that we do. And I always think of it as like a car. You'd need to keep your car serviced regularly for it to perform well and for its longevity. With regards to jewellery, it's exactly the same.

If you have a diamond ring and you don't check those claws every six months to a year, potentially what's going to happen is a claw is going to wear down and then you're going to lose your diamond. It's going to be a costly repair. What we always say is come in every six months, let us look at that ring. Let us check that setting. Let us give it an in-store clean because all of those things will help with the longevity of your jewellery.

3.What is the repair process at Baker Brothers?

With regards to jewellery repairs, we would invite you to come into store where one of the specialists here will have a look at your jewellery. They'll have a look under an eyeglass and they'll test anything they need to test to see exactly what repairs may or may not need to take place. It then comes to myself where I look a little bit more thoroughly, and it will then be sent off to the necessary repair centre.

There are multiple designers that we use that all specialize in different areas within the jewellery industry. When that comes back to me, I check it's all okay and if I'm happy, I will then give you a call to say that it's ready for your collection.

4. What is rhodium plating?

Rhodium plating refers to the process of creating white gold. The thing is, there's actually no such thing as white gold, gold is yellow. So, to create white gold, what they'll do is they melt gold. They'll apply alloys to it. So it makes it look like a khaki grey colour and then make the ring. It's not really a very pretty colour. Then what they do is they use rhodium plating over the top to give it that bright white finish.

It makes it look fabulous but the thing with rhodium plating is its average lifespan is about 12 to 18 months. It's not a lot of money to have the item re-rhodium plated and so we recommend popping in every 12 to 18months to give it that brand new look again.

5.How many sizes can a ring be sized?

First, it depends on the ring. It depends on its structure. If it's a wedding band, a plain wedding band, with no diamonds set then you can do quite a lot to it. If it's a diamond set ring, a single stone diamond set ring, you could be looking at maybe three, maybe four rings sizes again, depending on the setting.

It really comes down to how many diamonds are gemstones the ring features and where they are positioned. If they come down those shoulders, you are limited. So for example, if you have an eternity ring, that's diamond-set halfway around, you may be able to get one size, but that would be very, very lucky. And that's why with regards to sizing you can never 100% say at the beginning exactly of the process because it does need to be appraised. And the designer also needs to look at it. So it's very different for every style of ring.

If you’re unsure about how many sizes you can re-size your ring by I’d suggest booking an appointment with us where we will be able to assess the ring for you.

If you have any further quetsions about our repair services here at Baker Brothers Diamonds or to book your appointment call us on 01234 630821 or email us at [email protected].