Full Service Jewelry Repair
Toodie's Fine Jewelry has a full repair shop. Our qualified staff provides quality repairs, re-sizing, re-mounting, polishing and re-design of your old and new jewelry. We also offer complimentary cleaning and polishing of your jewelry while you wait.
Bent Prongs
Bent prongs can occur for a number of reasons, whether it's because you’ve accidently dropped a heavy object on your ring, the prongs have been caught by clothing, you closed the door on your ring or it was slammed against an object. In these situations, you run the risk of one prong or several prongs being misshapen, pulled off of the diamond or broken off entirely. After you’ve identified the damage, you should bring in your ring to get it properly assessed and fixed.
Missing Side Stones
If any of your side gemstones are missing, it is critical to bring your jewelry in to Toodie's to assess how it possibly happened and the cost to replace it.
Bent Bottom Shank
Picking up heavy weights (with most of the weight resting on the bottom of the ring,) hitting something too hard, or any strenuous work could ultimately result in bending the bottom half of your ring. In the event of this happening, bring the ring in to Toodie's so they may assess the problem.
Ring Stuck On Your Finger
In the event that your ring simply will not come off, it is best to seek a jeweler to cut off the ring for you; they typically insert a ring cutter that fits between the bottom of the ring and your finger to carefully cut a very small section off. Once this is complete, you can slowly pull the ring apart and bring it over your knuckle. After this process, it is still possible to repair the ring; simply ask us about the cost associated with fixing the missing/ damaged piece of metal.
Loose Side Stones
If you find that any of your side stones are loose, have us tighten the prongs or metal surrounding or holding the stone.
In-Store Jewelry Maintenance
In an effort to fix any problems that may have been previously overlooked, it is important to bring your jewelry in every six months for inspection. Not only can this potentially save you time and money - it will also catch any gemstones that may be loose before they have fallen out.
Ring Resizing
There are four known methods for sizing any ring -the first of which is simply using a ring stretcher, though this is rarely used as it makes the shank thinner and weakens the overall integrity of the ring. These courses of actions are not often endorsed or recommended by experts for these reasons.
The second method - much safer than the first - is used solely on plain wedding bands (those that have no stones in them) for both men and women: The ring is first placed in a cylindrical bowl that is a size smaller than the ring. Then, with a flat-shaped tool, pressure is applied to an area of the ring, which compresses it. No gold is added or lost in this process.
The third method, used for sizing rings up, involves cutting the bottom of the shank, pulling the two sides apart, building a bridge of new gold based on the size needed and then soldering it in - preserving the thickness at the base of the ring, where it is most essential. Usually, a laser is used to weld the extra bridge of gold - giving us the ability to size a ring quicker and more accurately than with the traditional style.
The last method, used for sizing rings down, is accomplished by cutting the bottom of the shank, taking out the proper length of gold and soldering the two pieces back together. A laser welder is used for the process as well, ensuring the most accurate sizing.
One concern that customers tend to have relates to the integrity of the side stones after a ring has been sized either up or down. The stones are always checked before sizing; if any of them are loose, they are tightened before continuing. This ensures that none of them will be compromised during and after the process. Stones are also checked after the process of sizing in case of loosening during the process. After resizing a ring, we simply refinish the piece like new. If white gold, the ring is Rhodium Plated.
Setting of Stones
Prong:
A prong setting - which usually has 4 or 6 prongs - is one of the most popular settings on the market, and is used for all types of faceted stones.
Shared Prong:
Similar to the Prong setting, the Shared Prong gets its name from prongs of metal placed between two stones.
Bezel:
A versatile choice used for any type of stone, the bezel setting sees the diamond set deep inside of the mounting while the metal is folded over the stone to create a strip that holds the diamond in place.
Half Bezel:
This setting utilizes essentially the same approach as the Bezel setting, except a Half Bezel is when the stone’s girdle is not fully covered.
Channel:
Another setting that can be used for any type of stone, the channel setting sees the goldsmith creating a channel - as the name would suggest - and then cut seats in it where the diamond will sit. After each diamond is placed in the new channel, our goldsmith secures the stones in place by hammering the upper sides of the channel walls.
Pave:
With pavé settings, several small gemstones - usually diamonds - are set closely together, separated and held in place by small beads of the setting metal. This produces what resembles a continuous string of diamonds or other gems on its surface.
Tension:
A relatively new setting, Tension - where ‘springing’ (a metal’s physical characteristic) is used to hold a faceted stone in place - can only be used with gemstones that have a Hardness level of 9 or above. The diamond is first set in small grooves that are cut at the ends of the shank. Following this, between 65-95 lbs. of pressure is exerted on the girdle of the stone being held in place - making the Tension setting one of the most secure to choose from.
Bar:
Similar to the Channel setting, the Bar setting sees that diamonds are set between bars, where they are first nested in grooves and then overlapped by metal using a hammering tool. Like the Tension setting, this also requires gemstones to have a Hardness level of 9 or above.
