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You searched high and low for the perfect engagement ring. It has everything you wanted: your favourite precious metal, a sparkly diamond or luminous emerald. In short, it’s utterly splendid, except for one thing: it doesn’t fit right!
If this happens to you, don’t panic. Jewellers regularly resize engagement rings, and happy brides walk out of their shops wearing gorgeous rings that fit perfectly.
You may have a few questions about engagement ring resizing, so we’ve put together a handy FAQ of the most common queries we hear.
Before we talk about re-sizing, let’s talk about plain, old sizing. How should an engagement ring fit?
You should be able to slide the ring on easily, but expect to have to tug a bit to pull it off. If your ring feels uncomfortably tight, you’ll want to size it up. How do you know if it’s too big? If it slips off with no resistance, your ring is in constant danger of being lost.
Engagement rings with large centre stones often twist around on the wearer’s finger because gravity wants to pull that rock back to earth.
Fortunately, jewellers have some handy strategies for avoiding this problem. For instance, jewellers can place a sizing assistant in the ring to keep it positioned correctly. It looks like a bar or two of small beads, and it’s typically placed on the ring’s interior. The sizing assistant serves as an anchor that keeps your diamond firmly in place.
It would be nice if any ring could be resized to fit any person, but that’s not realistic. In most cases, jewellers can size rings up to two sizes. Any larger or smaller will cause too much stress on the piece of jewellery.
Most resizing problems fall well within the two-size margin, but if you’re trying to size an heirloom ring to a new wearer, you might run into trouble. If this is the case, talk with your favourite jeweller about your options. Crafting a new setting for a treasured diamond could be one tantalizing solution.
If a ring just needs to be enlarged by half a size, the jeweller will likely heat the metal and stretch it. But if the size needs to be increased by more than half a size, the jeweller will probably have to cut the band and add another piece of metal. The ring must be re-soldered, cleaned and polished as well. As you might expect, this process requires much more labour and expense, especially if the ring is made of an expensive metal like platinum. If your ring has channel diamonds set in the band, the jeweller may have to rearrange the stones to restore a perfect appearance.
To make an engagement ring smaller, the jeweller cuts a piece out of the band and then reforms the band into a perfect circle. After soldering and polishing, you won’t be able to tell that your ring has undergone an operation; it will look as brilliant as ever, but it will fit you perfectly.
Unfortunately, no. Some metals, such as tungsten, are too hard to be resized, and others, like rose gold, will crack during the process. Jewellers can work with silver, gold and platinum, so they’re great candidates for resizing. Some styles are more difficult to resize than others; the jeweller needs enough room on the rink to accommodate the work. Tension settings can be very difficult (sometimes impossible) to resize because of the design’s delicate balance.
Most jewellers can have your ring resized within a week or two, which means it will be back on your finger soon. Times may be longer or shorter depending on the availability of materials needed for the repair.
Resizing depends mainly on the materials needed and the amount of labour involved. The cost can be as little as $20, or it might run up into the hundreds of dollars for a challenging job involving additional precious metals or stones.
We recommend always starting with your original jeweller. If that’s not an option, seek recommendations from friends and family members. The bottom line is this: find a trustworthy jeweller with a reputation for quality. Feel free to ask the jeweller for examples of their work before you entrust your ring to them.
If you can’t make it to a jeweller soon, take precautions to protect your ring in the meantime. Adding a ring guard will prevent it from slipping off your finger if it’s too large. Just don’t use ring guards as permanent solutions for an ill-fitting ring.
Some people choose to wear a second, tighter band to keep a too-loose ring in place. If that doesn’t work, talk with your jeweller about remaking the ring in the correct size. That way, you’ll have your dream sparkler and a perfect fit.
Even if your ring fits well, protect it with Q Report Jewellery Insurance. Your engagement ring can be covered from the moment you walk it out of the store. Learn more with an instant quote today!
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