What is Annealing? Why Do We Do It?

March 31, 2025 Austin Capone

A recent alteration project entailed a customer’s original yet quite thin yellow gold wedding band (top ring in left picture) that she wanted to make thicker and more substantial without having to completely replace the piece for sentimentality reasons. In order to fulfill her wishes, we ordered a thicker yellow gold band (bottom ring in left picture) that would fit inside of the original ring. For the bands to fit together and on her finger, they had to be stretched and shaped together(right picture) via a process called annealing, which entails scientific knowledge and precision to achieve the desired result.
Annealing is a heat treatment process in metalworking that is often used on the jeweler’s bench for a number of reasons. It involves heating the metal with a blowtorch or using a kiln for a larger job. It must be heated at the perfect temperature to ensure maximum softness to make it malleable and workable, with each metal having its own temperature range. Platinum requires the highest heat at 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, white gold at 1350, yellow gold at 1250, with sterling silver requiring the least amount at 1250 degrees. When the metal achieves maximum softness, it allows for shaping and bending a piece of jewelry to alter it to its desired form. Once the metal has been heated for a predetermined period of time, it is crucial to let the metal slowly cool until it returns to its normal temperature.
In addition to increased malleability, annealing facilitates what is known as “workability” for the metal. With the metal heated to its maximum softness, it also allows for finer details to be added to the metal, such as engraving, embossing, or pressing designs without causing cracking or fracture. Annealing also helps to relieve stress that occurs to the metal through repetitive hammering, bending or forging. The molecules become stressed and unhappy with all of the “manhandling”, and perhaps the most interesting aspect of annealing is that achieving that perfect heat temperature actually causes the molecules to be happy again, preventing cracks or distortions that result from the stress. There are many uses for annealing in jewelry making and repair, and we are fortunate to be able to perform this process in our workshop to shape, heal, and transform our customers’ most precious and sentimental pieces.

Your Guide to Ring Sizing!

April 18, 2017 C. Capone

Why Sizing?
There are many reasons why someone might be interested in getting their ring sized. They may have recently gained or lost some weight. Perhaps a woman has just had a baby or someone has been struggling with arthritis, both causing their knuckles to grow in size and making it difficult to slide a ring on and off. Say one’s significant other did not want to give away a surprise and guessed the wrong finger size. Or you simply just want to wear the ring on a different finger. What do you do? Consult a jeweler!

How to Measure your Finger Size
It is always a good idea to consult a professional jeweler about finger size. Do not attempt to measure ring size yourself. We also recommend that you get measured multiple times because hand size tends to fluctuate due to many factors, such as diet, how much sleep you got the night before, etc.
Ensuring proper fit is also crucial to determining your ring size. The ring should go on rather easily; however, it should be slightly more difficult to get it off. Obviously, if it slides off too easily, there is a greater chance that it will get lost. You should also keep in mind that if you are not accustomed to wearing rings, they will probably feel a little awkward the first couple of days, so be patient, and you will get used to it.

Sizing Down
As far as the actual sizing process goes, making a ring smaller is much easier than making it larger. Therefore, you should err on the side of caution when choosing a ring size. Once we have determined that the size should be smaller, we will cut a small piece of the metal from the band and solder the two sides together. The band will then be cleaned and polished, and you should not be able to tell that the ring has been resized. However, rings that have ornate designs, such as patterns or filigree, are difficult to resize without losing the detail of the design. If it is possible, the design would have to be remade or restored, adding to the cost. Additionally, if there are stones on the sides of the band, they may need to be reset, which also makes the job more complicated.

Sizing Up
If you find that you need to increase the size of your ring, there are two options that we will consider. First, we can simply stretch the band. However, this usually only works for about up to half of a size, and it does depend on the material as well as the design. This process works better with plain wedding bands usually. The other option would be to cut the ring, add metal, and solder it together. Keep in mind that the aforementioned issues with ornate designs and rings with stones remain the same in sizing the ring to make it smaller.

Cost
It is difficult to give a set cost of ring sizing due to the many factors that may be involved in resizing. For example, the metal (i.e. gold prices) and labor costs (i.e. the difficulty of the job). The starting cost is typically around $35 - 40, but can go upwards to $150 - 200.

What We Can't Size
There are certain materials that are impossible to size. Basically we would not be able to do anything that is made of non-metal, titanium, tungsten, or stainless steel. So keep that in mind when shopping for your wedding bands.

Do Your Prongs Need Retipping?

November 4, 2015 C. Capone

When was the last time you had your rings checked? We recommend bringing your rings in twice a year to ensure that the prongs are not worn down and are efficiently holding your stones in place.

What is a prong?

A prong is a metal tine or projection that holds a gemstone in place. A ring can have anywhere from four to hundreds of prongs.

How does it get worn down?

Prongs become worn from everyday normal use! However, erosion can occur faster due to several situations. For example, if a ring is too large and is constantly being readjusted by your finger (in which case it would also be a good idea to have it sized), or if a stone has been loose for a period of time. Also, wearing your rings while doing manual labor can also cause them to wear more quickly. Do you wear your rings to bed? If so, sheets can actually be abrasive on metal prongs - believe it or not!

How do we fix it?

If we check your rings and find that a prong (or prongs) are worn down, then we will recommend retipping. This process involves soldering a metal bead or wire to the prong with the stone still in place and shaping it so that it functions as a new prong. In some cases, a prong needs to be replaced. If that were the case, then we would saw off the old prong, solder a metal wire and shape it into the new prong - also with the stone still in place. In rare cases, the entire prong setting needs to be replaced where we would remove the stone, assemble a new setting, and then reset the stone.