Beyond Repair? Behind the scenes in our workshop

For today's blog I would like to take you behind the scenes in our workshop for a recent repair we completed. A customer of ours came in one Saturday morning to attend one of our popular silver making workshops. Afterwards, she presented us with her Father's beloved ruby signet ring that had very much seen better days - he had dropped it down a garbage disposal unit, which you can see produced extensive damage to the gold across the whole ring. The rubies were miraculously untouched but the ring suffered heavy scratching, chipping and the ring itself was completely bent out of shape. The customer was unsure of whether the ring was beyond repair but we assured her we would take a closer look and were up for the challenge. 

Now, once we assessed the ring on the bench we could decide which tools and stages were needed to tackle this repair. In this instance, we went with our laser welder. Have you heard of lasers being used in jewellery making before? If not, head over HERE to read about our laser and how we use it in our workshop. The precision of the laser means we could more effectively fill and weld the damaged areas of the ring with the least amount of heat, in return creating much less of a risk to damaging the piece any further and protecting those rubies. Our laser has become an essential player in our workshop toolbox, not only for repairs but bespoke pieces as well. You can see in the image a highly magnified view from our laser screen, the Goldsmith is able to see close up what they are working on ensuring consistent and quality results.

Once our Goldsmith was happy with the laser work we took the ring back to the bench. Although the laser provides highly effective, clean and seamless welds quickly, we still need to employ some traditional methods to bring the piece back to life. So the ring has now been built back up with all scratches now filled in, it is time to smooth out and refine the shank back with filing, sanding and polishing to get that high shine back in the gold. 

Now for the exciting final stages of getting this ring cleaned up and wearable again. The customer also requested we resize the ring whilst we were working on it as well so her Father could wear it comfortably, a very common job in our workshop. We completed this task after the laser to ensure we could leave the polishing for last. Due to the number of rubies we heated the shank whilst the signet head was dipped in water, this is to ensure the gemstones aren't heat damaged when the metal is heated in the resizing process.