You can bend your engagement ring or wedding band without realizing it. One day you decide to inspect your ring and notice that it’s no longer as perfectly round as it was when still brand new. It’s now flat on the bottom or oval-shaped, so what should you do to reclaim your beautiful round ring? This guide will help you learn how to make a ring round again, so to discover more, keep reading.
Key Takeaways
- Heat, hard work, and everyday life are the leading causes of ring bends
- Diamonds and other gemstones make repairs harder
- Heavier rings tend to have a longer lifespan without bending
- To prevent bent rings, avoid wearing them when doing physical activities
How to Make a Ring Round Again
Once you become a jewelry owner, you should know that there are many problems to overcome in order to keep your wedding or engagement ring in good condition. A bent ring is one of the most popular problems many jewelers encounter. This is a problem that can expand progressively, making it challenging to notice that it’s occurring.
It’s important to keep your ring in its original shape to maintain its stability, beauty, value, and long life. Rings can get stuck on your fingers or even break; a few factors can trigger these problems. While it’s challenging to repair rings, they can be fixed at home inexpensively.
The following sections cover the main causes of bent rings, how to avoid this problem, and how to fix it. They provide more helpful information; keep scrolling as you read to learn more.
What Causes a Ring to Bend?
A few factors can affect your ring’s shape, which ranges from metal composition and substandard rings or shanks to resizing jobs and loosely fit rings. Let’s dig deep into each of these factors.
Metal Composition
Most rings have softer metals like yellow gold, which bend easily. Rings made from other precious metals, including silver and platinum, are also susceptible to bending. These softer materials are highly malleable and have appreciable electrical and heat conductivity. But the susceptibility to bending depends primarily on the metals’ composition in the piece of jewelry.
The purity of a silver or gold ring is of prime consequence in terms of deciding its vulnerability to bending. The main reason behind this is that pure silver or gold is a malleable and softer metal, meaning the stronger its concentration is in a ring, the more the bending chances.
Generally, rings with a higher silver or gold quantity are more susceptible to bending. If you love silver rings, for example, sterling silver is stronger than pure silver, so that should be a threshold when purchasing a bending-resistant silver jewelry piece.
Sub Standard Designed Bands or Shanks
A ring’s shank gets worn off due to the withering of the constituting metal over a long period of use. While this isn’t common for rings since they don’t move easily, loose rings can generate heat as a result of their movements around the fingers, which can lead to the thinning of the shank.
A Loosely Fit Ring
Rings that are too loose on fingers are more vulnerable to bending as well as breaking. This is because a loosely fit ring doesn’t get adequate support from your finger, which means it faces structural effects when worn.
Resizing Jobs on Rings
Each time you visit your jeweler with your ring, whether made of hard metals like tungsten carbide and stainless steel or softer metals like gold, silver, or copper to have it resized, there’s a substantial metal matter loss from them. Metal resizing involves cutting and soldering the ring into perfect condition.
Even top-up tasks, including filling and polishing, can result in significant metal thinning from the shank and other parts of the ring. Keep in mind that resizing a ring, especially one made of soft metal, leaves it thinned and with weak sports structurally. That means the more you resize your ring, the greater the bending threat.
How Do Jewelers Fix Bent Rings?
Fixing a bent ring is relatively easy, especially if you have the right tools. If you don’t have the tools, then you should visit your favorite jeweler to help you solve the issue. A professional jeweler puts the ring on the mandrel, and after that, it’s pushed around and down, reshaping it back into a round shape.
Several hammer hits round out any pumps available. After that, the jeweler gives it a gentle polish and the ring reshapes into its original shape. The jeweler will install a heavier shank if it’s really thin. It’s advisable to reshape your ring and the only thing to worry about is getting a heavy band if the shank becomes thinner or if the curving issue starts to recur. Remember, replacing the shank isn’t an affordable process; it could easily cost you hundreds of dollars depending on the ring’s heaviness.
If a professional jeweler reshapes your bend ring, it’ll serve you for a while, but it’s prone to bending. Once a bent ring is fixed several times, it starts to become weaker in affected areas and eventually breaks, but this is more common with rings that contain soft metals like gold.
Do All Metals Bend?
Top-notch jewelers look at rings and provide their customers with the best advice in terms of what to do. If it’s thin, then you’ll need to purchase another shank. Soft metals are the most vulnerable to bending, so what about other precious metals?
Platinum, Tungsten, and Other Metals
A bent titanium, tungsten, or platinum ring can be fixed, and in most cases, jewelers use the mandrel tool to reshape it as much as possible. If the ring isn’t malleable, they add torch heat to improve its state, and after the repair, they’ll have to file and make it smooth, removing any dings, scratches, and marks. A bent platinum or tungsten ring will take twice as long to fix as a silver or gold ring does, meaning the price will also double.
Do Diamonds Make Repairs Even Harder?
A diamond or any other gemstone in the mounting can change the whole repair process. Gemstones create a whole new issue for artisans since they don’t bend. For example, you have a ring with a channel setting, with small diamonds running down the side; bending this ring can exert a lot of stress and pressure on the diamonds and setting.
As the jewelers push the ring setting, it gets towed, stretched, and opened, making it crush or break your beautiful gems. Jewelry artisans usually have a hard time fixing bent channels since it’s challenging to reshape and polish the ring. They’ve to be extra careful that the prongs, channels, gems, and baskets don’t get damaged or harmed in the process.
Can You Stop Your Ring from Bending?
Yes! You can stop your ring from bending, and the best way is to remove it from your finger when doing any intense work. In general, if you want your ring to last longer and maintain its value, you should get one with a stronger band.
This is recommended, especially if you’re purchasing a ring that consists of softer metals like silver or yellow gold. Such a ring wears thin slowly, but keep in mind that all rings wear down, and later or sooner, you’ll have to repair yours.
How Do You Fix a Bent Ring at Home?
The easiest way, but which may not be professional, when it comes to fixing a ring at home is using hot water to soften the metal and then using a rubber mallet to introduce a gentle but firm pressure that puts it back to the required condition. This works for rings that don’t have precious stones and those made up of soft metals. Hot water can destroy the structure of your precious stone, which can even lead to breakages.
FAQs
- Can You Bend a Ring Back into Shape?
You can bend a ring back into shape as long as you have the right jewelry repair tools, such as a soft rubber mallet or mandrel. If the home repairs don’t provide a perfect shape, then it’s worth visiting a professional jeweler.
- How Do I Get My Ring Back in the Circle?
To get your ring back in the circle, just purchase a ring anvil and use it to round your band by using a small rubber mallet. Avoid using things like pliers, metal hammer, and a screwdriver since they can entirely break your ring.
- How Much Does it Cost to Make a Ring Round Again?
The cost of making a ring round again varies depending on the metal, the design, and the ring size. Another factor that can affect the price is the setting and the time the repair takes, which can be between an hour and a month.
- Can You Reshape a Ring at Home?
If the bend is a simple one, then you can reshape your ring at home. But whether complex or simple, it’s advisable to visit a professional jeweler to help you reshape your ring.
