Setting Repair: Tips and Prongs

Think of what is in that ring. The evening it was given. The years since. All of it is held in place by four or six points of metal, each smaller than a grain of rice.

They do their work every hour the ring is worn, against pockets and sweaters, countertops and car doors. And they wear, so slowly that no one notices. A point of the crown almost never fails all at once. It thins for years, and then one ordinary afternoon it lets go.

A point that looks flat where it used to be round. One that sits shorter than its neighbors. A ring that has started catching on sweaters, or in your hair. A diamond that turns, clicks or moves when you press it gently with a fingernail.

Any one of these is reason enough. Take the ring off, put it somewhere safe, and bring it to us.

When the tip of a point has worn down but the metal beneath is sound, a goldsmith adds new metal to the tip and shapes it back over the gem. That is retipping. When the point itself is thin, cracked or bent past trusting, it is replaced. And when every point has given what it had, the whole crown that holds the diamond gives way to a new one and the diamond is set again.

Which of these your ring needs is something a goldsmith can only tell with the piece in hand. Some gems cannot take the heat of the work and are lifted out first, then set again after. Either way, the finished points are shaped smooth, so they hold without catching.