Chickening Out.

[Dennis]

Here is a ring , returned last week, with the complaint that the stone had fallen out. The shank was no longer round and the grid was out of true. One of the joints between the mount and the shank had broken. My mark says D 03, so it is seven to eight years old, a good life for a ring worn regularly and made of silver.

When I was a boy in Wales, my adopted home during WW2, the local egg collection plant was owned by David Davies. We called it the the Egg Factory. His boxes were divided by strips of card slotted together, so I call this mount my egg box design. Originally the prongs were made longer to get some purchase for closing them. Then they were cut and filed down.

Picture two shows the ring with the shank re-shaped on a mandrel, the grid realigned and one point re-soldered. The oval topaz is still good and I have closed the prongs with the fibre jaws of my vice, a useful add-on to have. At first I thought I would have to make it anew, but as you see, I was able to chicken out. Dennis.

[JudyC]

Looks good Dennis. It is a very pretty ring and deserves to be worn daily. It is such a pretty coloured topaz.
Cheers
Judy

[Tabby66]

How fortunate to have been able to reshape the setting, it looks beautiful, as ever! I bet the owner was very pleased to get it back and to be able to wear it again!

[Dennis]

When I first wrote the post Chickening Out, I was confident that I had avoided a major remake and that the re-furbished ring would arrive safely at its overseas destination. However, Royal Mail Air Safe or not, once it had left the UK it got lost in the system and I have now had to make a new one.

So I got out my records and started again. Hopefully seven years on this version will be slightly improved. Dennis.

[medusa]

that's a lovely design. I hope RM paid out the insurance!