IS YOUR RING THIN, BENT AND BREAKING?
TIRED OF THIN, BROKEN RINGS, SHANKS AND BANDS THAT BEND EASILY?
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Most people don’t pay much attention to the band or shank of their diamond ring.
What’s a shank?
The shank is the bottom part of the ring that wraps around your finger.
People just don’t notice how thin their ring gets until it bends, breaks and causes damage to the ring or channels.
All the time, people bring their rings in to get them cleaned and polished, and when they take their rings off, they’re surprised to see they are bent on the bottom.
They’re almost shocked.
Plus, when they are bent, it makes it tougher to get them off. Some rings get so thin and bent that they’re almost flat on the bottom.
They bend easily because they are thin.
Very thin. Just the act of wearing a ring and picking things up with your hands can bend the metal.
When gold is thin, it gets very malleable and bends easily. Not to mention that when you’re wearing it, your hands heat up the gold making it even softer. It doesn’t take much to bend a thin shank.
3 things can make your shank thin:
Starting with…
1) It was thin to begin with.
No lie. Some manufacturers are cheap and skimp on the bands. Look at the shanks or bands of a ring before you buy it to see if it’s thick and durable. You want to make sure that it’s heavy and solid (see photo). If it’s thin or wimpy; buyer beware.
Cheap rings don’t last long.
2) The jeweler thinned it out during sizing:
This is one of the biggest reasons for thin shanks.
When you size a ring you have to cut and solder the shank back together again. Once soldered together, the jeweler has to file and smooth and polish the shank once more. And sometimes they take too much off the band.
If the jeweler is a bad jeweler (or inexperienced), they can make a band thin, warped, bent, crooked and very uneven.
If you pick your ring up from a repair or a sizing, look at the band. If it’s thin or badly done, have the jeweler re-do the sizing and put on a heavier shank. You don’t have to accept it.
3) Normal wear and tear:
After years of daily use, gold will wear down and thin out. Especially on the bottom of the ring since it takes the most abuse.
So what can you do?
What can be done with thin, weak, bent or breaking bands?
Buy a new shank!
That’s about all you can do (or trade in the ring for a new one).
Jewelers can easily remove your old, thin, worn-down shank and put on a new, thick, durable band that will last a lifetime.
New shanks won’t be cheap though. Depending on the thickness and width of the mounting, it could cost you anywhere from $100 and up.
What choice do you have?
You either wait until the ring gets so bad that it breaks and the ring painfully stabs you in the finger…
Or the ring bends and all the diamonds in your channel fall out.
It’s just not worth it.
Get your ring fixed.
Get it beefed up.
Your ring will look brand new again, and you won’t have to worry about a bending band or a broken shank again.
Cheers! :)