1 /5 Southern Woman: I dropped off my husband’s wedding band, which—even though dirty— was clearly made in the image I posted that is of a “hammered” texture. I asked them to fix the gap (bc he had to cut it off, so it was missing about 1/4 inch of white gold) and he would have it resized later.
When I returned, the ring had not been repaired to its previous state, and instead had been melted, pushed together so the sides met, and polished so much that it was a single smooth (no pattern, no nothing) ring. I explained that it had been hammered along the band prior to his work. He acted like he didn’t know what “hammered” meant, and went to the back to put a ridge along the edge of the band. He came back out and I explained once more that the entirety of the band at its thickness was hammered. All of requested is that the ring’s gap get fixed. No polishing, just fixing what had to be cut.
“Hammering” is not some unheard of style in men’s bands. It is a style that is easily google-searched.
The lack of knowledge on their part is a sign that they do not have the ability to take a piece of jewelry and restore it to its original state— even when that just means cleaning and replacing a gap of missing metal. Either this is the case, or they just don’t care to clarify what their process will be once they get the piece of jewelry.
Once I saw the ring I repeated twice what the ring looked like prior to their work on it. He acted like he didn’t know what “hammering” was and that the ring didn’t show any signs of this being its design when I brought it (hence his reasoning on why he polished it down so much the design wasn’t even distinctive anymore)
Now I have to go to another place to restore it back to its original state because it was polished down so much that the original pattern is completely gone.
If you need simple cleaning done this is the place. If you expect the jeweler to be attentive to your desires regarding the final product, seek somewhere with a more experienced jeweler. The jeweler wasn’t there when my order was written up and I wasn’t consulted at any point along the way in the restoration of my husband’s band. They did call to let me know why it was taking longer than one day, and that was bc of my ring and band being of different materials (platinum and white gold)
**photos of what the hammered ring’s design was going in, and a photo of what I got)
