Remaking a family ring

What to keep, what to change, and how to have the conversation with your family before you begin.

A ring came in last month that had belonged to three women in one family. The center stone was a fine old European cut; the mount had been resized twice, the shank was worn thin, and two of the prongs had been retipped with a different color gold. The question was not whether to remake it. The question was what to keep.

Start with the stone. In almost every family piece the stone is the heirloom and the metal is the wear. Old cuts, mine cuts and European cuts, have a character that modern cuts do not, and they should never be recut to a modern standard. What they can be is cleaned, checked for chips at the girdle, and reset so they are held properly for the next thirty years.

Then decide what the ring is for now. A ring worn daily needs a heavier shank and lower profile than one worn on occasions. If it is going to be an engagement ring again, the mount should suit the hand that will wear it, not the hand that wore it first. That is a design conversation, and it is the part people are most nervous about, because it feels like changing something that should not change.

Our advice is to have that conversation with the family before you come in, and to bring whoever has a say. Bring photographs of the ring being worn, if there are any. Bring the stories. The design that comes out of that meeting is almost always better than the one anyone arrived with.

We draw the new ring around the original stone, at true size, and you approve the drawing before anything is made. Then a wax, which you can put on the finger. Only then is metal cast. The old mount is returned to you, or if you prefer, melted into the new ring so that nothing is lost.

There is no charge for the first conversation and no obligation. Bring the ring and we will start by simply looking at it together.