Opal Ring Repair for a Gold Signet Ring
My client reached out to me about a special ring he got when he was stationed in Australia in 1985. The showcase of the ring was a triplet opal set in a 9k signet ring band, but the stone was severely damaged.
He was hoping that I could replace the cap on the opal—which is made with optical quartz—that acts a protective layer for the paper-thin sheet of opal between the cap and a stone backing.
I make sure to tell my clients that there is no guarantee that the opal can be saved since I can never know the full extent of the damage until I take the stone out of the setting. And unfortunately, the stone had many more microfractures that split the stone into multiple tiny pieces when I removed the stone and soaked it in acetone to remove the layers of the triplet.
Pictured is the broken triplet opal removed from the setting. You can see the paper thin layer of opal underneath the thick layer of optical glass. I had already removed the backing stone and the black colorant they used behind the opal to make the colors stand out more.
From there, I consulted with my client to see what kind of opal replacement he would like since there was no way the original opal triplet could be salvaged. I offered to source another triplet similar to the one he had, or I offered to cut a piece of Andamooka opal I have since when we met for him to drop off the ring, he mentioned that he was stationed in Andamooka.
He decided to go with a blue-green piece of Andamooka opal for his signet ring, which meant I would create a new setting—and he decided to go with a sterling silver bezel instead of 9k gold.
Pictured is the 9k gold signet ring with the bezel removed and I started to pre-polish the ring shank.
(The hole on the top of the ring there is necessary when making hollow-formed rings so that it doesn’t blow up.)
I sent my client video samples of a few different pieces of Andamooka opal rough for him to choose from, then cut two stones (a circle and an oval) for him to make his final selection.
From there, I was able to make the new stone setting, solder it onto his gold signet ring, polish the whole ring, and set the new stone.
When my client picked up his ring, he exclaimed, “This is even better than I thought it would be!”
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