Jewelry Repairs Phoenix

Learn about Jewelry Repairs

Jewelry fails in fairly predictable ways. Prongs wear down where they rub against clothing. Solder joints on chains fatigue and part. Shanks thin out on the underside from years of contact with other rings. Bezels loosen. Clasps stop springing shut the way they used to. Almost none of it happens suddenly — it happens slowly, and then one day the piece is in two parts on the bathroom counter.

We handle repair work in house here in Phoenix, on our own bench. That matters more than it sounds. A lot of retail jewelers send repairs out to a third-party trade shop, which means your ring travels, changes hands, and comes back assessed by someone you will never speak to. Here, the person who looks at your piece is the person who works on it.

What we take in

• Chain and clasp repair — resoldering broken links, replacing worn clasps and jump rings
• Stone tightening and resetting, including replacing stones that have been lost
• Shank repair and half-shanks where a band has worn thin
• Solder work on rings that need joining, separating or reinforcing
• Earring post and back repair, including conversion to screw backs
• Prong retipping and rebuilding where a setting is worn but salvageable

How we assess it

Everything starts with looking at the piece under magnification, because the visible problem is often not the whole problem. A loose center stone is sometimes just a loose stone. More often it is two prongs worn to half their original thickness and a third that has already failed. We would rather tell you that up front than fix the symptom and have you back in six months.

You will get an account of what the piece needs, what it does not, and what it will cost before any work begins. If something is not worth repairing — and occasionally it is not — we will say so.

How long it takes

Straightforward repairs can be turned around in as little as 48 hours. More intricate work — rebuilding a head, matching and setting a replacement stone, anything involving an antique mounting — can take several weeks. We will give you a realistic timeframe for your specific piece when we assess it, not a number that sounds good and slips.

Bring it in

If a stone rattles when you tap the piece gently against your palm, or a prong catches on fabric, stop wearing it until it has been looked at. Book an appointment and bring it by. Regular cleaning and inspection catches most of these problems long before they become repairs.