Ring Sizing Cost with Milgrain Edging and Carved in Designs
What is Milgrain Again? A Milgrain edging looks like little beads of metal. It is frequently put on at the edge of your ring or to frame a design element of your ring.
In this post I’ll talk about how having milgrain edging and special detailed designs on your ring could effect your maintenance costs in the future as your ring needs sizing.
Milgrain’s Design Effect
Milgrain edging adds an estate or old fashioned feel to the design of your ring.
When using hand engraving to add detail and sparkle to your ring design, you’ll frequently want to add the milgrain engraving style to frame it and to provide the finishing touch.
Sizing Rings With Milgrain Edging on Them
The area of sizing will be effected as will the surrounding area. After a piece of gold or platinum is added or subtracted from the ring to make the new size, the ring is soldered back together.
Then it needs to be polished and smoothed out. This also smooths out the surrounding area for a quarter to half an inch on either side of where the work was done. Your milgrain engraving will need to be restored by a hand engraver.
It may not look exactly the same, especially if your ring was machine milgrained at a factory instead of hand milgrained.
Factory or Hand Milgrained?
Some rings have milgrain that is put on at a factory and it is uber precise. When that milgrain goes all the way around the ring, it will get messed with when that ring gets sized.
Some vintage rings or vintage designed rings have hand done milgrain going all the way around. Hand engraved milgrain doesn’t have quite the same in look as machine engraving.
When you size a machine milgrained ring and have a hand milgrain edging put on it in place of the machine engraving it will look a little different. Just a tad.
The Cost of Your Milgrain Ring Sizing
Range of cost, after the cost of sizing, to fix the milgrain edging on the outside of your ring – $45.00 to $95.00. If you have engraving on three sides it could push the cost higher. By three sides I mean the engraving is on top and on both sides of your ring.
The Cost of Fixing Karat Stamps and Inscriptions
Karat stamps and inscriptions on the inside of the shank may have to be cut out or soldered over during sizing. If this is the case, the ring will require re-engraving which will increase the cost of the process.
Range of cost to restore the engraving of any inscription on your ring: $20 and $50. The re-stamp the karat of your ring should be a free service if it gets obliterated during sizing.
The Cost of Fixing Designs, Grooves, Lines and Details
Imagine a ring with an intricate design pattern extending all around the band. To size it larger, the shank would be cut open, pulled apart, and a smooth piece of metal would be inserted and soldered in the gap.
Or a piece could be removed. In the ensuing polishing and finishing the metal would have altered in look and not be ready to wear.
Any kind of design feature on the shank of a ring may be impacted during the sizing and require work. Some work will be more extensive and require more labor than others.
Range of cost after the cost of sizing, to re-apply, re-engrave or restore the design on your ring: $20 to $100.
Wrap Up
If you prefer a more personal explanation then check out this video I made on Using Milgrain Engraving:
I’m not sharing this information to encourage you to get a plain vanilla ring, just to inform you, so you realize that there are more maintenance costs associated with your unique ring.
Just like, having a beautiful high performance sports car needs more love than a Toyota Camry in the maintenance department, your unique and decorative ring needs more from a jeweler than hammer and tongs!
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla
More in the cost of sizing rings series:
The Cost of Sizing a Ring Smaller
The Cost of Sizing a Ring Larger
Why Sizing Your Pearl Ring Costs More
How Much Does it Cost to Size My Ring Platinum and White Gold
How Much Does it Cost to Size my Ring – Gold and Silver
Ring Sizing – What Do You Pay More For and Why?
How Much Does it Cost to Size my Eternity Band Ring?
Ring Sizing, Weight Gain and Weight Loss
Ring Sizing Cost with Milgrain Edging and Carved in Designs
How Much to Have My Enamel Ring Sized?
How Much to Size My Ring – With Scratched and Dull Gems
How Much to Size My Ring – With Matte Finish and Oxidation
Happily Sizing Rings,
Calla Gold
This milgrain edging looks so pretty. Even knowing about the sizing issues and added cost to do future work on it, I want my next ring to have some milgrain on it. I’m glad to know about the possible issues though. Thank you Calla!
Hi Patricia,
You are most welcome for the information. I am thrilled that it didn’t put you off the joy of having that kind of detail on your future ring!
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla
Calla,
Your thorough explanation of milgrain edging and personalized finishes and their effect on sizing costs makes it easy to understand the distinctions and value of the personalized aspect of jewelry design. I love how gorgeous the ring examples are. I started out curious about ring sizing costs and now I want to re-design one of my rings! Ha!
Dear Judith,
Thank you so much for your comment. I love that you got inspired by the pictures. I personally love milgrain edging, and hammering and matting, oh stop me, I love it all!
Your Personal Jeweler,
Calla
My engagement ring is the one in the first photo (princess cut with round brilliant halo) you used to describe milgrain edging. It has a low profile and I am having a difficult time finding a wedding band that looks good with the ring. Is there a specific style or band that you would recommend?
Hi Lindsay, If I was designing a wedding band to go with your engagement ring, I’d create a contoured band that was two to four millimeters stepped down in height from the halo of your engagement ring. I’d follow the contour from straight band to rounded edge square halo and back to straight so the ring would snug perfectly with your engagement ring. I do not think a straight band would complement your ring’s style. I also believe that it needs to have some good height to stand up well and complement your ring. Which by the way is a… Read more »
I loved reading this article. Thank you. I am planning a surprise anniversary gift for my partner. He doesn’t own any rings, didn’t know his ring size, and as I found out He is a light sleeper. I plan on getting him a Phyrra stamped gold band an am somewhat guessing on his size. I need to know that it can be possible to resize this ring before I buy. I have saved up for this, and the return policy is short along with the fact that the only resizing that Phyrra said they could do is go up half… Read more »
Hi Charlene, This ring has uneven edges and oxidation. Sizing it would be more complex because of these two factors. I think it can be sized. But it would need to be done by a jeweler who can duplicate the random edge look and re-oxidize the entire ring. Since I couldn’t see the back I don’t know what the lettering looks like on the back. If it needed to be made smaller, possibly a letter would be ruined. You might tell them of your dilemma and see if they have a suggestion. Perhaps they have an on-hand ring to send… Read more »