Hi all - looking for advice.
My mum is housebound and her wedding ring has become uncomfortably tight. She hasn’t removed it since my dad placed it on her finger over 61 years ago.
We’ve tried lubricating with soap etc and the method shown online with dental floss but it isn’t budging over her knuckle so it looks as though it will have to be cut off.
Does anyone know how we can get this done in her home?
Hi Carole … welcome to the canteen.
Sounds like a straightforward task for a trained nurse … in your gp practice ?
I had mine cut off. My once slender fingers are now very arthritic. It’s a quick and easy job for a jeweller, and very safe, but difficult to explain. Maybe smile sweetly at one with a shop near the home?
If your mum still wants to wear it it could be enlarged. That might make the shop happier to call round?? Any inscription on the inside may be lost, however, as presumably they have to ‘melt in’ some extra gold to widen the ring??
you can remove a ring at home , BUT one way takes a very steady hand and a dremel tool ( i kid you not ) .
an other way is to heat the ring up as this will cause the material to expand and may simple drop off , the other way is to chill the hand as this can cause the finger to contract enough to allow for the ring to come over the knuckle.
i have also spoken to jewellers who have sawn the ring off , from a customers finger , using a tiny hair thin saw blade a jeweller uses.
if she wants to wear the ring afterwords…
a proper jeweller may not have to cut a ring then solder in new material to enlarge it .
even if they were to cut the ring off , if the cut was straight enough , they could simply re solder the original ring without needing to add new material , and then one of the steps bellow to re size it.
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does the ring have a stone / stones set within if it does this makes it a little more difficult . as the stones can “” shoot “” out of the claw settings. so they can remove the stones then carry on enlarging it.
how much larger would the ring be enlarged to fit properly .
if it is a simple band ring and does not have to be enlarged a huge amount , it is possible for a jeweller to heat the ring and then put it on a Forming Mandrel and than whack it over and over with a wooden , hide mallet as to not mark the ring its self.
or they may have a ring stretcher , that is placed inside the ring once heated up and then they would pull a handle and the inside fingers spread open stretching the ring.
I have to say that cutting a ring off a finger at home is something that the Blue Peter folk would urge ‘Don’t try this at home children’!!!
Terrifies me!