When you buy a ring, the last thing you want to worry about is how long the prongs will last.
Unfortunately, many people do not think about this until it is too late and suddenly you notice that your precious (and expensive) gemstones are gone!
Where there was once a large beautiful sparkling diamond or ruby, there is now a gaping hole with bits of metal that now rise up angrily to attack your clothing and your skin!
Maybe you did not pay much attention when you were buying that ring as the salesperson kept prattling on and on about how you needed to bring it back for an inspection every six months?
Those prongs are as hard as a rock right?
Certainly getting the ring inspected every six months is just a ploy to bring you back into the store to browse and buy other jewelry pieces?
But that gaping hole now speaks in volumes for itself now doesn’t it? It screams out “You were warned…and oh, by the way, did you buy insurance?!”
You rip the ring off of your hand in disgust and horror that anyone will see the obvious result of your neglect and try to remember the last place you saw your diamond still intact and safe inside its hole.
To no avail.
Now what??
In this blog post, we are going to talk about how long ring prongs typically last and what factors affect their lifespan. We will also discuss some tips on how to prolong the life of your ring’s prongs!
Table of Contents
Prong Wear: The Silent Killer of Diamonds
If you are going to wear a ring that has gemstones or diamonds that are set into the mounting with prongs, then you need to keep an eye on them from time to time.
Those skinny little pieces of metal are the only things that hold your diamond(s) in place and they are responsible for the integrity and safety of the most expensive and lovely part of your ring.
Prongs are the first and only line of defense that protect a gemstone from being bashed and falling headlong onto the ground after you smack your ring on something hard.
But that is not the only way that a gem can fall out, because prong tips can simply wear down over time too.
They are made of malleable metal, and the daily rubbing and abrasion will take micro bits off of the surface of them until they are so thin on their tips that they finally give way and break with the next bump.
THAT, ladies and gents, is why you were supposed to bring your ring into the store for inspection.
Let’s examine if the “every six months” inspection is realistic for your lifestyle.
Factors That Affect How Long Ring Prongs Last
Suppose that you always take your ring off every time you do yard work, wash dishes, do laundry, go hiking or exercise, sleep, work with your hands, or are otherwise engaged in some kind of physical activity that would certainly bump or rub against the prongs on your ring.
Fair enough, then maybe your prongs can last much longer, say, perhaps even a decade or two before they are needing to be inspected.
But who does that?
Who lives a life and wears a ring that must be removed several times a day and put to bed in a box at night?
A Queen?
Might as well just wear a solid gold or platinum band with no stones…
Alright, let’s suppose that you never take off your ring because well, what if you forget where you put it last, or someone snatches it when you forgot it on the public bathroom sink to wash your hands, or it falls out of your pocket when you were gardening or horseback riding, or maybe you believe that it is simply bad luck to remove your wedding ring?
This means the prongs will get far more wear and tear.
How come prongs that are made out of metal get broken or wear down whilst the soft skin on the finger that the ring is worn on does not suffer the same fate?
Prongs are the little pieces of metal…usually 4 or 6 of them that have a little bend close to the tip of them much like the shape of a fish hook.
This hook is placed and bent over the top of the stone so that it can then be pressed down firmly enough to lock the stone in place.
The weakest part of a prong is at that little bent part.
The top of that little bent part is constantly coming into contact with whatever you subject your hands to doing all day long, even if you are unaware of it.
For the most part, the prongs are sticking up above the surface of your finger and also above the stone that they hold in place, and so naturally they will be taking the hit or get rubbed the wrong way first with whatever you are doing.
Oops.
How Often Should Ring Prongs Be Checked?
Technically, this depends on your activity level and the kinds of things you typically do with your hands on a regular basis.
However, the salesperson in the jewelry store where you bought your ring does not want to see you coming into the store accusing them of selling you a defective ring when you are missing an expensive stone, so they keep in mind that you will probably be wearing that ring daily and rarely take it off.
This is why they admonish you to have it checked every six months and warn you that they will not have to honor their store warranty if you don’t.
A good rule of thumb is this:
If you wear your ring daily, then you should at the very least, have it checked at least annually by a professional.
However, if you only wear your ring occasionally, then you should have it checked every two to three years.
How Often Should Ring Prongs Be Changed?
Stores recommend bringing a ring in every six months, but honestly, this is to protect them more so than it is to protect you.
They have no clue about how you live your life and they have no idea if you are doing the very things on a regular basis that could result in losing an expensive stone.
They do not want to be held liable for the loss of a stone that happened as a result of abusive treatment any more than car insurance companies wants to be held liable for covering damages if you deliberately decide to speed or drive your vehicle off a cliff.
Life insurance companies also don’t seem to want to cover suicides either.
If upon inspection, the bench jeweler notices that the tips of the prongs are wearing thin, or that there is a tiny hairline crack present at any point along the prong, they will recommend that you remove the ring and allow them to change the prong or re-tip the top of the prong.
You should not wait for a six month inspection if you notice that your ring is getting snagged on fabric however.
This indicates that a prong is lifted above the surface of the stone, usually because it was not pressed down firmly enough to make contact to prevent it from getting fabric between the prong and the stone.
You will need to remove the ring and bring it to the store to tighten that prong down more firmly, and this will stop the snagging and also the danger of breaking on something it catches onto.
Prongs on a ring should be changed or re-tipped long before they actually break off.
A good rule of thumb is to have it done every five years, but this also depends on how often you wear the ring and what kinds of activities you do that put your hands at risk for getting banged up.
How To Tell If Your Ring’s Prongs Are Wearing Down
You should ask the salesperson to allow you to look at your prongs when you first buy your ring with their loupe. You can then see for yourself the thickness and construction of what new prongs look like compared to thin worn down ones.
You can spend a few dollars and buy your own loupe so that you can inspect your own prongs and gems also, just in case you realize that you bashed your ring between store inspections.
Loupes are not expensive, they cost nothing compared to a lost diamond or gemstone.
The tips of prongs are usually the first thing to go.
They will become flattened from wear and suddenly snag on something or break off entirely.
Gold will lose bits of itself (unlike platinum) as it wears or is hit.
If you have only 4 prongs holding your stone into place, you should consider yourself very lucky when the prong or tips break and the stone does not immediately fall to the ground or gets caught up into something.
If you have 6 prongs, you likely won’t be losing your stone, but should nevertheless remove the ring and take it in to be fixed before the next one breaks beside it, in which case, you could then lose your stone.
How Much Does It Cost To Replace Ring Prongs
Having prongs re-tipped cost an average of $20 each if they are made of gold.
If they are made of platinum, they will cost double simply because platinum is more difficult to work with.
The more difficult the job, the more it will cost.
Replacing prongs is not the same thing as re-tipping them. Remember that a prong is a tall skinny piece of metal that has a fish hook bent towards the top?
Well, the entire prong includes that fish hook part, whereas the tip is where it becomes weak and gets worn and flattened first.
If your prongs do not show signs of being cracked along the length of them, then there is no need to replace them like you would need to do for the tips.
With proper precautions, they can last a lifetime.
In the event that there is a crack found however, it will usually cost around $40 to replace that entire prong if it is made of gold…double if it is made of platinum.
It is far more unusual for platinum prongs or tips to wear down at the same rate as gold because platinum does not lose its metal when rubbed or hit. It simply shifts or bends and yields.
How To Prolong The Life of Tour Ring’s Prongs
Extending the life of your prongs can be done only by how often you take the precaution to remove the ring before you begin working with your hands.
Keep in mind that any activity which results in rubbing the tips of the prongs against something will wear them down over the years…even the sheets on your bed can be abrasive while you sleep.
Remove your ring if you work with chemicals, because chemicals will eat away at gold or cause it to become brittle enough to snap.
As long as there was good workmanship when the prongs and tips were initially built, then they can last many years before actually wearing down if you are even a little mindful of them.
However, once they are showing signs of wear and tear or lifting off from the surface of the stone, we would suggest bringing your ring into your jewelry store for closer inspection and possible repair.
Final Thoughts
If you are now intimidated about buying or owning a ring that has gemstones or diamonds that have been set using prongs, take heart.
There are plenty of ways to protect your ring from damage or losing stones, and you can endeavor to buy a ring that has 6 prongs holding the main stone, rather than 4.
This will protect an expensive stone from being lost because it is very rare that you will break or wear down more than one prong at a time, unless you never remove your ring or never have it inspected.