BUYING A NEW RING? COUNT YOUR PRONGS FIRST

Let’s face it…

Prongs rule a ring.

It’s true.

Prongs affect the look and design of the entire ring.

They affect the feel and shape. They affect the security of the gemstones and the diamonds. They affect how the whole ring comes together.

But how much do you take the prongs of your ring into consideration when purchasing?

If you don’t…

You should!

If you’re shopping for a new ring, you must stop and think about prongs.

Most people don’t even look at them…

Most people only look at the diamond, the quality, the mounting and the price (can you blame them?)

Prongs are normally a non-issue.

But is this thinking right?

No!

By neglecting to look at the prongs, it could get very, very costly.

Prongs cost money:

The more prongs a ring has, the more that ring is going to cost you in the future.

This is because of one simple thing: wear and tear.

Prongs are thin and delicate to begin with, and under normal everyday stress they erode, crack, wear down and pit.

The tips round off, the tops become thin and fragile. Some prongs get paper thin and people wonder why they lose their diamonds.

The sad thing is, there’s no way to prevent this.

It happens just like the tires on a car. They wear down. It’s a fact of life.

More prongs, more everything!

So you can quickly see that the more prongs you have, the more those prongs will have to be retipped and fixed in the future (retipping is adding gold to the tops of the prongs to make them durable and secure again).

And let me tell you…

Prong retipping is not cheap.

Most jewelers charge a whopping $10-$25 a prong.

That’s a lot of dough. If you have a diamond cocktail ring with 60 prongs…

Start crying now.

Plus, believe it or not, some prongs are already very skinny and thin to begin with. Look at some new rings in the jewelry cases today and you’ll see prong thickness varies depending on the style and price.

Fancy built-in heads can be beautiful with lovely curved sides and shapes… But repairing and retipping them can be a nightmare.

Some rings also have double-prongs.

Double prongs is one prong with 2 tips, like a double-headed snake. It looks cool, but I can already feel your pocket book shudder.

Simplicity is the key to buying rings and saving money.

Less prongs equals less money.

If you can get channel-set diamonds in the band instead of prong set or bead set (very small rounded prongs), all the better.

Not to mention the fact that the more prongs you have, the greater the risk of catching them, snagging them, breaking them off, hitting them, bending them or losing your gemstones.

That’s when things get really pricey.

So think twice about buying a new ring with 30+ prongs.

Do you want the added aggravation?

Do you want to shell out $400 in jewelry repairs?

Sometimes prongs are just not worth it.

You may not have much of a choice when it comes to the center stone, usually 4 or 6 prongs is standard. But if the mounting has endless prongs (see picture), I would highly suggest one thing: buy the jeweler’s extended service plan if they have one.

Service plans will normally cover the expensive cost of repairing and retipping those prongs when they wear down.

Which is awesome.

So don’t forget to count those prongs. Each one is money.

Count them before you buy the ring…

Or else, you’ll be counting cash and repairs in the future.

A good mounting to have is a solitaire mounting, 3 stone mounting, or a channel-set mounting, like those at James Allen.

Cheers! :)