repairing broken prongs and pins

[o.r.k.]

Hi all,
I wanted to share my good experience with a successful mending technique. I bought a nice 4 prong Krimshield with backplate and wanted to preserve the inside with Renwax as well- it came as I feared- I broke off a prong and was devastated. After looking for possibilities to get it repaired I came to ask an experienced goldsmith who specialized in repairing old jewellery. He recommended to use a laser. He had to open the backplate and he was able to laser the prong in the right colour shade fit the plate and bend the thing again. It is impossible to see the mended part- the price was fine (asking 50 bucks frindship price)- (so always be nice to your goldsmith . As I read many discussions on the forum that invariably ended in leaving the damage as it is this may offer a real feasible alternative. Unfortunately I don´t know how to upload pics- I´ve sent pics to an experienced collector/seller friend and he was very positive as he couldn´t spot the mending on the pics. I can send the pics to an interested member and perhaps it can be uploaded this way.

[Robert H]

on behalf

[petopoint]

Cool.

Nice job, do you know what strength the laser was that he used?

[o.r.k.]

Thanks Robert for posting the pics. It is the upper left prong if you look at the pic.
I only know that he used a conventional laser that goldsmiths use to repair jewellery- He said that the heat shouldn´t get too high so therefore it can´t be a very strong one.

[petopoint]

Thanks.

Thanks for the info and reply.

[o.r.k.]

I´ve called the goldsmith- he´s back next week and can give me more details. It is not only the laser but also needs a lot of experience and skill to do it professionally as he told me. I´ll post the information I get on the laser.

[o.r.k.]

The details:
It was a Siro Lasertec laser- price about 50.000€ !!!!! The goldsmith told me it needs a lot of skill to use it properly for such delicate work, so the gadget must be matched by a lot of experience otherwise it´s worthless.
Even if you would start using it as a business you need a lot of jobs just to pay it off.

[o.r.k.]

I´ve checked the laser price on the net- it recently stands at 20.000€ (I don´t know when the goldsmith bought his) but still quite a sum.

[Sonnenwende]

This is an interesting and a new approach to an old problem.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards
Sonnenwende

[wh014d4394]

50 BUCKS TO PUT YOU A PIN BACK ON THATS 45 UK POUNDS? ME THINKING IM IN THE WRONG JOB ROUND HERE I THINK I CAN SELL YOU SOME KY JELLY.FOUR A SORE BOT BOT.HE SURE TOOK YOUR TROUSERS DOWN.THAT REPAIR MAN NEEDS A GOOD SLAP