Sterling Silver Rings can be resized, however the cost may not be justified. Sterling silver rings can be divided into two basic classes. The first class would be rings with stones, inlays and other adornments. The second class would be bands. Bands would have to be further separated in plain and those with patterns. Considering that most highly skilled tradesman, including jewelers bill their time around $70.00 to $90.00 per hour all repair work is expensive.

The simplest and least expensive resizing is to have a plain band that is not highly polished enlarged. There are several common jeweler's tools to do this job. Many look like a tapered cone with several curved panels around a center core. The ring is placed over the cone and a lever is pulled to spread the curved panels.
As the panels move out from their starting position the band's diameter is increased and either the thickness of the band, or it's height is slightly decreased and the inner diameter is increased. There is no change in the weight of the ring. This process works fine to increase a quarter to a half size. If too large a change is attempted, or there is a delicate pattern stretch marks on the outer surface of the ring will become obvious. This process requires an accurate measurement of the finger, and possibly may be done in several small steps to be sure that the ring is not overly enlarged. If several trial fits are done, and the tool is in a convenient position the process may only take several minutes. Expect to be charged the shop's minimum service charge.

A similar process can be used to decrease the size of a band style sterling silver ring. The ring is placed in a form from which several sections of the interior can be pressed against the ring. As pressure is applied the outer diameter decreases and the thickness or the height of the ring increases. Again there in no change to the weight of the ring. A mat finished ring will show the least distortion. A patterned ring will show more distortion. This process is also easy and fairly quick.

Sterling silver rings set with stones present a very different problem. The weakest points of the ring are in the area of the setting. There is a device with split rings that expand to increase the size of the ring. The split is placed behind the setting. There is a real chance that applying pressure to a mounting could tear it apart. Although this method is fast and not expensive there is a real chance that the ring will suffer a permanent injury. Many jewelers would not want to take the chance of injuring a ring and would not offer this method except for a very small fractional size adjustment.

The most tradition and commonly used method to either increase, or decrease a setting involves the cutting of the shank of the ring. To decrease the size two parallel cuts are made to remove the excess material. When the size is to be increased one cut is made and additional metal is added. In either case the cut ends must be perfectly cleaned and squeezed very tight not to leave any gaps. A very thin sheet of solder, or solder paste is applied to the cuts, and then the cuts are squeezed as tightly as needed to create a totally closed joint. Heat is applied to melt the solder and creates a permanent joint. The areas of the joints are then cleaned and filed to reproduce the exact shape of the original ring shank. The ring will also require a reshaping to the normal interior shape. The ring will need to be repolished.

The above procedure was explained in very simple terms. The more complex the shape of the shank the more difficult and time consuming the process. A very experienced jeweler can resize a simply designed ring in about a half hour. The cost of labor and material will far surpass the original cost of many sterling silver rings.

There are two more complications when working with sterling silver rings. Many jewelers who normally do not work on sterling silver will not want to because the sterling silver will contaminate their cutting and polishing tools. Whenever a cutting, filing, or polishing tool comes in contact with metal microscopic particles remain on the tool. If the same tools are used for different metals these particles will be transferred between surfaces. Sterling silver which contains copper could cause the surface of a gold piece of jewelry to tarnish. The other problem is that many sterling silver rings are plated with rhodium. The rhodium plating would have to be refinished and will add greatly to the job's cost.