Should you refurbish your jewelry? Or use the diamonds and gemstones to make a different piece?
If it's a style you love, we recommend jewelry restoration. Our antique jewelry restoration services range from replacing old style diamond on an antique ring to complete restoration of estate jewelry. We are one of the few jewelers to have the equipment and skill to repair costume jewelry also.
Vintage jewelry has often had previous repairs. Unfortunately, repairs on old jewelry tend to be of poor quality. Our finely detailed repair work can usually undo past damage, restoring your vintage jewelry to its original, beautiful condition.
If you have an antique or vintage engagement ring that’s been loved and worn for many years, we may suggest making a replica instead. We can remake it exactly like it was when it was new, using your original diamonds (and in some cases, the original metal, too.) Fox Fine Jewelry has recreated hundreds of antique engagement rings and other vintage jewelry pieces, and it’s all done on premises in our workshop in downtown Ventura, CA. 
If it's not a style you love, you may want to create something new with the gemstones from the original piece. We can remove your diamonds and gemstones, and set them into a new or existing piece of jewelry. Your sentimental stones are photographed, described, and insured while they're here for your security, and our highly skilled jewelers are experts at setting stones into new mountings.
Antique, vintage and even costume jewelry can be repaired in our workshop. Thanks to our veteran jewelers and our specialized equipment, we're able to restore vintage rings other jewelers won't touch. Some of our services include:
All work is done on-premises, and your jewelry is photographed, described and insured while at Fox Fine Jewelry. Estate jewelry is often one’s most sentimental piece. We will take the utmost care of your jewelry!
Fox Fine Jewelry works with clients locally in southern California, and across the country to repair and restore antique jewelry. We've repaired thousands of pieces, and the results can speak for themselves.
We can re-engrave worn out engraving patterns. This antique engraved engagement ring had a worn leaf pattern and milgrain, which we restored by hand under magnification. We also built up the four prongs that hold the center diamond in place, a process called retipping. Learn more about hand engraving.
The metal holding the seven pave-set diamonds has worn down so much that one diamond fell out! We removed the remaining six diamonds, matched up a seventh diamond, and reset them using more metal. We also bezel set a new, bigger pear cut diamond where the original pear cut diamond was. Bezel setting a diamond protects it from chipping, and is a very secure way to set your diamond.
When one diamond falls out, it can be a warning that others are about to come out of your ring, too. We replaced the missing diamond in this vintage white gold engagement ring, and checked the other diamonds for security (and added meal to the tips where needed).
The three Old European Cut diamonds were bezel set, but the bezels had worn away almost completely. We rebuild the bezels, retipped the prongs holding the smaller diamonds, and polished and rhodium plated this wide diamond heirloom ring.
This white gold ring looks almost yellow in the before photo, because the rhodium plating has completely worn away. Virtually all white gold jewelry is dipped in rhodium (a member of the platinum family) to make it look bright white. Learn more about rhodium plating your white gold jewelry.
This diamond anniversary band has five prong set diamonds - or at least, it did originally! Every single time you touch gold, a microscopic amount wears away. Over many years, the prong tips will wear down. If they wear down too far, your diamond can fall out - which is what happened to this ring. We selected a replacement diamond, retipped the prongs, and rhodium plated the ring so it looks bright white and brand new again.
Soft gemstones, like this blue zircon, can become scratched or abraded through normal wear and tear. Abraded gems look "fuzzy," rough, and less clear where they're scracthed. We can remove your gemstone, polish it, and reset it into your original piece. This blue zircon was polished, and we built up the bezel (and added the milgrain back in by hand, under magnification) so that it will be secure in the setting. Learn more about polishing abraded gemstones and recutting chipped diamonds.
This ring was in need of some R&R to prevent the accent diamonds from falling out. We retipped the prongs, added the worn milgrain back in, polished the abraded center sapphire, and set it into a new milgrained bezel so it would be secure for years to come.
This ring had prongs so worn they were nearly nonexistent, and we were relieved we were able to work on this ring before diamonds fell out. Small details had completely worn away, and dirt had settled into many of the nooks and crannies. We rebuilt the tips and built up more metal around the band where it had gotten thin (called "reshanking").
Ready for Fox Fine Jewelry to restore your vintage ring? We're happy to help! Thousands of clients across the country trust us to repair vintage jewelry in Ventura, CA.
If you're local, you can stop in anytime for a quote to refurbish your vintage jewelry, any time we're open. You can also discuss turning heirloom pieces into custom jewelry with one of our in-store designers.
If you're not local, please send us some photos of your jewelry you want to restore. We'll be able to give you a ballpark quote from your images, and instructions on how to securely ship your heirloom jewelry to us for repair.