What is Repair/Restoration Service?
Restoration is the process of restoring a severely damaged piece of jewellery to its original appearance.
The restoration process is completed by Limei Jewelry Craftsmen and includes the following steps:
- Check and analyze the works;
- Get a quote for the restoration process.
After the customer accepts the quotation:
- The repair is done in multiple steps:
- Soldering: A hot metal tip attached to a welding torch is used to weld the two parts of the jewellery together; they are then immersed in an acid solution to remove any traces of oxidation.
- Shaping: Use a boxwood mallet to shape the jewelry into its original form.
- Gem setting is a delicate and complex process that sometimes requires custom-made settings and claws to fix the gemstones.
- Polishing treatment, use a brush head with three different polishing pastes to achieve a smooth mirror effect;
- Cleaning treatment, in a warm water bath with detergent, use ultrasonic cleaning to clean the jewelry, especially the hard-to-reach corners and crevices. All jewelry is suitable for ultrasonic cleaning except emeralds, pearls, or other similar fragile gemstones.
- Rhodium plating: In order to enhance the white texture of white gold, a thin layer of rhodium metal is sometimes plated on its surface. Rhodium is a rare and precious metal and is a metal of the same family as platinum.
The rhodium plating process includes the following steps:
- Before polishing, remove the original rhodium metal layer to expose the original metal surface in preparation for re-plating;
- After polishing, the white gold jewelry is placed in a rhodium metal plating bath for even plating.
- Conduct functional and appearance tests that meet Limei quality standards.
Note: During the polishing process, a thin layer of metal is removed. In addition, polishing cannot completely remove deep scratches. It is technically impossible to polish a white gold surface to a black surface.
