ST. CLOUD -- This week in our "Behind the Scenes" series on WJON, we see what details go into shining up your rings at Schepers Jewelers.

From rings, watches, necklaces and more you never know what will walk through the doors at Schepers Jewelers.

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Vice President Joy Sherwood has been working with jewelry for 17 years and says in this business detail is everything.

"When you are dealing with diamonds that are tiny they can pop out of the tweezers and so you have to be very careful," says Sherwood.

The store handles anything from watch battery changes, to sizing and cleaning rings. Repair Specialist Eric Schepers says when they get a piece, like a ring, it's carefully looked over.

"So on rings you're going to have stones that are prong set and stones that are channel set. With prong set stones you just give them a tug to make sure they don't move and on the channel set stones you take a needle and go over each one," says Schepers.

The ring is then place into a machine called the Ultrasonic to clean off any body oils or lotions.

"A lot of people will wear lotions all day long and don't take their rings off so this cleaner helps loosen that lotion up," says Schepers.

From there the ring is buffed, placed in the ultrasonic again, before it's put through a process called electro-cleaning.

"When we electro-clean a ring what's happening is it's taking off all the oil and finger prints off the ring," says Schepers.

Once it's done the ring comes out looking just like new. Schepers says its important to get your jewelry check at least once a year to make sure everything is in order.

"People will do something and look and say 'oh my prong broke' and they don't even realize it and that's one of the good things about getting your ring checked out every six months to a year," says Schepers.

A lot of pride goes into their work and Sherwood says she enjoys hearing the stories behind the pieces the receive.

"Some rings you will see and they are from the 1800s or 1890 and it's just really cool to see those pieces last that long," says Sherwood.

 

A ring is inspected under the microscope at Schepers Jewelers (Photo: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON)
A ring is inspected under the microscope at Schepers Jewelers (Photo: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON)
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