How To Use A Ring Sizer Belt January 8, 2019 – Posted in: Jewelry Blog

Throughout our lives, we all find times when we settle for something that is “close enough”. In most cases, it will be something simple like buying off-the-rack clothing to fit you, or matching new drapes to your furniture. However, far too many people also use this principle for buying their ring. They will try on a ring they like and, as long as it’s not in danger of slipping right off, they will buy it.

The problem is that our fingers don’t remain at a constant size, even on a day to day basis. Temperature, weight gain or loss, pregnancy, age, or some medical conditions can all make a huge difference in how a ring will fit. By having a correctly sized ring, you can prevent all sorts of potential problems at a later time.

Click here to order your Ring Sizer Belt from Amazon.

Having a Professional measure Your Ring Size

It isn’t so long ago that measuring your ring size meant a trip to the jeweler. There, the jeweler would but a series of brass “blanks” over your finger until they found the one with the best fit. An alternative way to find the correct size would be to hand over one of your current rings. The jeweler would slide it onto a jewelry mandrel, a tapered metal rod with size markings along its length. The point at which the ring came to rest would show the size.

Now, though, you have other options.

Measuring Your Ring Size at Home

Many websites offer a downloadable, printable ring sizer. It is basically a strip if paper with ring sizes sequentially marked on it. The idea is that you then wrap the paper strip around your finger and see where the tip meets the rest of the strip. This then shows the ring size for that particular finger. Although very much a cheap and cheerful option, it isn’t foolproof and can be really quite inaccurate. Paper, of course, isn’t a particularly solid or strong material. When wrapped around the finger, it’s very difficult to know if the paper is being pulled too tightly or if it is too loose. Paper also creases easily. When you consider that many ring sizes are separated by less than 0.5mm, even slightly inaccurate measurements can be a significant problem.

As well as the paper ring sizer, you can also download a sheet with various sized colored circles printed on it. The idea is then to place your current ring over each one to see which circle fits best with the band. With the best will in the world, this is fraught with problems. Be off line, or off center even by a tiny amount, and you will have the wrong size for the ring.

One final point worth making is that home printers have a setting for margins to be changed within each print size. When you are dealing with text, this is not a problem, as the lines will just wrap earlier or later, depending on the print width. Images, though, can resize as the margins change. If you have larger margins setup for some reason, there is a danger that the measurements on the strip or the printed circles are bigger or smaller than intended.

Click here to learn more about how to learn your finger size.

Ring Sizing The Easy Way

Not just easy, actually, but accurate. The methods above are not without merit, but all use a system that is too flexible, literally, by using paper. This makes the potential for an inaccurate sizing measurement very great.

The alternative is to use a ring sizer belt made of something more substantial than paper. Using the same principle as the paper strip method, plastic ring sizers are available at very low cost. Unlike the paper strip, using plastic means no stretching or creasing. This results in a much more reliable method of measuring ring size. The process itself is easy enough using just a few short steps –

1. Make sure you use the correct finger on the correct hand. The fingers on our dominant hand are often larger than on the non-dominant hand

2. Put the end of the ring sizer through the “buckle”. Slowly pull it through until you have a large sized ring that you can easily put onto the finger

3. Put the ring sizer over the chosen finger and gently pull it tighter until you have the correct size

4. The measured ring size to use is the one on the inside of the buckle of the ring sizer

5. The correct size should allow the ring sizer to move over the knuckle without too much effort

6. If the gauge on the ring sizer shows a point between two sizes, use the larger one. It is better that a ring is a fraction too big, than too small

The entire process takes no more than 30 seconds, and the ring sizer belt is fully reusable.

Things To Know About Ring Sizing

As well as the fact that fingers on our dominant hand are often larger than on the non-dominant hand, there are some other points to bear in mind when using any kind of ring sizer.

1. Measure your finger later in the day, and at a comfortable ambient temperature. Our fingers are thinner in the morning or when our hands are cold, which reduces the accuracy of the measurement. If in doubt, measure 3 or 4 times at different times of the day

2. The ring sizer should be able to slip over the knuckle with relative ease after measurement. If it requires force, then the size is too small. If it falls off without any help at all, it is too large

3. Getting the size right first time is important. If it has to be resized later, the amount of change could loosen stones in the setting or in the band.

Although getting the correct ring size for your finger is not complicated, it is very important. Take the time to measure properly, and your ring will give you many years of pleasure.