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Making your Own Jewelry like a ProMaking your own jewelry starts with knowing the basic metalsmithing methods. Continuing with your basics series, now its time for making rings. Here you’ll learn two techniques used by metalsmiths to form sheet metal into rings. Preparing the metal
From an 18 gauge silver sheet metal, cut two segments of about 5mm long. File the ends straight with a 7” flat hand file. Anneal one of the strips of metal to a dull red, quench and dry. Put your mandrel’s handle on your tummy (the mandrel should look away from you); then place the sheet metal halfway on the mandrel and hold both ends of the sheet with your hands and gently curve it downwards to make it a U shape. Hit it a couple of times with a mallet to close the U shape a bit, making sure you’re holding the sheet metal with the palm of your left hand while at the same time holding the mandrel (the handle of the mandrel still on your tummy for support), see the pictures.
Measure the size of the ring to see how much excess sheet you’ll have to discharge. Estimate the length of sheet you need to cut and saw it off. You can make a small dent on one of the ring’s angles to start sawing.
Anneal again and keep shaping the ring on the mandrel. To close the ring, and start making the joint, move the ring upwards on your mandrel to continue hammering it, so that you shape it towards the narrow tip. Hit it a few times as you make your way up and the ring starts closing. Tip: you can use the bench vise as a short-cut to close the ring. Place your ring on your bench vise with the jaws covered with leather or any other thick fabric. With a small brass or chasing hammer bend the two ends of the ring by hitting each end towards the next until they meet.
Anneal and repeat the trick. You can also hit the top of the two ends to bend them flat.
Soldering the ringWhen soldering you want the joint to be nice and tight. To do that, saw the ring’s slot inwards and then outwards, that will flatten the edges and make a good soldering surface.Place the ring on your soldering charcoal and add chips of solder along the seam, put drops of flux and light your torch to a blue flame. Heat the surrounding area until the flux fizzles.
Then move the flame on the metal and move it around the ring heating it evenly. When the metal changes color direct the flame on the two joints, always moving the flame, until solder flows. When ready, quench the ring, pickle and dry. Check that the soldering is even and that it filled the entire gap. File any excess solder on the inner rim of the ring. You should do this before forming it to a nice round shape because if you leave any excess solder on the rim it will “distort” the shape of the ring while hammering it on the mandrel (it will be like an inner bump).
To know when filing is enough, simply pass your finger on it and it should feel smooth. Shaping the ringNow that the ring is soldered, you can continue forming it to the appropriate shape. At this stage it’s very important to turn over the ring on your mandrel while forming it. Why? The shape of the mandrel is like a funnel, if you insert the ring one way only then your ring may turn out shaped in that way.To achieve a properly shaped ring (geometry) just flip the ring several times while shaping it on your mandrel.
Sometimes, especially when using thicker gauges of sheet metal, it’s necessary to level the sides of the ring. In other words, when you put the ring flat on top of your bench, you should see no light passing below it. If it’s a bit crooked, simply anneal it and place it on your bench steel block and hammer it down flat with a piston (you can get some in a Car Junk Yard, just make sure it has a nicely polished base).
Place the ring on a ring clamp to do the filing and sanding, you want to file the ring not your fingers! File the entire ring starting with 7” files to remove metal and then use needle files to imrpove the shape and get rid of excess solder. Remember to file the edges of the rings to a smooth finish. Wrap your files with sanding paper and work your way up starting with 400 grit and moving up to 600 grit.
You can sand the inner shank of your ring using the Foredom device for sanding. It’s a great tool and I also use it to make the final sanding of the entire ring. And you’re done! Next, look at this page for yet another technique to make a ring,
click here.
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