Hey All,

 

Newbie blacksmith here, who is getting married at the end of November.  Very psyched - my wife to be is awesome!  Both of us are of the build it, not buy it, persuasion - she's making her wedding dress, and I was wondering if it's possible to blacksmith some cool wedding rings...  I've done quite a bit of googling around and reading, but haven't found a ton of info on things quite as small and delicate as rings. 

 

So, has anybody out there made any jewelry? Specifically rings?  Or can anyone recommend any books or other sources of info?

 

Also, what metals can be used?  I know you could make a ring out of just about anything, but some metals tend to stain the skin and tarnish - any advice?

 

And does anyone have pictures of some self-made jewelry?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Spruce

Silver lined patternwelded (damascus) rings are not unknown.

 

I had a college student who was going to make brass rings for his wedding, (poverty), I had him come out and we went through the scrap silver box and amassed enough to pour a 2 ring preform in petrobond and then I had him hammer them out to size.  Months later he surprised me by showing up and paying me for the silver!

j just watched a video on you tube a while back where this guy made rings out of a 1953 .25 cent piece.
Maybe try a search on you tube for guy makes ring out of 1953 quarter.
or maybe google it.

before you get into the rambly reply, what region are you in?  there might be somebody nearby, and we can make more specific recommendations that are closer to you.

 

As Thomas suggested a silver lining on the wearing surfaces of jewelry made from otherwise reactive or allergenic metals can go a long way towards making the pieces comfortable (possible in some cases) to wear and prevent skin discoloration.  everybody is built just a little differently, so reactions to different metals cant be readily assumed to apply to the entire population.

 

copper and high copper alloys can turn skin green, depending on your body chemistry.  nickel can cause a rash if the wearer is allergic, said allergy can develop over time.  silver is pretty inert, though I have seen black tarnish rub off my own sterling necklace onto my neck under prolonged really nappy conditions, and silver allergies exist as well.  regular iron as im sure you are aware will rust depending on the finish.  friend of mine has a really cool Damascus ring with very deeply etched relief showing the pattern striking at a diagonal to the hole in the ring.

 

your options are really only as limited as your imagination (ok, and budget).  look up Mokume Gane (scroll down to the section here on IFI to see examples and process information) to see some cool patterned metals, kind of like Damascus made of (typically, but not always) non ferrous materials.  also check that out on google images search, look for star pattern mokume gane and see where you can go with that material :)

 

there are a variety of styles of rings created from coins as well. 

Curly shared some excellent work using british copper coins over here:

the same process can be applied to silver coins

 

I employed a variation of this lady's process to create a ring for my fiancé (not that ring, that one I bought...) from two dimes because she has tiny fingers, but instead of just center punching and beating it into a cylinder I partially inverted it so the reeded edge was in the middle and the previous center was the outside, then I soldered the two dimes together, giving the whole thing a chevron cross section.  unfortunately she said the writing and images on the surface were bugging her so I had to buff all the relief off and you cant really tell its from coins anymore :(

http://www.customdesignmetalarts.com/studio.html#Info

 

This forge offers a wedding band course for couples. He has always answered my questions in a timely manner so if you have specific concerns, drop him a line.

Awesome!  Thanks for the replies guys - going to read through those books and see what I can find out...  I have an idea of what I would like to create - just have to see if I can figure out how to make it happen.

 

One of the features I would like is to have a pattern welded/Damascus ring, with something set in it - so what are my options for pattern welded, which won't react with skin?  Thomas Powers - you mention silver lined, pattern welded rings can be done - do you have any more information on it?

 

If I can't figure that one out, then I will probably switch to silver and see what I can create.  Thanks again,

 

Spruce

Oh, and Chinobi - thanks for all those links - looking into them now, and looking into the Mokume Gane method.  I live just outside of Las Vegas, in a cool little desert town called Blue Diamond.  Anybody else around here?

 

Spruce

you are quite welcome, hope you find them useful, I realized later that they were all silver themed, but for the most part metal is metal :)

 

there is a good handful of active members in the vegas area, IDK if there is a Nevada/vegas forum in the member groups section, but scroll way down to the bottom of the forum index and check it out.

They are out there, pretty easy to make the patternwelded ring and then make a tube to fit the inside and burnish it around the sides of the ring.  Some of the nice ones have the PW material inset a bit to deal with the other fingers too.

 

Want to get fancy?  Get a nice fine pattern and set blocks of it into a cast ring

Check out this guy's work:

 

http://www.jloose.com/