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Hand making an 18ct yellow gold half - hoop ring,
with a carved gallery and claw setting.
Hand making a ring is just what is says...it isn't
carving wax and having it cast, or purchasing a casting to hand finish. It's
hand wrought in the gold. I've seen far too much misrepresenting of the
term "hand making". So I decided to remove any confusion and
show how it's done. Cast gold is soft, brittle, and porous so isn't the
best option for durability and security of the setting.
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This is a picture of the finished ring.
The scroll pattern on the sides
and the shoulder treatment are a personal choice.
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When hand carving these scrolls I use a slightly
different alloy of gold from my usual 75% gold, 13% silver 12% copper
mix. I reduce the copper to 11% and add 1% zinc. This make the gold a
little softer and friendlier to carve.
From experience I cut the required length from a
bar of 18ct gold. |
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At this stage the gold hasn't been annealed since it
was melted and poured into the ingot
mould. Each end is rolled down in the wire rolling
mill, leaving the centre section the original size. |
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Placing the diamonds on top of the blank to check
progress.
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The ends are at a hardness now when they need annealing. The entire piece
is heated to red and quenched in water.
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The ends are further reduced in the wire mills.
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The centre block is now rolled sideways in the flat
mills and brought down to about 1mm thicker than the height of the
finished ring. This spreads the gold and gives the width needed to house
the diamonds, and to make the prongs to clasp over the top.
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Again the diamonds are laid out upside down on the blank to check
progress.
Looks good here.
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The ends of the blank are now rolled in and out of the flat
mills to reduce their thickness.
(The red is just oxidation, intensified by the digi camera...not
heat. The rolling is always done cold)
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The ends have been worked down to about half their cross section, so need annealing again.
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More reduction in thickness, leaving the centre alone.
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Hallmark stamping with my maker's mark and gold purity mark
"750"
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The centre section is pretty thick, but is soft compared to the work
hardened flats of the band. This is done so that when trying to bend
the centre, the harder ends resist bending and encourage the thicker
part to a better shape...So into the ring bender to shape it
into a ring.
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The ends are cut to length, so the ring is about 3 or 4 sizes undersize
before final shaping.
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Ring bending pliers are used to close the back of the ring.
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The top is refusing to close, so a quick squeeze in the soft jaws of the
vice closes the back up.
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The band ends are trimmed square and soldered with my mouth
blown torch using "hard solder" the highest
melting point solder I have. This also anneals the entire ring ready for
the next forging process.
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Onto the steel ring mandrel it goes, and it's hammered round and up to just under the
correct finger size.
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This forging on the mandrel saves time and material which would be spent
filing gold away to get the shape. The shoulders are hammered down to their
correct shape.
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To mark the location of the largest centre diamond I place it upside down
on the top and scribe a line across pushing it out of the way as I do
so.
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Using progressively larger drills in the flex drive, and then a ball bur, the diamond is
let in until it just sits above the surface of the ring.
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Then the other 2 diamonds are let in the same way.
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A small gap of about 0.6mm is left between them so that as they are sunk
down into the mount when being set they come close but don't touch. This part is critical
because a small error here is
very obvious in the finished ring
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The sides are now filed down to the size, and the shape of the sides is
defined. The squareness of the ring
is carefully checked as this filing progresses.
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The back of the holes are opened up with a ball bur on the flex drive,
and the holes are aligned at the back.
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The back holes are cut square with the saw, and parallel to the
sides of the ring.
A nice even knife edge is maintained between the holes.
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The top is now prepared for cutting away the metal to form the claws.
first a cut down with the saw, then a square needle file.
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Then the shape is filed around the holes to get an even thickness.
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Another critical step, laying out the scrolls and claws.
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The saw is used to cut away the metal to form the claws, and 0.5mm holes
are drilled at the bottom of the scrolls. The scrolls are then roughed
out using the engraving tools.
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The shoulders are cut with a "V" shape to form the outside
pair of claws for each of the end diamonds.
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More work with the engraving tools and files to shape the claws and
scrolls.
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A fine saw blade is used to open up the holes to make the scrolls finer,
and to define their shape.
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To set the diamonds the claws a pushed open a little, a bearing surface
is cut using the flex drive, and then the prongs are pushed over and
down onto the diamonds.
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The scrolls are refined using the engraving tools, and claws trimmed
using needle files and engraving tools. The band is filed to half round
and after a final emery
with 1200 wet&dry on sticks, a polish
and clean completes the ring.
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was no annealing after the ring was soldered shut just before the
forging to shape. This leaves the gold in a work hardened state, and
after the claws are pushed down (more work hardening), the grain
structure of the gold is very favourable, and they are very strong
indeed. |
