How a wedding ring is made…

I thought this week I’d let you all in on how a wedding ring (band) is made.  I have simplified it a bit (so it fits on the page!) and taken out all the bashed fingers and burnt worktops (no-one is perfect…).

 

Gold ready for melting

 

Here the gold is in granule form in the crucible ready to be melted down. Once melted I will pour it whilst still molten into the black ingot bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gold melted into a bar

 

Here’s the gold after it has been poured into the ingot bar and cooled.

 

 

 

 

Milling the gold down to the right size and shape

 

This is the rolling mill where the gold gets shaped. I pass the gold bar through the mill, progressively squeezing the gold marginally each time until I have the size and shape that I need.  At frequent intervals throughout this process I have to heat the metal up to ensure its flexibility.

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for shaping into a ring

Here the gold has been shaped, measured and cut to the right size and is now ready for forming into a circle.

 

 

 

 

 

Soldering the join

 

Here the ring has been formed into a rough circle and now the two ends need to be soldered together.  I place a tiny slither of gold solder on the join and then heat the whole ring until the solder melts and fuses the two ends together.

 

 

 

Hammering on the mandrel to make a perfect circle

 

Now the ring is hammered onto a round mandrel to shape it into a perfect circle.

 

 

 

 

All finished ready for polishing

 

 

The finished rings ready for polishing!