The Process

The process of creating a ring from precious metals like gold, white gold or platinum, is very different than you might think.

One common misconception of working with precious metals is that you work with the metals when they are hot, as when working with iron.

Most people see blacksmiths and other metal workers pounding red-hot metal and think they are going to have to do the same.

But, with precious metals, although you heat the metal from time to time, the hammering and milling are all done when the metal is cool to the touch.

The biggest fear we hear expressed is ”I will mess it up”, or “I’m too nervous to do that, I have never worked with metal before”. But your’e not on your own, you have a professional jeweler helping you the whole time. If any boo-boo crops up, the jeweler just sits in, fixes it, and gets you back to work on your custom ring. Don’t be nervous, get excited for your WEDDING RING EXPERIENCE !

 

1. Design your ring
Comfort Fit Ring D-Shape Ring Flat Shape
   

2. Melt the precious metal

3. Milling and Stretching
You place your raw gold or platinum in a ceramic dish and melt it down completely to a puddle of precious metal and pour it into a mold. Then you take the small ingot of gold or platinum and slowly stretch the precious metal into a long strip of your chosen ring’s profile.

 

4. Shaping and Bending

5. Sawing and Aligning
With the long strip made, you then bend it into a ring shape with a hammer and correctly shaped mandrel. This allows you to hammer it approximately the right size. Then you saw the ring to the correct size, and align it. (The professional jeweler may jump in here to make sure the ring is cut so it fits together perfectly).

 

6. Soldering into a Ring

7. Filing and Sanding
With the ring now shaped and cut, you prepare it for soldering, where you join both ends with precious metal solder to form a continuous, unbroken band. After soldering, you need to file off any bumps and sand the ring to a roughly even finish all the way around, making sure the ring stays an even shape.

 

8. Buffing inside and out

9. Final Polishing
Now it’s time to buff the ring inside and outside to remove any and all sanding marks. This will give you a mirror finish. After buffing, you then change wheels and start polishing. What you thought was a mirror finish becomes 10 times shinier. And you’re done !