Making a ring from a coin

[Cheshirechappie]

I wouldn't worry about the illegality of defacing coins of the Realm. Andy's was a French franc, and defacing them is probably compulsory!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Wuffles - it's only a 5kg miniature and was under £12. But almost any bit of steel would do. A lump-hammer hld in the vice would be ok, or the little anvil at the back of an engineering vice.

I've used a 14Lb sledge hammer head for this purpose for years. I mirror polished one face for finer work, and left the other rough.

Buying tip - for some reason heads with bits of broken handles in sell for much less than "clean" heads.

I don't know why, since removing a head is quick and easy.

BugBear

That must be the only 14lb sledge in existence with a mirror-polished face! :lol:

(14lb sledge? Finer work? *wanders off, shaking head in wonderment*)

 

[adidat]

this reminds me of my days of putting 2p piece on the tram tracks in Croyden and getting back squished coins, when the trams run them over.

the follies of youth!

adidat

 

[Benchwayze]

I wonder if this is how jewellers make a plain, gold wedding ring? Start with a gold disc? I never notice any kind of join, but then they are fiendishly clever these craftsmen. :-k

 

[monkeybiter]

I think many are cast, probably lost wax technique. I've looked at this site before, they produce all the parts to assemble your own. http://www.cooksongold.com/Cast-Rings/

 

[AndyT]

I wonder if this is how jewellers make a plain, gold wedding ring? Start with a gold disc? I never notice any kind of join, but then they are fiendishly clever these craftsmen. :-k

No, it's far too slow. The normal method is to bend thick wire (of similar cross section to the finished ring) round a tapered former to the required size. Cut and file the ends square, twist the ends together, solder together invisibly, and make the ring properly round by hammering on a mandrel. At least, that's how I was taught for silver. (I was only playing at it and didn't get onto gold.)

 

[Benchwayze]

Andy, Biter,

Thanks for the info . The rings for SWMBO and me, (in 1962) were made by the husband of one of Jean's friends, so in this case they were individually made at the jewellers bench. Exactly how I wouldn't know of course. As it happens Jean had to have the wedding ring removed at A&E the other day after a fall, which caused a lot of swelling in her hand. Just about managed to get the ring off without cutting it. I can't see how I am getting it back on, unless I get it stretched! :| It's in the safe of course ATM!

 

[AndyT]

Stretching isn't difficult and you have access to lots of clever people in the Jewellery Quarter. They can either stretch by hammering on a conical mandrel or let in a piece of new metal.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

this reminds me of my days of putting 2p piece on the tram tracks in Croyden and getting back squished coins, when the trams run them over.

the follies of youth!

adidat

Old pennies and halfpennies were better, they were softer. The secret was to get away from a station so the train wasn't braking hard when it went over them - then you kept the design for longer. We could get an old penny up to about three inches.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder if this is how jewellers make a plain, gold wedding ring? Start with a gold disc? I never notice any kind of join, but then they are fiendishly clever these craftsmen. :-k

No, it's far too slow. The normal method is to bend thick wire (of similar cross section to the finished ring) round a tapered former to the required size. Cut and file the ends square, twist the ends together, solder together invisibly, and make the ring properly round by hammering on a mandrel. At least, that's how I was taught for silver. (I was only playing at it and didn't get onto gold.)

Yes, I was taught that way as well, but I suspect/believe that new rings are cast.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you wish to make rings in gold, it's wise to buy colour matched solder when purchasing the gold as every slightly different alloy is a slightly different colour. Different metals are alloyed for different properties - some harden or soften, some colour. E.g. pink has copper in it, white palladium or platinum (often rhodium plated commercially), chromium, cadmium, nickel, zinc and others give a broader spectrum sometimes with only a tiny tweak in the proportions. A jeweller near me sells 18ct wedding rings of gold and Cornish tin which is a nice soft grey gold - and I saw in Changi airport duty free some absolutely stunning purple gold.

 

[novocaine]

a lot of mass produced plain rings (wedding etc.) from places such are beaverbrooks are machined from hot drawn rod these days. waste gets put back in to pot for the next one.

for anything with a setting, you'll find the majority are cast.

a good source if you wan't to make your own wedding rings is http://www.cooksongold.com/Rings/

my wedding band is white gold and cost a fortune, it's a fairly plain band with an intended centre and a comfort fit (the only part of the wedding were we spluged, wife got a nice engagement ring and a plain wedding ring, I got a nice wedding ring). shame I don't wear it, I wear the stirling silver copy I made, the wife hasn't noticed yet, so it must be a good copy. and at 20 quid for the blank from the aforementioned website.

and yes, I have a safe lol.

anyway, back on topic, ish, I fancy making a wooden ring, maybe a wooden inlay on a silver band. need to find a coin that's actually silver first.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"Waste gold" - "Waste silver" = oxymorons
Lemel is the word - a useful word for quizes and scrabble - it's not in many dictionaries.

 

[novocaine]

"Waste gold" = oxymoron

never met a goldsmith who can't make money by shaking his apron.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

While we're on rings - I cut mine and rounded the ends. I worked many moons ago with crane driver who had a finger ripped out of his hand by a stray wire tie when he was working as a banksman, and it persuaded me easily not to wear a continuous ring. I've had two ripped off and lost but I still possess the finger.
In New Delhi they pan the drains where the gold is worked - and that's after the workers' shower water is panned.

 

[novocaine]

I take mine off when I'm working on anything I can be hung up on. when offshore I have to remove it (along with the watch and necklace).

if I'm welding the ring and the watch come off, I've got a lovely bangle that used to be a watch until I grounded it with an Arc. still got the burn mark.

worked on a maintenance team a long time ago and had to help when the foreman got himself hung by his wrist from a ladder, 2" to the left and he'd have been fizzing on 415v.

have a look on youtube for a channel called codys lab (or something), he's been mining platinum from the roads recently, thanks to catalytic converters.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Off tack - something like a quarter of the world's gold is privately owned in India, now being overtaken by China. My cousin, a GP, married a rather lovely Indian lady GP whose mother, father, uncle, and two aunties were GPs. I went to his wedding reception and someone collapsed - they shouted is there a doctor in the house and 140+ out of 185 put their hands up ( even his father who is a geographer ). Three of the women flew back to India to get the family gold for the wedding - I saw the bride and she was draped in the stuff. She said she was embarrassed to be wearing so much but she was only wearing 20 - 25% of what they asked of her.

 

[Benchwayze]

In the old buildings in Birmingham's Hockley district, the floor boards were taken up regularly and the dust collected from between the joists.
I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the jewellers' aprons were collected every day!

That's a reminder for me! My first arrest was on a filthy winter's night, in Spencer Street. He was a factory-breaker, with his pockets full of jewellers' findings. Mon Dieu that was 52 years ago! :shock:

 

[Eric The Viking]

If you wish to make rings in gold, it's wise to buy colour matched solder when purchasing the gold as every slightly different alloy is a slightly different colour. Different metals are alloyed for different properties - some harden or soften, some colour. E.g. pink has copper in it, white palladium or platinum (often rhodium plated commercially), chromium, cadmium, nickel, zinc and others give a broader spectrum sometimes with only a tiny tweak in the proportions. A jeweller near me sells 18ct wedding rings of gold and Cornish tin which is a nice soft grey gold - and I saw in Changi airport duty free some absolutely stunning purple gold.

Singapore requires you to lock your credit card away for safety. I bought some silk there once, for my wife who couldn't come on the trip, but I also saw a Pentax LX camera (like my own, black one) which had been entirely gold plated. Looked hideous and practically useless - can't imagine why anyone would want one, but there was evidently a market. Lots of bling things available for those that wanted them.

I think that business has grown in places like Dubai (duty free) and Bahrain, of recent decades.