With regards to the thread of ring sizing.
I feel that to say that a person can size 20 or so rings per
hour is not a true indication of their ability if finishing and
polishing time is not taken into consideration.
Someone could say that they size 30 rings or just 10 rings in an
hour.
The ability to polish to a high standard takes time.
After all you should start timing yourself from when you take
the job out of the packet and stopping the stopwatch when it is
returned.
This I feel would be able to test true craftsmanship in sizing
and polishing and not just sizing ability.
Andrew
With regards to the thread of ring sizing.
I feel that to say that a person can size 20 or so rings per
hour is not a true indication of their ability if finishing and
polishing time is not taken into consideration.
In my second or third year on the bench, I remember sizing 75
jobs in a day. This included a lot of trio sets and guard rings.
I don’t know how many individual rings that added up to. I do
remember that as fast as I thought I was, a guy with about 6
years on me turned out about 100 jobs and the shop foreman turned
out about 125.
Polishing was done in another department as it should have
been. By seperating the general workload into repair, finishing
and finally cleaning and inspection, it’s possible to increase
speeds considerably. The mechanics of cutting, soldering, filing
and sanding are the most time consumlig of the operation and in
my shy, quiet and humble opinion, do a good job of reflecting a
mechanics speed, as the other operations can be learned a lot
quicker and have some real speed limitations.
The ability to polish to a high standard takes time.
I agree completely with you Andrew, that’s why I included “not
including polishing”. I was referring to a time that I worked in
a shop that had a professional polisher.
I pride myself on producing highly finished high-end jewelry,
polished inside and out, thrummed, burnished, what ever.
Since I work primarily in high karat gold (including pieces made
in 24k) and platinum, polishing takes on an entirely new meaning.
I sometimes take nearly as much time finishing pieces now as I do
in making them, especially with platinum and 24k. I frequently
make pieces now that showcase stones costing up to 30K and more.
The polishing HAS to be perfect. Now if I could only learn to
price accordingly… 
Jeffrey Everett, jewelry craftsman
Handmade 18K, 22K, and platinum gemstone jewelry.
Diamond setting, rubber/metal molds, casting, lapidary
Die and mold engraving, plastic patterns for casting.
Jewelry design, cad/cam, milling, scroll, filigree, & more.
P O Box 2057 Fairfield IA 52556 515-469-6250