Hello out there! I’m hoping that someone can help me figure this one
out. How does one make an invisible seam on a ring shank if the shank
is comprised of two different metals? The ring in question consists of
flat 1x2mm white gold wire and flat 1x5mm green gold wire sweat
soldered right next to each other onto a piece of 24g white gold,
then formed into a ring. Now normally when soldering a thick shank
I’ll simply flood the seam with solder, but since I plan to use white
gold solder (hard of course!) placed on the inside and flowed through
to the outside, how do I avoid that slight white seam on the green
gold portion of the outside of the ring? I assume it’s just a
given…the only thing I can think of would be to then flow a tiny
bit of green gold solder on the green gold portion of the outside of
the ring, which seems like a) a bit of a cheat and b) an easy way to
mistakenly flow the green solder onto the white gold, even with
anti-flux in the picture.
Ideas?
This is not only the first time I’ll be working in gold (yikes!),
but given that the ring(s) is also my (our) wedding ring(s) it’s
especially daunting, so any hand-holding would be much appreciated.
Hello Jessica, I work for Rofin-Baasel. I have a couple of customers
in San Francisco that own StarWelds. I would be happy to put you in
contact with them. Please feel free to email me, or call
978-635-9100 ext. 264 if you would like their contact
I’m not really clear, by your description, what you are aiming for
—but I gather that it’s essentially 2 or 3 colored bands stuck
together - a wedding band that is 3 “stripes” going around? One
piece of advise- make the bands first, and then solder them together.
But- in the “industry” - people like Stuller - those rings aren’t
soldered at all. Sometimes they do things like put them each on a
rotating spindle, going opposite directions, and drive them together,
and the friction fuses them. More often, they are fused together
just like Mokume’. That’s why they’re so neat - no solder, perfect
fit, since they are made in a machine shop. Besides other sources,
the inimitable James Binnion knows everything about Mokume’. He has
messages lately, here in Orchid.
Might you be better off thinking about a different order of making
this? I haven’t thought through the details (it’s not my problem
), but there might be some mileage in making the rings
separately and then joining them, rather than joining the metals as a
flat piece and then rounding up and joining.
Or, maybe add a little “accent” or “detail” to cover the join? –
Kevin (NW England, UK)
Are you going to join the metals as straight pieces? If so this can
cause problems when the metal is then bent round to become a ring.
When I do invisible joins on a ring I make the rings first, then on
the flat side of the white gold ring( 1/2 way up the side) I make a
groove all the way round the ring and fill it with solder. Then I
file off the excess solder and the ring back to a flat side and when
you have the centre ring with a flat side you hold the two rings in
tweezers and flux the inside and outside of the ring . Then you heat
the join keeping most of the heat on the white gold as it will take a
higher heat. Then it is a matter of cleaning up the ring.
I hope this is of some help.
Regards
Robert Paul,
176 King St
Newcastle, 2300
New South Wales
Australia
Ph 0061 2 49 291 417
Fax 0061 2 49 278 362
E-mail rob@robertpaul.com.au @Robert_Paul
I'm not really clear, by your description, what you are aiming for
---but I gather that it's essentially 2 or 3 colored bands stuck
together - a wedding band that is 3 "stripes" going around? One
piece of advise- make the bands first, and then solder them
You’ve got the right idea - 2 ‘stripes’, with the inside of the ring
just one big ‘stripe’. I don’t think there’s any way I could do a good
enough job of getting the two outer circles to perfectly match the
inside circle in terms of fit – think we’re just going to settle for
the slight white line on the green gold, it’ll hardly be noticable
really and hey, it makes it more handmade! Very interesting to hear
how these rings are made by the big guys…no wonder my work never
looks ‘perfect’!
-Jessica in SF, where May has come in like a lion!
