Ive had a look at what you do and say your a trier. which is good.
now you mention 2 issues,
- the bending of silver stock
2, the bending of tea spoon handles.
Lets look at 1. now to give you any proper advice on what will do
what you want to save your wrists, can you respond with thickness and
width of the sterling you want to bend and to what radius?
Because bending strip to a complete circle in finger ring sizes is
allmost impossible, due to the problem of getting the ends of the
strip to take up the same radius as in the midle of the strip.
If you bend longer strip then cut off the ends then theres the
problem of getting the strip paralell.
You need to look for whats called a tinmans stake.
this is a T stake then all you need is some round rod in varius
radii that match the grooves.
with someone to hold the silver and you with a hammer and the steel
rod, just tap the rod on the silver over the groove and it goes
round. you can mechanise this with a press and and more sophisticated
tooling. the principle is simple enough.
Round wire isnt a problem.
Now 2.
With these you need to make sure you have annealed them 1st under
flux (stops oxidation) then support the thick end of the spoon handle
on your ring stake held firmly in your bench vice with a piece of 1in
square iron bar on top of the spoon handle behind the ring stick. an
elastic band holds them together.
then using a leather mallet hammer down the overhung bit of the
handle to the radius you want.
then move the spoon handle along the ring stick and bend again. Turn
the handle round and mallet down the thin end. then close up this
circle of silver to the ring size you want.
Ive made hundreds of these but from EPNS as its illegal to do it
from sterling here in the UK.
when I anneal them first the silver plate usually goes into the base
metal so i allways replate them.
Hope this helps.
ted.