Hi
I had to repair a hollow ring for a friend of mine, metal very thin
and band had broken again.
I make hollow rings from 1 mm sheet.
Helen has been posting about metal thickness and she is right in so
many ways. When learning to make bezel set stones I began with.5 mm
fine silver. That got a laugh. Teacher told me use.7 mm sterling.
Why? “Because most jewellers here (Australia) do thin bezels that do
not last. Are you learning to be a Silversmith or not?”
Hammer set with .7 mm. There is a place for fine silver bezels but
usually not in rings or bangles.
That said I set opals in fine silver or 22 kt. To hammer set I put
ring in my benchmate using the U shaped support works well.
It had a tiger eye buff top set in it. Not paying attention applied
too much heat to the soldering process.
Stone turned red. Bulls eye, pun intended. Said sorry to my friend
have another tiger eye here will swap it over right now.
“No! This looks better!” Sweet serendipity. We opened the beer.
Friends pay in alcohol.
All the best
Richard.