Making Mountain Rings
Making Mountain Rings
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This is what I am going to show you how to make…..An Appliquéd gold on silver , engraved, domed and tapered Mountain Ring Stone setting is another trick to be done later. |
This shows the difference between silver and gold. The 2 outside strips are silver , with 14k white gold in the center left and 14k yellow gold on the center right. All are un-buffed |
 Metal Alloy Content Chart here |
Top row- 14k White gold, 10k yellow and 18k yellow Small Squares- Silver on top and Platinum on bottom with the hole. Strips – 14k White and 14k Yellow Gold. Both un-buffed and ready for engraving Gold Nugget as casting grain – 22k Yellow Gold These are fairly close in color but generally just show the differences or similarities |
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Making Mountain Rings – cutout1. The ring blank is cut from a sheet of silver using a bench hook and jewelers saw |
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2. The mountains are marked and cut out from what ever gold piece I have that fits Matching Mountain wedding rings are cut from one piece of gold so the mountains will match and fit together like a puzzle. 3.The sun is punched from small scrap, (everything is used) |
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3a. The edges are filed in a vice and then sanded to 400 grit sandpaper |
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4.. Just checking to see if they fit OK. |
 
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Soldering and cleaning5.. Each piece is coated with a pickle which cleans it, helps the solder to flow and reduces scaling, ( it turns white ) The (3) pieces are laid out on the soldering mesh Small silver solder chips are placed throughout the top pieces |
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6.. Solder is applied to the underside of the top pieces,until it flows…the piece is cleaned with a wire wheel ( as in step 7) then re-coated with flux and placed on the ring blank. Everything is soldered together as one inseparable unit… and quickly thrown into a hot acid bath |
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7.. A wire wheel cleans off some of the scale ( picture shows one unclean and one cleaned ) |
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8. It is buffed , ( and buffed), to remove all the scale. The pre-buffing also assures that the piece is not over buffed after being engraved |
 
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Detailing9.It is then heated and held in the Jewelers cement on ‘the block’ and the sun rays and mountains are hand carved with the engraving tool, called a ‘graver’ |
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10.The back is then buffed again to remove any scratches |
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Buff and bend11. The strips are taken off the block, cleaned with varsol, and pound round on a dapping block, or rounded on a ring bender. 12.First in a larger concave surface with a leather strap for protection…and then in a smaller one with a round wooden dowel until the ends almost touch 12b. The ring is bent with the pliers until the ends match precisely |
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13. The ends are filed perfectly flat and then it is all coated with the flux and heated , ready for soldering together |
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13b. Small solder chips are laid on top ready for heat |
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13c. The solder flows at a dull red heat..and… |
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14. Quickly into the acid bath and then washed with water. |
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Finishing15.Cleaned with the wire wheel to remove the scale again |
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16.Onto the ring mandrel to pound it completely round |
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17. The outside and inside solder joint is sanded on the sanding sleeves and then the inside is buffed shinny |
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18. It is brought down to the requested size as the press puts the dome in the ring. |
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19. The taper is marked and then cut or ground off on the belt sander. (silver I grind but I cut gold with a saw and every bit of dust and scrap is saved ) 20.The sharp edge produced by the sander is filed off… or it will cut the sanding sleeve, ( next step ) |
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21. The outside taper is sanded as well as the inside edge. These are rounded to produce a comfort fit. |
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22. Then the buffing for the inside edge , the outside edge and the main face of the ring |
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23. It is boiled in hot water and soap, cleaned in the ultrasonic, cleaned with a tooth brush, ultrasonic again and wiped dry. |
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The finished project.If a stone is to set then a hole is drilled 1/2 to 2/3 rd’s the stone size, the diamond setting bit is used to make the seat, the stone is placed in and the edge is beveled in to hold the stone or set with beading tools. The inside is cleaned and rebuffed and the ring is cleaned again as in step 23 There are about 12 basic methods of stone setting I have used and an explanation would take another few pages…so I will leave that until another day. |
Bearclaw Jewelry,
Telephone No.604-614-1853
