When we left off, we had just transformed our white gold into a blackened, elongated strip of metal. We had annealed (thanks member GreatDay!) and milled it until it was long enough to create two separate rings for Mr. P and I.
We took that long strip to another station in the shop, where we milled it into the "comfort fit" mold that would slide easily on and off our hands (and feel comfy on!). Now we had a definite "inside" and "outside" to our rings!
Mr. Pencils rolling our metal through the comfort strip mill. Notice that blue marking on Mr. P's hand on the left? Yeah, he had to write down my ring size to remember it and I did it all on my own :) (funnily enough, we ended up sizing my ring 1/2 size down from where it was originally thought to be- I ended up with a 5 3/4 size ring!)
I annealed the ring strip again in preparation for cutting it into two strips:
Then, we had to begin taking the long strips and form them into a ring shape. I found this really hard, as it required a lot of hand strength (that I clearly lack!)
Mr. Pencils was ready to cut the ring to size way before me!
We're using a handsaw to slice the ring in preparation for soldering it together.
I don't have a photo of the soldering process- though I'll say that I chose not to do it because it is a very nuanced process and I'm not incredibly coordinated. After Mr. P and our jeweler, Chris, soldered the rings, we tried them on for size:
Once they were soldered, we began to file and shape them. We were attempting to create a subtle dome shape. It took a lot of focus and, again, hand strength to file each side precisely to the correct shape:
This filing process removed the majority of the blackened gold layer, and left them pretty shiny.
Once they were decent, Chris the expert used a different tool that looks like a small circular fan to shape our rings more precisely and professionally. I don't have a photo of this because I was trying to get Mr. Pencils' camera to go to Digital macro mode and I missed the really texture that the rings are before we begin to sand them. They look like big silver coils or threads. I almost wanted to keep them like that!
Six hours after starting, the Pencils' had real rings to sand, shine, buff, and engrave. We had gone with a very simple design that I can't wait to show you- and one I didn't know I originally wanted!
Next up, the final steps and the cost breakdown!
Did you end up choosing a wedding band that was different than you imagined you'd want?
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