How a Silver Ring Is Made

The ordered bench procedure from sizing the blank to final polish, with the annealing and soldering steps and the failure modes each stage is checked against.

The order on the bench is fixed: measure, saw the blank, anneal, form, solder the seam with hard solder, file the profile, then finish. Each stage has to leave the piece in a state the next stage can work with.

Sizing comes first. Take the finger circumference at room temperature and add the band's wall thickness times pi — for 1.5 mm sheet that adds about 4.7 mm — then saw the strip to that length. A strip sawn short cannot be stretched into a ring.

The strip is annealed before it is bent. Sterling silver anneals at roughly 600–650 °C: the metal is taken to a dull red and quenched, and the soft state that follows is what allows the strip to close into a circle without springing back.

The seam is hard soldered first, because it will be heated again if any later soldering happens. Medium and easy solder follow, each at a lower flow point, so an earlier seam stays put while a later one is made with fresh flux.

Filing comes after soldering and before any polish. The outside seam and the inside of the band are worked until the join is level with the surrounding metal; a polish applied to an unfinished seam only makes it more visible.

Finishing ends with storage. Clean the piece, dry it fully and keep it in an airtight bag with an anti-tarnish strip — the same advice that applies to a ring just off the bench as to one worn for years.

• Blank sawn short — the ring comes out half a size small and the metal cannot be stretched.
• Seam ends not filed square — the joint gaps, and solder balls outside instead of flowing into the joint.
• Hard solder skipped — the next soldering pass reflows the first seam and the ring opens.
• Over-filing — a flat spot where the band should stay round, and lost wall thickness at one point.

Further reading

• Silver Purity Marks
• Caring for Silver Jewellery