How to Make Rings in an Hour: Metalsmithing 101

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Learn how to make rings in an hour with this exclusive jewelry making blog filled with expert tips and advice about metalsmithing basics. — Thanks to Lexi Erickson, who taught me how to make rings and allowed me to share this project with you!

Rings are my favorite piece of jewelry to collect, wear and make. Learning how to make rings is easy and opens up endless possibilities for personalization. Start with simple bands or stacking rings you can make by simply combining silver wire with basic metalsmithing and texturing tools likes hammers and files.

I prefer standard 8-gauge half-round wire for ring making, but you could use 6- to 10-gauge round, half-round, flat or square wire, as well. Branch out to alternative metals such as copper, and you’ve multiplied your options even further. Then there are patinas you can add with products like liver of sulfur; the options are truly endless!

To learn how to make rings, let’s focus on one type. This simple step-by-step tutorial will walk you through how to make a silver ring using simple tools for metalsmithing jewelry. Then you can use these basic steps to make bands for more elaborate rings, like rings set with stones or other designs.

Easy Ring Making: How to Make Sterling Silver Stack Rings

Materials:

3–4″ piece of narrow paper, scissors
8-gauge half-round sterling silver wire
Jeweler’s saw, 4/0 saw blades
Flat-nose pliers
Sharpie marker
Medium tooth (#2) file
Torch setup with firing brick
Sandpaper
Medium solder, solder pick
Flux and brush
Burlife or Gemlube
Pot of hot pickle and tongs or tweezers
Bowl of water
Rawhide mallet, steel ring mandrel
Texturing tools: Hammer(s), file(s), etc.

How to Make Rings:

Measure and cut: The first step in learning how to make rings is to wrap the slip of paper around the lucky finger and mark where the end overlaps. Use this as a guide to mark the length on your wire. Mark off as many as you’d like to cut.
Using the jeweler’s saw strung with a lubricated 4/0 saw blade, saw on the marks using a smooth, fluid sawing motion. Don’t use wire cutters, because they’ll pinch the ends into points instead of cutting them evenly and straight; then you’ll have to file more, wasting metal.
File and pre-form: File the ends flawlessly even so they will match up perfectly and your band(s) will be seamless. Then file off a tiny bit of the flat, interior side of the wire (as shown by the red arrow in the photo at right) to make room for soldering.
Use your fingers and flat-nose pliers to curve the wire into an oval ring. Don’t bother with a mandrel and don’t worry about the shape being perfectly round or even, but do be sure that the ends meet up perfectly (in a butt joint). There should be absolutely no light passing between the two ends. Making the joint side a little flat will help the ends meet perfectly. Note: If you intend to keep your ring polished rather than add texture, use coated pliers or take care not to scratch or mar the wire.
Try on the ring to make sure it fits. If it’s too large, file and test again; if it’s too small, start deciding who you’ll give it to!
Pickle: Drop the ring(s) into hot pickle to clean it for a couple of minutes. Sand the end of your solder wire to make sure it’s clean, too. Next, snip off a small (about 1mm) piece for each ring and use tweezers or a solder pick (not fingers) to place the solder on your firing brick. Lift out the ring(s) with copper tongs, then rinse and dry. Avoid touching the metal with your fingers at any point during this part of the process.
Flux: Holding the ring(s) in tweezers, paint them one at a time with flux and place each one on your firing brick so that each seam/joint is facing you and directly on a piece of solder wire. Note: If you’re making multiple rings all at once, only heat/solder one at a time.
Soldering: Fire up your torch with a quiet (non-hissing) reducing flame. Keeping the flame moving and with the blue cone about ¼-inch from the surface, heat the brick around the ring, from back (away from the solder bit) to the front (near the solder), heating it gradually. Slowly move closer to the ring, passing over it more frequently as you go.
Watch for the flux to bubble and turn white. This tells you you’re at about 400°F. Heat the metal more directly now, still moving the flame but staying on the piece, keeping the blue cone about ¼-inch away from the surface. Pass near the solder more frequently now and watch closely! You need to pay attention to notice as the different stages of heating occur.
Look for the flux to turn clear and glassy. When this occurs, you know you’re at 1,100°F and your solder is melting. It will soon flow. When it does, you’ll see a bright silver line appear, and the solder will seem to slide up into the seam/joint almost instantly. Remove the flame immediately.
Use tweezers to move the ring to the cup of water; tiptoe it in slowly to quench it before dropping it in the pickle pot. Remember that the metal is very HOT at this point, so be careful to protect yourself from burns. Repeat Steps 4 through 10 to solder your other rings.
After all your rings have been soldered, quenched, and bathed in the pickle for at least a few minutes, pull them out with copper tongs, then rinse and dry them. Test the joints and resolder if necessary. If your joints are secure, it’s time to round them.
Form: Drop one ring at a time onto a steel ring mandrel and hammer it repeatedly with the rawhide mallet. A little bit of magic happens here; the ring spins a bit on the mandrel as you hammer it, and soon you will have hammered all the way around and it has become round. Be careful not to hammer downward (from the smaller end toward larger end of the mandrel) or you’ll stretch it.
Texture: I used a planishing hammer to add some texture to one band. For another, I filed in two directions with a checkering file to create a Florentine finish. I decided to leave the third ring smooth and shiny. Add whatever texture(s) you like or even mix textures on one. Add patina and darken the metal with liver of sulfur if you like.
Finish, polish, and buff: Use a Dremel, a rotary tool of your choice and/or a buffing wheel to polish and buff as desired. This is the finishing touch on your ring, so be sure to stop at points to check your progress to see if you’re getting the desired results.

Stack rings are meant to be stacked, so the more you have, the more fun they’ll be to wear (or share, or even swap!). For more quick and easy ring projects, download One-Hour Rings with Helen Driggs. You can also download loads of ring projects in one convenient eBook, 10 Silver and Other Metal Ring Projects, for 10 quick but stylish tutorials on making rings at home!

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Queen K June 16, 2017

What a fantastic article, Tammy! I’ve always thought my rings had to be perfectly round when I soldered. The extra work that created made me give up on making rings altogether – do you know how impossible it is to keep a perfectly round shape throughout the process?! Thank you, Jewelry Goddess Tammy, for teaching me the RIGHT way to create rings – you’ve made it much easier (and therefore more fun!) to make one of my very favorite pieces of jewelry!

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1. Canny R June 16, 2017
  
  How does the ring stay soldered if you hammer it? It seems like it would break the soldered joint.
  
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  1. Tammy J September 8, 2017
    
    Hi Canny R,
    
    If a ring (or any join) is properly soldered, it won’t break open when hammered. Solder joins are strong enough to withstand hammering and other forming. I really appreciate if a solder seam is going to break, it will break when I’m working on it rather than when a friend or customer is wearing it!
    
    Thanks for reading and for your question. I hope this helps!
    
    –Tammy
    
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    1. Duane D December 23, 2017
      
      Hi Tammy. Question, why is the band round at the bottom and flat on the top? Is too hard to make the ring round before soldering? As I would have thought this would put less stress on the join. Thanks
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Tammy Jones January 2, 2018
        
        Hi Duane! Thanks for asking. I wouldn’t say it’s too hard to make the ring round before soldering, but I was taught that it is easier to align the ends perfectly when it’s straighter. Since then, that has been my experience for sure. Later, it’s easy to round them back out on a mandrel, tapping with a rubber or plastic mallet. If the join is successful, it won’t pop open when reshaping after soldering.
        
        Thanks for reading and for being part of our community!
        –Tammy
2. TammyJones September 8, 2017
  
  Hi Queen K! Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad this little tutorial was helpful to you. I do indeed know how impossible and frustrating it would be to try to keep a ring round all that time! I hope you enjoy making rings again now! And THANK YOU for my new title. I like Jewelry Goddess!! Have fun making loads of rings!! –J. G. Tammy
  
  Log in to Reply
Queen K June 16, 2017

What a fantastic article, Tammy! I’ve always thought my rings had to be perfectly round when I soldered. The extra work that created made me give up on making rings altogether – do you know how impossible it is to keep a perfectly round shape throughout the process?! Thank you, Jewelry Goddess Tammy, for teaching me the RIGHT way to create rings – you’ve made it much easier (and therefore more fun!) to make one of my very favorite pieces of jewelry!

Log in to Reply
1. Canny R June 16, 2017
  
  How does the ring stay soldered if you hammer it? It seems like it would break the soldered joint.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Tammy J September 8, 2017
    
    Hi Canny R,
    
    If a ring (or any join) is properly soldered, it won’t break open when hammered. Solder joins are strong enough to withstand hammering and other forming. I really appreciate if a solder seam is going to break, it will break when I’m working on it rather than when a friend or customer is wearing it!
    
    Thanks for reading and for your question. I hope this helps!
    
    –Tammy
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Duane D December 23, 2017
      
      Hi Tammy. Question, why is the band round at the bottom and flat on the top? Is too hard to make the ring round before soldering? As I would have thought this would put less stress on the join. Thanks
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Tammy Jones January 2, 2018
        
        Hi Duane! Thanks for asking. I wouldn’t say it’s too hard to make the ring round before soldering, but I was taught that it is easier to align the ends perfectly when it’s straighter. Since then, that has been my experience for sure. Later, it’s easy to round them back out on a mandrel, tapping with a rubber or plastic mallet. If the join is successful, it won’t pop open when reshaping after soldering.
        
        Thanks for reading and for being part of our community!
        –Tammy
2. TammyJones September 8, 2017
  
  Hi Queen K! Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad this little tutorial was helpful to you. I do indeed know how impossible and frustrating it would be to try to keep a ring round all that time! I hope you enjoy making rings again now! And THANK YOU for my new title. I like Jewelry Goddess!! Have fun making loads of rings!! –J. G. Tammy
  
  Log in to Reply
Beth K June 16, 2017

The pictures that are attached to the article should have been checked. The materials list calls for micro torch. The picture shows the tip of an acetylene /air torch, not the one recommended in the text.

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1. Tammy J September 8, 2017
  
  Thanks Beth K–I’ll remove the word “micro” from the materials list, because as you probably know, any jewelry-quality torch will work here, and folks will generally use the torch they like best. We made those first rings with an oxy/acetylene torch the first time, but I use two other types of torches most often. Glad they all work! –Tammy
  
  Log in to Reply
Beth K June 16, 2017

The pictures that are attached to the article should have been checked. The materials list calls for micro torch. The picture shows the tip of an acetylene /air torch, not the one recommended in the text.

Log in to Reply
1. Tammy J September 8, 2017
  
  Thanks Beth K–I’ll remove the word “micro” from the materials list, because as you probably know, any jewelry-quality torch will work here, and folks will generally use the torch they like best. We made those first rings with an oxy/acetylene torch the first time, but I use two other types of torches most often. Glad they all work! –Tammy
  
  Log in to Reply