Production of a wedding ring embedded with diamonds
Occasionally, some curious customers are interested in the way how such a wedding ring is actually being produced. So, in this article I decided to reveal a little secret of its production.
And to make it more interesting, I will not write about the production of just any wedding ring but a ring embedded with diamonds around its perimeter. I will produce it using traditional hand techniques - the same way goldsmiths have always made jewellery. Thus made wedding ring is then itself an original.
The wedding ring is made of white gold since white gold best allows to stand out the unique glitter of diamonds. I use white gold with addition of nickel. Such white gold is difficult to process because it is very hard and therefore is not usually used for machine production. Its advantage is a nice white colour and the jewellery made from it is more durable due to its hardness, which is definitely advantageous for any wedding rings. The number of stones set in the jewellery should be about 180 pieces in three sizes.
After a brief introduction let's get down to the production itself. The process itself begins by rolling a metal strip to its right length, width and thickness. The material is rolled between two rollers of a rolling machine so that it is gradually tightened to the cylinder itself, its thickness decreases but the length of the strip, on the contrary, increases.
During the rolling as well as during the final process the gold must be annealed because it gradually hardens. It is ignite-heated to a high temperature until it turns light red.
The material is finally rolled and now we just need to adjust the length of the strip. The length is measured by the size of a wedding ring, a perimeter of a gold wedding ring is applied, so that in this case with a size of 56, 56 mm are applied and a little bit is still added due to the thickness.
When the length is adjusted the strip is bent with clamp into a shape of a ring and the seam is soldered. Soldering is performed so that the seam is plotted with solder pieces – i.e. gold, which turns liquid at a lower temperature than any other materials. Then the wedding ring is heated until the solder melts and fixes together with the other material. This way the seam is fixed.
After the bending with a clamp the ring is not evenly round. Therefore it must be hammered out on a goldsmith’s cone.
Until now a coarsely hammered ring has been made which at this stage must be gradually processed into its final shape. First I file off the seam in the welding joint, this way l remove the excess solder and round it clear. Then I file off the width of the wedding ring on both sides.
Furthermore, I file off and grind the ring roughly from its inner side. Then I file it off from outside. The profile of a wedding and engagement ring is rolled into a flat shape. The resulting profile is supposed to be semicircular, further rounding is therefore needed, so careful hand-sharpening is applied. Normally, a semicircular shape is directly produced in a rolling machine. But this wedding ring is unusually wide and therefore its width does not match any of the profiles in the rolling machine.
Interestingly, the gold turns black when heated and is of very little resemblance to the gold which we know in its polished form. The jewel in this course of production does not look at all inviting. Its glitter appears at the very final process of polishing. That's likely why hardly any goldsmith wants to show customers his work in progress.
After the filing is roughly made the wedding ring is first sanded on a sanding disc and then rubbed down with sandpaper from both, inside and outside.
The final shape of the wedding ring is achieved and now it is the time to make longitudinal grooves into which holes for the stones will be drilled. The grooves are first measured with a divider all the way around the ring. Then the grooves are sawed in depth.
Finally, they are filed off with a needle file. The fact that the grooves are exactly equal is managed by practical exercising.
The grooves are finished I can therefore make holes for the stones. Centres of the holes must be first measured with a divider all the way around so that the gaps between the stones of the ring are all equal. Then tiny dents are hammered into centres of the holes in order to allow a drill to fit tightly.
Holes for the stones - the hemstitch are first drilled successively with smaller then with larger drills. The location of the hole cannot turn off its course even by a tenth of a millimetre, any inaccuracy is seen. First I drill a middle groove for the largest stones, then two rows of grooves for middle stones and finally the last two rows of grooves for the smallest diamonds.
Now it is necessary to cut through some space for the middle row of the largest stones so that the diamonds would not protrude after implanting them at the top of a wedding ring and while being worn would be protected against breakage by being embedded between the grooves. The embedding process of the wedding ring is first made by removing the coarse material with a chisel. Finally, it is cleaned smooth by using a needle file.
Well, the wedding ring is now poised for implanting stones which is called embedding. At this stage the ring looks a bit like a piece of Swiss cheese.
Despite the fact that the production of the ring has been a piece of hard work so far it is not even halfway through. The implanting of the stones in this case is a very difficult process that requires a lot of time, concentration and patience.
It starts by milling beds for each of the stones. Each single stone must fit its bed accurately so that it is placed straight and in a correct height.
I always set the beds in a certain section of a ring and implant the diamonds in it immediately because I am wondering what the wedding ring with stones will look like as well as want the work to be diverse not so lengthy. The entire embedding of all pieces takes me about a week.
After preparing the bed, the embedding itself is made by fixing a diamond into the bed in a correct position and then, using the chisel, is flocked with grains of material that lock it in the hole. If properly applied this is a very reliable way of implanting stones in a ring. This is just one of many ways of embedding stones which are suitable for a jewel, but many others exist.
The next picture shows all stones already implanted. But it is barely half of work done. Now the material between the stones and grains must be removed and the grains must be formed with special tools.
Because the stones are fixed in a jewel by grains this technology is called insertion 'into grains' or 'in korns' - taken from German language.
Finally, the golden jewel is polished on a polishing machine with various types of discs and galvanizing is made. It is a kind of surface treatment with rhodium that gives the gold a beautiful white colour.
A gold wedding ring is finally finished! No picture can ever capture the wonderful sparkle of diamonds, the famous harmony of colours. That must be seen with one’s own eyes.
Are you interested in making tailored wedding ring? Do not hesitate to contact us!