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One summer time, between school and university I worked for an independent jeweler making silver rings by hand for sale in National Trust centres and tiny gift stores. Now I assumed just about every ring would take a long time to make, and you'd begin and totally finish one ring before you begin another, how wrong I'd been. The silver ring making procedure had been a lot more ordered than that to be certain output was profitable and the stocks were kept high enough for unanticipated demand.

The first part of the procedure is turning the basic silver wire purchased in big rolls of various weights into ring shapes. This is done employing a special steel rod in the shape of quite a long taper. The raw silver wire is attached tightly at both ends and then using a twisting handle on the other end of your vice it is turned and wrapped tightly in to a spiral until each turn of the spiral is as close to a ring shape as it can be. The tapering is to make sure you end up having several rings of several sizes to cater for a variety of finger sizes.

After the spiral of silver is cut down the center leaving numerous un-joined silver circles you next need to learn the best way to hold a jeweller's solder safely, and how to use the silver flux. Wearing an apron to shield your clothes, you lay out the raw silver rings onto a heat proof board in rows of ten and add the flux on the join of each and every ring. Moving with care along each ring, you heat the silver ring up by using a circular motion until its molten hot but is not melting, once you see a silver flash the flux has melted and bonded with the silver. After the two ends are fused together, making use of tongs you lower the ring directly into boric acid to pickle and thoroughly clean away the flux. Rinse them in water afterwards.

The next thing with the batch of silver rings would be to reshape them employing a soft hammer and mandrel, sand away any abrasive edges then polish them up in barrels brimming with ballbearings over night.