I recently took an order to create a sterling silver knot ring. The customer and I wanted the piece to be substantial, so I took a few extra steps to draw a piece of sterling silver wire to the exact thickness that I wanted to use in the project. For those of you following along at home, here are the steps that I took:
I started with a piece of heavy-gauge sterling silver wire and filed one of the ends to a point.
The pointed end of the wire is used to fit into the hole of a draw-plate. The wire is then pulled through the draw-plate by use of a draw bench. Because the hole of the draw-plate is of a slightly smaller diameter than the wire, the wire is drawn into a smaller diameter size. This process is repeated with smaller and smaller holes until a wire of the desired diameter is obtained.
As you can see from the pictures, the wire is clamped in the draw bench and the pulled through. My draw bench uses a pulley system (and some good ol’ hand-crankin’ muscle power) to pull the wire, forcing it through the smaller opening.
The wire is annealed as necessary, keeping it soft enough to be drawn thinner.
When drawing, the wire thickness is checked using a B&S gauge until the desired thickness is reached. I am going to use 11 gauge wire for this project.
Using a jeweler’s saw, I cut two lengths of wire, and then anneal them.
I use half-round pliers to form each wire segment into a “U” shape.
The segments get nestled together into the basic half-hitch shape, and then pulled tightly together with the aid of a vice and hand-vice.
Using the destination ring size as my guide, I cut the ends of the wire to the correct length. In this case, I’ve chosen to stagger the end cuts to disguise the seam in the back a little more fully.
The seams between the wires is now soldered together so they will lay together neatly, side by side.
Then the ring is formed into its round shape and the edges are checked again to make sure they are flat and fit together. The ring is then soldered into round.
Using a mallet and ring mandrel, the ring is rounded and stretched into the correct size.
After that, it’s time for finishing and polishing. And here’s the finished product:
