Circle Pattern
This is just a small addition to the collection. It started out as the simple rebuilding of an old band until the time came to re-establish the pattern, which was deceptively simple; just a series of overlapping circles.
The manufacturing of the actual band was uneventful. I simply figured out how much gold I was going to need to make the band, threw the old ring in with it, and whanged away at it until it looked like a tapered gent's band. Just the usual magic. I figured I'd find a beader of the correct size, hammer the circles in and boom, done.
Luckily, I'd made the band heavier than actually necessary, because I wasted a good deal of time trying to line up about a million little circles until I realized it was all but impossible. Time to think around corners a bit.
Here's the original beader that I killed myself trying to use. Beside it is an old chasing punch that I sacrificed for my vision. This I had heated up to a nice cherry red and allowed to cool slowly, which anneals the steel so that it can be filed and engraved with the usual implements.
Once it's nice and soft and workable, the end is cut with a large round graver to make some little depressions that will form our ummm... double beader. See it has a name. Or will if this works.
Deepen the cuts gradually, because if you try to go too deep all at once you will certainly hurt yourself. This is still steel, after all. Granted, it's annealed steel, but still.
Once it's deep enough, a ball-bur can be used to refine the shape because, I don't know about you, but I'm not quite good enough with a graver to get it perfectly round. Never mind trying to make two identical perfectly round depressions.
Look. See how shiny?
Now it's time to cut away the extra material that prevents this from being an actual double beader. I initially roughed it out with a pillar file, which is one of my favourites, but it could, as easily, be done with square needle files. They have the sharpest corners and enable very tight tolerances. There's been waaaaay too much time spent on this to screw it up now. This would be one of the enduring lessons in the bizz: If you get efficient at the early stages of an operation, you'll have more time to concentrate on the fine details that are the real hallmark of a job well done.
Keeping the leading edges of the circles, the cutting edges, very sharp is of the utmost importance at this juncture, otherwise, the results will be no better than expected. If the two circles aren't identical, the effect we're looking for will be lost.
As it is now, the tool is dead soft and useless as a cutting implement, which is what this is supposed to be, so it's time to harden and temper it.
The first step is to heat the piece up to a bright cherry red. It's important to heat it up evenly, as the sharp working edges can quickly overheat to a bright yellow, which is when the carbon is burned out of the alloy and you're left with a useless bit of, in effect, wrought-iron, which can't be hardened properly.
When the metal has reached the proper temperature, it is quickly quenched in cold water. This will leave the metal what is called glass-hard. This can be checked by running a file lightly across the surface and feeling the way it dances off. Don't use too much pressure or you'll screw up your file, as this stuff is extremely hard.
The next step is tempering, which will make this hard but brittle steel into not-quite-as-hard but tough steel.
Here's what happens if you're in too much of a hurry when heating the piece to harden it. I kept the heat away from the tip well enough, but apparently got a major hot spot that stressed the metal too much when quenched. It was just dumb luck that it didn't split right to the end. There's no rush with this process. If It's not perfect the first time, it can be redone without ill effects.
To temper the steel, it must first be fine sanded to a not-quite-polished state so that the colour change can be observed.
The steel is heated up gradually from way behind the cutting edge. As it reaches tempering temperature, it will change colour from a very light yellow, or straw, through red, to purple and then blue, at which point it is too soft and useless for our needs. Rather, what we do is carefully observe the colour as it moves along the bar and, as soon as it starts to turn yellow at the tip, it is quenched immediately.
At this point, our double beader is still too hard to file, but tough enough not to chip when pounded into hammered gold. (I always leave my hand-made bands work-hardened for durability.) In addition, the rest of the punch is soft enough that it won't chip or mar the face of the planishing hammer that I generally use for such work, because it's time to apply some force to this puppy.
In order to keep the row of circles straight, a guideline is scratched lightly into the band about a half millimeter in from the edge. The punch is placed so that the first circle is centered on the ring, and both circles are just touching the line. (Sorry, but I got all involved at this point and stopped taking photos, so I'll just have to go all verbal from here on in.) Hammer the punch and move it so that both circles are contacting and cutting into the metal. Check it often and, if the punch is indeed sharp enough, it can be fitted into the grooves already made.
When the first pair of circles is done, move the punch halfway over to the left, let's say, so that ummm... the left-hand circle on the punch is now in the right-hand circle on the ring. Keep it steady and straight and repeat the whacking process until there are three identical side-by-side circles. Continue around the ring until you just can't stand it anymore. My accuracy fell off towards the ends of the pattern, but I think it looks pretty darn good. The second, overlapping row of circles is done the same way, but it's not easy.
There must be an easier way to do something like this, but it probably involves some sort of industrial process that is beyond my ken, as it were. A lot of the stuff I did here was learned a long, long time ago from an old book that was written back when it wasn't possible to just call up a tool supplier for a specialized punch or gizmo. I should have stolen that book when I had the chance, because I can't remember for the life of me what it was called. Sigh.
That is all. Thanks for listening. Reading, whatever.
