Scorpio Rings - in 14k Gold - Spring 2023

 This is the next batch of my favorite rings to make.  

This is my standard design, the Scorpio ring.

This shows the progression through the finishing process.  The bottom one has just been soldered, shaped and is still rough.  The ones above have been filed, sanded, polished to various extents.

 Construction Pictures Below:

 

A bunch of gold to be scrapped/melted.  I have some 18k and want to add just enough 10k to get to a solid 14k.  Some math

Ready to melt in a crucible with some borax

This is what I got after the 30 minutes it took to melty-melty.

This is about $2,600 of 14k gold at the refiner melt value.

More pictures below:

Hammering this to consolidate the atoms and get to a workable shape.

This is what I am trying to make, so I need to plan the shapes of the milled gold

Stress fractures on the edges.  I'm going to cut the side out to keep the cracks from working through the middle.  I'll roll the side portions into wire with the mill.

Rolling out the metal, this takes a long time to keep re-heating to soften and pass through the mill.

Finally a 20 gauge strip.  This would cost about $3,900 for me to go buy.

Measured out some ring blanks

saw straight down the line.  I'm getting pretty good at this saw stuff.  

Sometimes I can get scrap gold in the right shape, then I don't bother to melt it.  This one is kinda sad.  someone was a schoolbus driver for 25 years and got this.  I bought it for pennies at an estate sale.

I use a circle cutter and a press to make these shapes.  This is sort of planning the design.

I rolled the schoolbus out and cut some shapes from it too

I melt some solder on the back of each piece to get them ready to sweat solder onto the ring blanks.

ready to sweat solder

soldered into place

cut the blank straight

I save all of the little pieces and saw dust to melt again

I wonder if anyone will like these....