Wooden Wedding Ring Advice

[Raymond Fries]

I have been asked if I could make a pair of the rings on this web site
http://www.touchwoodrings.com/gallery.html as a wedding gift. I have been unable to find the process. Somehow he makes these from a single piece of wood by bending it. In none of the pictures do I see a joint. I figure they are all on the sides.

Does anyone know how to make these?

I have a lathe but I am concerned about the stability of a turned wedding ring over time. I would hate for them to crack or something like that.

Any advise or direction would be appreciated.

[Clara Koss]

I have been asked if I could make a pair of the rings on this web site
http://www.touchwoodrings.com/gallery.html as a wedding gift. I have been unable to find the process. Somehow he makes these from a single piece of wood by bending it. In none of the pictures do I see a joint. I figure they are all on the sides.

Does anyone know how to make these?

I have a lathe but I am concerned about the stability of a turned wedding ring over time. I would hate for them to crack or something like that.

Any advise or direction would be appreciated.

i think that the rings as a wedding gift is a great idea and i had not heard of that before...i had wooden rings and bracelets as a teen and they are still great looking... i never did anything to them other than not to wet them... don't know anything else and would love the info as well... good luck with your gift idea!!!!:p

[Greg Hines, MD]

I have never heard of it either, but they sure look turned, not bent. That said, I would say that the wood, Juniper, plays a major role in it. I would guess that you use a captive ring cutter to do it. A really small one.

Perhaps one of the moderators can put this in the turners forum?

Doc

[jud dinsmore]

that website is pretty neat. lots of good ideas there.

i've made around 10 of these for my wife. durability is a real issue since she basically broke all of them before i succumbed to the traditional metal band. i made them out of cocobolo, ipe, hard maple, bamboo, and lignum vitae with an accent strip (or racing stripe) and crossed the grains to promote strength. i think the biggest problem was trying to make them as small as metal bands. typically, they were pretty thin and less than 1/4" wide. i think the average life expectancy was 3 to 5 months. this was full time use, washing dishes, sports, etc. so i think they would hold up fine as occassional jewelry pieces.

how i made mine - i glued up a small block, drilled a hole (luckily, my wife's ring size is 5/8"), and shaped on the ridgid oscillating sander. i finished them off with some hand sanding and a couple coats of poly. a fun little project that could be done in 30 minutes.

good luck,

jud

[David G Baker]

They look turned to me. My dad was a machinist and would make rings for us kids out of steel when we were little. Every ring caused a orange ring to form on our fingers. Guess it was rust from sweat.
The wooden rings look great and I think it is a fine idea having a ring made from something that was alive rather than metal that is cold and inert.

[Raymond Fries]

Check out paragraph 3 on the home page.

[Josiah Bartlett]

If you want to turn them it would be easier to drill the hole before turning, then put them on a mandrel to turn and round off the inside last. If you wanted to add some strength you mill a slot around the inside where you can't see it and fill it with penetrating epoxy, and then polish it. I'm guessing the maker very carefully matches the meeting grain to hide the seam if he is actually bending them.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm guessing the maker very carefully matches the meeting grain to hide the seam if he is actually bending them.Not that hard to hide the seam on something that small...even easier if you're the one taking the pictures.:cool:

[Alan Schwabacher]

I don't think you'd need to bend a full thickness piece. They would probably look fine if made by wrapping strips of veneer around a mandrel, scarfing the joints. Layers of veneer could look like growth rings at the edge. Cutting your own veneer a bit thick might be wise.

[Joe Jensen]

I don't think you'd need to bend a full thickness piece. They would probably look fine if made by wrapping strips of veneer around a mandrel, scarfing the joints. Layers of veneer could look like growth rings at the edge. Cutting your own veneer a bit thick might be wise.

That pretty well clears it up. Doing it that way would make them very strong. I will follow this closely as it would be a neat gift to make for the loved ones in my life. I would start with thin veneer, soaked and then glued and clamped with a heavy rubber band...joe

[Raymond Fries]

I bet the veneer and scarf joint is the trick!

I think I might give it a try. If it works out, I'll post some pics.

Thanks for the tips!!

[Dave Norris]

Maybe bend it first then lathe it down?

[Chris Padilla]

I think a thin veneer wrapped around itself in a tight spiral would do the trick. I don't think even a scarf joint is necessary as you would just sand/turn away the veneer thickness. Obvioulsy, one would make the initial ring oversized.

I see he gets about $350 per ring! That is awesome!

Great little thing he has going there and those rings are simply spectuacular!

[Marty Barron]

Here is a link that should help you.

Marty

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_content/ring/wood-ring.html

[Chris Padilla]

Good stuff, Marty, but it doesn't say what joint was used to mate the two ends of the veneer! I think this is probably a very important step! I'm sure here it is a scarf joint....

[Mitch Richardson]

We make some smaller things like that, and it bothers me when people try to copy them. It takes time, effort and money to develop a product. If you appreciate what they are doing then support them by purchasing the product. Then you'll have a model, and the artist will be compensated for their investment.

My 2 cents.

[James Phillips]

We make some smaller things like that, and it bothers me when people try to copy them. It takes time, effort and money to develop a product. If you appreciate what they are doing then support them by purchasing the product. Then you'll have a model, and the artist will be compensated for their investment.

My 2 cents.

We are a forum of wood workers. He is not trying to copy and sell these, he is just talking about making a gift. Using your logic, we should not build furniture, because some else already does.

OK off of my soapbox

[Mitch Richardson]

We are a forum of wood workers. He is not trying to copy and sell these, he is just talking about making a gift. Using your logic, we should not build furniture, because some else already does.

OK off of my soapbox

Furniture is generic, so is a ring. Build them all you'd like. Use all the common woodworking knowledge available. Ask people on this forum or elsewhere for tips, but all I'm saying is that it is wrong to copy someones technique that they spent time and money developing. If there is nothing wrong with copying then the initiator of this post should have contacted the maker and asked them directly.

That's all I'm saying.

[Charles Trout]

Once you sell something that you've created you lose control over who flatters your design by imitation...

Laws can prevent someone from marketing a copy. That's all.

Beautiful rings by the way.

[Cary Swoveland]

I think people have been making rings out of wood for a very long time. Whatever technique this craftsman uses for his rings surely has been used by others in years gone by.

For durability, I'd think you'd either need to layer very thin veneer or cover a metal ring with wood. If layering veneer, the strength is provided by the adhesive, and the amount of adhesive used would be inversely proportional to the thickness of the veneer, arguing for the use of a very thin veneer. That would also permit the very small bending radius that is needed. I would think it would make sense to make the outer layer of veneer somewhat thicker than the inner ones. (This is all wild speculation, of course.)

Cary

[Chuck Saunders]

You pay people to do things that you can't or choose not to do for what ever reason. You buy an artists work because his artistic sense and craftsmanship result in a piece that is more than the sum of it's parts and a quality that exceeds your abilities or your desire to pursue. Just because there is an artist that I admire that paints landscapes does not prevent me from pursuing a career painting landscapes. My complete lack of skill as a painter does prevent me.

[Alan Schwabacher]

We make some smaller things like that, and it bothers me when people try to copy them. It takes time, effort and money to develop a product. If you appreciate what they are doing then support them by purchasing the product. Then you'll have a model, and the artist will be compensated for their investment.

My 2 cents.

That's interesting. From my point of view, buying one to examine close up and copy slavishly would be the improper thing to do, because then one is taking advantage of the time and effort someone else put in to develop it. Seeing that someone has made a ring from wood and thinking about how to make one's own design seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I was the one who suggested using veneer for this purpose. I don't know whether the rings in the link were made that way. I do know that the rings I made from solid wood, in the YMCA shop when I was supposed to be taking swimming lessons in the '60s, tended to break.

[Jeff Atnip]

I am a watercolor painter. I regularly share all of my techniques with other artists. I don't feel threatened by this because I am not giving them my God-given talent and 20 years of experience. I couldn't give them that even if I wanted to. In a like manner, I can duplicate somebody's woodworking techniques, but I cannot match his skill and experience. The finished products speak for themselves.

[Jess Wetherhold]

Did anyone notice that they have an instructional link on their website? I think they are pretty secure in their abilities.
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_jewelry/article/0,,DIY_13762_5080900,00.html

[Lee DeRaud]

Did anyone notice that they have an instructional link on their website? I think they are pretty secure in their abilities.
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_jewelry/article/0,,DIY_13762_5080900,00.htmlUm, you do realize that the link you posted is not by the people we're talking about here?
(Not to mention a completely different (and much inferior IMHO) construction method...)

[Jess Wetherhold]

Lee, I took the time to scroll through their site and under "Your budget, our prices (http://www.touchwoodrings.com/decisions.html#anchor_19)" there is a link to the DIY article. My point was not that the article was the best method but that they are putting a method out there and solving the mystery for their customers.

[Lee DeRaud]

My point was not that the article was the best method but that they are putting a method out there and solving the mystery for their customers. And my point is that the article has absolutely nothing to do with how their rings are made and therefore does nothing to solve that particular 'mystery'.