Deep Relief Gold Signet Ring

[WVEngraver]

Hi everyone ...

Thought I would share this latest creation because it is the first production engraved item I used my new Classic on ...

The Classic performed very well on material removal ... especially in this 14K gold. As there wasn't much shading, it was mostly material removal. It also did a nice job with a wide flat for sub-relieving the state of West Virginia on the front. The high rate of impact made smoothing a relieved area much smoother.

The design for the monogram (PKM) was adapted from "The Jewelry Engravers Manual" by Hardy & Bowman which can be purchased from any online book seller.

It has illustrations for monograms in a diamond shape which I adapted for an upside down triangle.

The top is double relieved with the deepest point bead punched. The state of West Virginia is slightly lower than the silhouette of the golfer.

This ring is for the past president of the West Virginia Golf Association and a gift from the new president.

I really love doing these signet rings. Look forward to doing more of them. Relief is where it's at and they sell well making them a good money maker.

Enjoy .... thanx fer lookin' and yep, I forgot to wipe off the fingerprints before photographing!!!

Chris

[Steve Lindsay]

Hi Chris, Good job. Looks good!! The one picture shows the depth well.
Have you tried using one of the dental rotary handpiece for cutting away back ground? I can do it faster with the rotary than digging out with flats. I dig out with an off the shelf carbide bur first to get the larger areas to depth and then go in with a smaller custom ground one to clean the corners out. When I finish a corner I back out of it bouncing the cutter up and down to do the stippling. You can cut background and stipple at the same time.
Steve

[ron]

hey Chris .. that looks great , i am glad every thing worked out fine , those Lindsay's are great .. ron p

[Vanknife]

Good day Chris,
Stunning job as always.

Cheers

"VAN"

[jlseymour]

Very nice job Chris, they are a good money maker...
I had one engraver tell me he charged for crest rings, starting at $450 plus the ring, nice money...
Jerry

[SVD]

Nice work! :thumbsup:

You might want to grab a copy of the Crocker Novelty Monogram System book - it has triangular designs as well as some other shapes made for things like the sides of rings or the stems of silverware.

I'll pass along something that I found to be true about the book: everyone else who'd gotten said it and sure enough, you get the book, you read the text on the back cover and then flip through it. There's no other text in the book.
You figure you've wasted some money. Then you look closer and realize that in those 28 pages he's given you the full alphabet for each style and he's shown you dozens of ways to treat / embellish the monograms. There's a tremendous amount of information packed into that little book.

[WVEngraver]

Hey guys ... happy you like it ... I just noticed a typo in my first post. This is a Golf Association ring, not Gold (correction made)

Thank-you Van & Ron!!

Ron, I'll be passing through on my way to Boston to visit my Dad. I'd like to thank you again for the invite but I'll probably only be able to spend a couple of days to look over your shoulder. The restoration of the '73 Winchester you gave me is about to begin too.

Hi Steve, had the microscope up full blast for this one. The diameter of this ring is 11/16ths.

I found limited use for my rotary as there wasn't any room for a slip. I would have benefited on the "open" areas but the Classic was cutting pretty quickly anyway.

I used an octagonal faceted stippling tool (I made for stippling steel) ... tapered at about 20 degrees. That's the strongest point I can make and still reach the tight areas without damaging the relief.

The dimples on the golf ball were done by touching a very small carbide ball burr ... I got the tiny burrs from www.turbocarver.com.

One thing I wish I had done ... and that's used a 70 or 80 degree V point to cut the lettering on the front. Next time.

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Jerry, you hit the magic number. For the engraving, the store is charging over $800 bucks. I'll get half that but that's the price I pay for living and working in the rural hills of WV while someone else deals with the customers in the city. The store owner sez he's not marking up my engraving fee but his stone setter gives me inside info. Being relatively new to the business myself, I am grateful for the pricing discussions that arise on these forums.

Doing relief on ALL sides is where the demand is. I did one of these in white gold with only the sides relieved and the monogram on the face simply cut because that's what the customer initially wanted. I just found out that ring will be back for the monogram to be relieved. It's a really cool ring and I'll post a photo when it is done.

----

Hi Steve ... you know I only like books with pictures anyway.

That sounds like a great find. There are only a few books (still in print) that handle the entire alphabet with each example.

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Mark, to answer you question from the other thread ... yes, I used a buffer to polish this. I use 2000 grit or higher paper when engraving so I can minimize time on the buffer to reduce rounding of edges. The only thing I polish 100% by hand are firearms.

Catch ya all later ... and thanks again.

Chris

p.s. in the block now is a stainless steel Longiness Evidenza Aviator wrist watch.

[jlseymour]

Chris I wasn't going to be the one to tell anyone they made a typo, heck I type with 2 fingers sometime and use the arrow keys and the delete and backspace about as much as the letter keys...
Great
Jerry

[Rick S]

Chris,

Honestly, how many hours you got into this ring engraving? Nice job!!!

[WVEngraver]

I know what you mean Jerry ... sometimes I try to push the envelope and use 4 or 5 fingers (that's combined - both hands)


Hi Rick ... thank-you. This is a two day project (or it should've been). It took me longer because I was trying to get used to the Airgraver.


Chris

[Tom McArdle]

Very nice Chris! I really am impressed with the small relief lettering on the side, but everything looks really crisp.

:whoo:

All my jewelry work gets marked up the same way. If I do my part, i make out OK.

Even so, i still make more on the gold than on the steel.

Tom

[WVEngraver]

Originally Posted by gravertom

Even so, i still make more on the gold than on the steel.

Tom

I know exactly what you mean. I've tried to diversify, by engraving all sorts of stuff, to discover just that.

Many thanks Tom