Making a ring at the Drunken Smithy and what to expect
I recently went to the Drunken Smithy with a group of friends to go silversmithing and forge a silver ring. It was a fantastic experience that I absolutely loved. The process itself was relatively simple and the teachers were fantastic.
Ring making Tools
There were a series of silversmithing tools that were provided to us.
- Measuring Devices – Paper strip & Ring Sizer
- Baby Anvil – This was used because if you were to hit the silver against a softer material it would dent the table or other material prior to bending the metal.
- Pliers – used to bend the ring into shape
- Nylon Jaw Pliers – These are used because nylon is a softer material than the silver and won’t leave dent marks on the actual metal itself. This was one of the tools actually used to get it into a somewhat ring shape
- Raw Hyde Hammer – This hammer type is used because you won’t mark the metal unintentionally
- Ballpeen Hammers – These hammers are used to create various patterns on the metal.
- Texturing Hammers – These hammers are used to create various patterns on the metal.
- Flux – a compound that’s used to prevent oxidation and allows the solder to flow easily
- Fire torch- used to heat the silver and the solder
- Solder – used to seal the ring and bind the ends of the ring together
- Copper Tongs – You specifically use copper because regular tong interact with the pickle mixture and would cause rusting to become part of the ring itself on a chemical level as the ring would attract the off product of other tongs.
- Pickle – used to prevent oxidation
- Mandrel – This was the tool that actually made the ring into a circle. You had to apply force to push the ring down the mandrel as you were hitting it so that it would eventually be a smooth circle. To avoid making a trapezoid after “hitting all the air out” making it flush with the mandrel you would then flip of the ring and repeat the process.
- File – used to get ride of the bumps caused by solder and smooth rings and bevel the ring
- Flex Shaft – this is used to smoothen the inside of the ring
- Polishing wheel & Polishing paste thing – add shine to ring Subscribe now
The Steps
The first step to silversmithing is to measure your ring size twice with the paper by wrapping it around your finger and marking the paper. Do the shakey shakey to test. Remember to mark which side you started the measurement from so you don’t accidently make the ring out of the excess. After measuring you then double check with the actual ring sizer which is is like zip tie but you can easily loosen it. Shakey Shakey shake to test. After measuring the length of the steel. The instructors cut the silver stick with what appeared to be scissors.
The second step was to texture 3 sides of the silver stick with the various texture hammers. You texture by going SMACK SMACK *ᵣₒₜₐₜₑ ₕₐₘₘₑᵣ SMACK SMACK. The reason why you texture 3 sides and not all four sides is because you want the inside of the ring to be smooth and comfortable.
After going SMACK SMACK SMACK to your silver, you file the ends to be flat. Hammering the metal causes the metal to squish and get slightly longer. You check against the paper to see if grew in length and trim back to size.
This is when your gym sessions come into play. You start to bend metal to make the ends meet with the nylon jaw pliers and the raw hide hammer. A tip one of the instructors gave was to hold the nylon jaw pliers in between your arms and push inwards. It’s so much easier than just squeezing the pliers with both hands. You don’t need to worry about it being a perfect circle as you will make it into a circle with the mandrel later.
Cover the ring in flux and heat the ring with the torch. Prevent the ring from acting like a heatsink by heating the entire ring by doing laps around the ring. The flux should get white and foamy and then become clear. Once the flux is clear, start heating the solder. After the solder “flashes” dab the solder into the ring gap. Once the solder has entered the ring gap flip the ring and begin heating just the gap until the solder rises to fill the rest of the gaps. Solder goes to the highest point of heat.
Once the ring is soldered together put the ring in the pickle solution and wait.
After the ring has been pickled. Put ring in mandrel and whack whack whack to make into circle and there are no air gaps. Remove and flip the ring and hammer the ring again to prevent it from become a trapezoid.
Once the ring is circular and to your liking you must smooth ring with the file or retexture with the various hammers. The best way to smooth with the file is to push forward with the file.
Then you place the ring back onto the baby anvil and smack ring with hammer to make sure ring is flat. Flip the ring over and repeat.
Smooth ring again
Finally polish the ring and wash off the polishing material.
The Mead Hall
The mead hall was a nice vibe with the ability to buy sone of the decorations like the copper flowers. There were a bunch of board games there.
The mead itself was fantastic we got a free glass with the ring workshop. I tried the pineapple mango and the mixed berry mead. They both had a very fruity flavor and tasted extremely different.
The Shop
It was a nerdy paradise. So many cool swords, knives, hair pin weapons created by smith’s in store They even had DICE for the ttrpg lovers. Overall the silversmithing workshop was a fantastic experience that I highly recommend to anyone whose been interested in silversmithing or just want to make something cool.