Tension Set Forged Silver and Onyx Ring

This ring was made for a family friend as a wedding band. The stone is a 5 mm onyx bead that is tension set.

To make the ring, I started with a smaller ring that I constructed from 4 gauge sterling silver bar stock. I then forged the ring into its squarish profile on a ring mandrel.

The sequence of change in shape is shown in the images below:

Ring with quarters marked and some hammering done

Ring is starting to get more square

Profile of ring after initial forging

After side of ring were hammered flat

When the ring was enlarged to the correct size and profile, I cut the ring at the soldered joint and then removed a slightly smaller amount of metal than the width of the onyx bead. (no images, sorry)

Before I set the stone, I created seats for the stone to rest in with a ball burr on each side of the opening. To set the stone, I slid the ring onto my ring mandrel to spread the opening slightly then placed the stone in the gap and slid the ring off of the mandrel to allow the ring to close onto the bead.

The ring had tremendous spring to it since I did not anneal the metal during the forging process. The heaviness of the setting and the work hardening of the metal is essential to the security of the stone in a tension setting in sterling silver.