Today, I have been making a ring using mostly medieval methods. My cheats are a blowtorch, and borax, but otherwise, I'm trying to restrict myself. (And baking bread, but this thread is about making a ring).

Silver scraps are melted into an ingot, and then hammered out. This one is approximately the right amount of metal for the ring I am making, but longer ingots are easier to work with. The hardest thing is keeping it square as it is hammered out.

From time to time, the ingot needs to be annealed - brought to a reddish colour, and then quenched. This is to stop work-hardening, which can lead to cracking.

To make the bar longer, the cross-pane of the hammer is used, rather than the flat end. This gives more control over the way the bar stretches out. The bar is becoming more rectangular in section, making it easier to hammer consistently.

That's more like it. It's now the length (I thought) I want, and is annealed again, so that it can be shaped.

Here, the ends have been brought together. Typically, I'd use a jeweller's saw to ensure a neat join, but here, it's just a file (which has to be used when the ends are further apart). Then, it is soldered. The green and red colours are the residue of borax.

Using a tapered mandrel, the ring is shaped up and carefully hammered to the correct size. Consistent hammering and counting are very important. 16 strikes on one edge, 16 strikes on the other. You can do any number of strikes, but I had a childhood obsession with multiples of 4!

Instead of sand paper or electric motors, I'm grinding the edges on an unglazed tile with dry sand (left) and on a much finer material (right). Not sure what it is, but it's a grey clay-like stone, from a stream that cut through red Staffordshire clay.

That's it for today. I'm quite pleased - these really have very neat edges. The next steps will be engraving the ring, and properly finishing. But for now, I'm off to eat bread and jam.