A ring made from a coin.

Hand-crafted Knot Jewelry:
Decorative Marlingspike Seamanship rendered in precious metal.

Information Center	Shop Around For Goodies
Learn about knots and knot-tying See the workshop and show tour schedule. See what's new on the site Contact me (email, phone, etc.)	Cotton Bracelets Shop for ready made jewelry Request custom jewelry Find tools and instructions for making your own.

An interesting method of producing a ring from a coin, which I've done in the ancient past, is to hold the coin on edge and beat on it with a heavy steel spoon, turning the coin frequently so as to distribute the hammer blows all the way around the edge. After just a few hours of this, the edges of the coin will begin to flare outward, as the diameter is reduced, and if one continues this process long enough, the coin will metamorphose into a reasonably smooth ring. The center is then drilled out and smoothed.

The shape on the left is a coin, viewed edge on in cross section. In the middle is the shape it begins to assume as the edge is evenly beaten, the blows directed toward the center of the ring. On the right is a ring that is ready to have the center drilled out and reamed to the correct size.

It helps to start with a coin that is a good bit larger than the ring size desired. The hammering process must continue until the inner edges of the flared portion are the correct distance apart for the size of the ring, and then care must be taken not to damage those edges while cutting out the center. The beauty of this sort of ring is that the printing and part of the image on the two sides of the coin will remain visible around the inner edges, if it is done properly.