So You’re Ready to Make Your Own Ring!

We schedule every ring making session individually, but we can make up to two rings in a day. So if you’re a couple that wants to make two rings together, or you want to make a ring with you buddy- we can do it all as one meeting. We will not schedule anyone else for your ring making session- it’s a private class and we’re dedicating our day to YOU!

The first step in this process is planning a date.
Planning a date usually involves a fair bit of “back and forth” and we usually plan at least a month out. Our shortest notice was 4 days before a wedding, and we made it work- but our public blacksmithing schedule is posted a month out, so our largest availability will exist if we start planning at least a month in advance. Let’s start planning! When you contact us, suggest multiple available dates that you could join us- that makes it easy for us to say “oh, these four options would work great! Now you decide which one you want to pursue”.
Once we mutually agree upon a date, that date is yours! You are agreeing to purchase that date, and we will defend that date on the calendar from any other interested parties or public classes. If you’re not able to make that date and you give us plenty of notice- we’ll probably be able to refund the deposit you’ll be paying to hold that date. If however you’re contacting us short notice, it’s not fair to us to refund your deposit. We’re a small business, and your deposit alone still results in a loss for that day- we could have marketed and sold that day but we didn’t….because you own it. If this situation arises, let’s work together to come to a conclusion that feels fair and beneficial to everyone.

We do not offer ring making on weekends. We are VERY busy on weekends with beginner classes, so in order to keep the pricing consistent- we technically do not offer weekend ring making. If however you want to make a ring on the weekend, understand…. we have to make up the difference of completely sold out weekend beginner classes, so there is a “weekend premium” charge that changes based on the season and demand. Contact us for the “weekend premium” which will be charged in addition to the established ring making rates. ($1000-2000 depending on season). Weekend availability is also very limited and books further in advance.
Fridays constitute a weekday and do not require the weekend premium, therefore…. Friday’s are our most popular day for ring making, and book the furthest out. Plan accordingly!

Once a date is agreed upon, the “Service” portion of you bill is going to act as your deposit- and will be sent as an invoice via PayPal.
This is typically the “make your own ring” cost and costs associated with additional persons present or additional days.

What are we making?

The next step in this process is figuring out “What” we’re making.

What material are we using?

In order for our plan to go smoothly and our day to be fun, we need to have a plan before the day begins. It takes a good deal of prep on our part to ready the shop, ready the materials, and ready the plan so that we can concentrate on making the best experience possible. First thing we need to determine is whether or not we’re making a ring out of one of our materials, or a material you supply. That’s right, we’ve made some weird rings with folks based on user supplied materials, including:
Rings out of Pinballs from the Pinball machine they met on.
Rings from the Landing gear of the type of plane they flew while serving our country.
Rings from a piece of Civil War era wrought iron ship chain.
Rings from their grandfather’s shotgun barrel.
Rings from their surgical implants.
Rings incorporating the ashes of their loved ones who have passed.

But mostly, we make rings out of Damascus Steel. We’re proud to produce all our own damascus in house, and we have two special blends we’ve worked hard to develop over the years. If you look back to pictures form our early days (2014 and about a THOUSAND rings ago!), the rings of today will be quite different than those. Our quality, metallurgical blends, and repeatability have all been refined, and we’ve come up with the tooling and processes necessary to help you make a ring and be as hands on as possible. For that reason- our “Make Your Own Ring” program is limited to our two in house alloys “Hybrid” and “V2”, in our signature “wrapped” style (where the precious metal liner folds up over the sides of the ring). We line all our rings with a variety of precious metals as part of our process- this process takes into account the math necessary to make a ring to the size you dictate, so while making a ring without a liner is possible…. we’d prefer to stick to our established menu during our time together. If you want something weird- just reach out….let’s discuss it.

So now it’s time to select the material we need to plan to make the ring out of- we wrote this particularly not very useful guide to helping choose between the two:
Hybrid vs V2
You’ll have questions, that’s fine- reach out.

Want to make some of our other products and projects while you’re here? Let’s plan for it!
We’ve had couples make stack rings while here, bottle openers, learn to weld, roses, etc- lets’ plan to fit it in.

What size and width are we making?

We need to know your size before you come. I know, that’s a pain in the butt- but it makes EVERYTHING go smoother. Believe it or not, there’s enough stuff racing through my mind at the idea of bringing total strangers with no experience into my space, to use my tools to make something. I have figured out a process for helping you make something awesome, to do so safely, and to have a fun- but I can’t also be responsible for telling you “what” that thing is…. that’s just to much pressure. Let’s share the load.
We start the day by writing down the size and width of ring you want to make, it’s my job to help you make that. Ideally, I want very little say in “what” that is….my brain might explode.

So, how do you determine your size with confidence?
Let’s start with this article called “getting your ring size with confidence”
getting-your-ring-size-with-confidence

The thinnest ring we suggest is 4.5mm wide, anything thinner then that is tricky to do and you loose so much of the complexity of the pattern…. it just isn’t worth doing. We order the precious metal liner materials to the size and width you tell me, so even if you can just get me a rough size and width at the time of planning and a more solid plan on the day of- that arms me with the info I need to plan and prep materials.

If you really don’t know or can’t know in advance, maybe it’s a surprise gift….
Let me know and we’ll work together to make arrangements. Otherwise- our day starts with you telling me what size and width we’re making.

What liner material are we going with?

Selecting a liner material is a matter of personal preference and budget. Some people LOVE one material that others may hate. We offer a variety of options:
Sterling Silver
14Kt Yellow Gold
14Kt Rose Gold
14Kt Palladium White Gold
18Kt Yellow Gold

If you want something that isn’t on that list- let me know, we love to experiment with new things! We’ve had customers come make rings with copper liners, brass liners, wood liners (WE DO NOT SUGGEST A WOOD LINER), and even a liner made of a piece of medical material very close to that individual’s heart (all i’m allowed to say. I wasn’t supposed to be able to source an artificial heart valve that easily….). Let’s talk through a few options.

Sterling silver- It’s the cheapest, by far. The current price of silver is around $20/oz and the price of gold is around $1800/oz. With the price of the materials costing 9x as much, but my price for a gold lined ring costing only 3x as much…. see how you’re actually getting a great deal?
With that said, silver is cheaper enough that it’s the material we make the most rings out of. It’s the most forgiving economically, so we can let you be a little more involved with the process. On silver lined rings, you’ll solder the seam. On gold lined rings, i’m soldering the seam. It just translates to a few things you’re a little more hands on with when going with silver, and silver lined rings are cheaper enough that you can actually make TWO for around the price of a gold lined ring. Want to make two? It’s twice the fun!
I sleep well at night knowing we can screw up silver liners a few times and the shop can still pay for heat.

14Kt Yellow Gold- The classic “Gold” option. 14Kt gold is composed of 58.3% “Pure gold” and the rest is just some…. stuff. They mix in a dash of this and a pinch of that, and the result is a durable yellow material that looks cool and resists patina. Silver gets the shiniest, but it rapidly patina’s to a dull relic of its former brilliance- gold on the other hand…. gets less shiny and stays that level of shiny forever. I like gold, it’s the gold standard. This color of gold is the most durable of the “yellow” gold options.

14Kt Rose Gold- aka “Pink” gold, is still composed of 58.3% “pure gold” but in the case of this stew pot of metal magic, they toss a few extra cloves of copper in there to result in a pinkish hue. There’s no real standard for recipe, so various manufacturers will blend it together a bit differently resulting a varied rosy complexion, but we have found consistency between batches from our supplier. What this means is- your ring will look like previous rose gold rings we’ve made, but it might not perfectly match that other rose gold ring you already own. Rose gold is a bit of a nasty material to solder, it just likes to struggle a little and fight back just a bit- so for rose gold (like all gold lined rings)- i’ll be soldering the seam, but you’ll do the rest of the processes.

14Kt Palladium White Gold- this stuff is pure evil, and I love it! It still contains 58.3% “pure gold” but the splash of special sauce into this chili recipe is Palladium, the same spicy weird element that accounts for why someone stole your catalytic converter. The industrial applications for palladium have raised it’s price pretty extremely, but that’s only one factor into why this liner option costs what it costs. The other reason, this stuff FIGHTS. This wizard material is relatively new to the muggle world, and its only just making its way into the jewelry industry to replace the toxic nickel that used to be used to jazz up yellow gold to turn it “white”. Traditional white gold is made with nickel, which is horrible for your body and really not very white at all, so traditional white gold rings need to be constantly replated (every year or so) with Rhodium, to give it that hue of excellence you fell in love with (otherwise they turn continuously more yellow). The special blend we play with uses palladium, a safe material, to produce a dull grey (really not that white either, but we love it!) that will never fade and never needs to be plated. This material blend is also EXTREMELY durable and wildly dense, meaning it reallllllly doesn’t like to be bent. Well guess what…. bending it is a key part of our process. The high cost of our palladium white gold liners is based on a failure rate, a high cost of material, and a general challenge presented by it. This material is my favorite, it’s a struggle to produce and the results are breathtaking (like Tuberculosis) but this material above all…. is going to have a few steps you’ll need to relinquish control on.

18Kt Yellow Gold- its expensive, but boy is it GOLD. In this case, 75% “pure gold” resulting in a more brilliant “GOLD” color. It’s softer, its more expensive (more gold) but if the color gold is what you’re after, this is that! Generally speaking, 18kt is as high a percentage of gold as most people use in jewelry, as anything beyond that (21kt, 22kt, 24kt “pure gold”) tends to be to soft to really be durable. We’ve had good results in longevity of this material, but it is softer and more likely to take a little wear then it’s 14kt counterpart. This color…. it’s just brilliant, it’s magical, you’ll want to lick it for sure.

Okay- did you figure out what liner material we’re using?
It effects the price, so this is another good time to review the pricing you’ll find here:

Now that we know what we’re making, we can order and prep materials. We don’t stock gold, we order each piece to the size and width we discuss- so we need to know at least a rough size in advance so we can order the right material. yes, that means you can’t “choose day of”, but this is part of how we keep the cost down (trust me, stocking gold can REALLY effect the price!).

OKAY- WE’VE GOT A PLAN TOGETHER!

Now let’s start the discussion.
You’re going to have questions, we don’t need all these answers just yet- but let’s get this party started!
Now you can reach out, let’s make the plan happen!

Help us keep things clear, fill out this form to start the conversation- it’ll email it to us and start a thread.

Once you’ve submitted this form, the discussion will begin. Once we’ve settled on a date, a liner material, a rough size, and a plan- we’ll send a PayPal invoice to secure your date.

Coming in from out of town?

Let’s help you make the most out of your experience here in Pittsburgh! We can suggest hotels, places to eat, things to see, and tell you wild stories that you can try to live vicariously through! Reach out, let’s plan this trip to be awesome!
Here’s some details on where to stay, what to do while here, etc etc