Fountain “Sawblade” Logo Ring
For this ring, I was left in full creative control over design and build. The only requirement was that it incorporated the logo for the Fountain boat company. I decided to go with a 3 dimensional design rather than etch the ring. To do this I started by laying a template on a thick piece of scrap silver sheet. I then drilled the middle and began filing the definition of the logo into shape leaving the long bit of scrap until the very end so I would have something to clamp to.
After shaping as much as I could, I cut off the excess and filed the newly cut areas to size as well. To reference my design, I covered the silver in a layout dye and scratched the surface with a scribe to create file lines. In order to hold the now small and intricate piece, I super glued it to a flanged nut of the appropriate size. This allowed me to hold the nut in the vise and file on the silver. I carved the outside definition of the silver with files but the inside had to be done with a small carbide burr on a rotary tool.
After the rough filing and grinding process I went back in with some sand paper to smooth some of the file marks. from this point I needed to make the band. To do this I started with a thick strip of silver cut to the appropriate length. I then bent the strip into a half round shape and cut both ends length wise to create a split. I pried and wedged this split open to create a fork at the ends of the band and cut the center section out of what would be the bottom of the band to narrow it.
From there I carefully sanded the band in order to make the solder joints between the band and top as tight and seamless as possible. The top piece was placed on the band and the joints were soldered using extra hard silver solder. The ring was then stretched to its final size and the inside was sanded from every direction to ensure that it would feel smooth and be comfortable to wear. As a final step, to make the logo stand out more I blackened the ring with a special chemical and buffed it off the high spots to give it more dimension.
