Make your own spoon ring

Spoon Ring Preparation

Get your tools together
This is the basic rundown of each tool used during the spoon ring creation process. Also touching base on a few tools I used in the past, but stopped and why.
- Antique silver spoon
- 8-inch worship vise
- Scrap pieces of leather
- Bench grinder with grinding stone wheel & metal fiber wheel
- Rawhide mallet
- Ring mandrel
- Polishing cloth
- Silver polishing compound
- Safety gloves
- Bolt cutters
- Goggles
- Ear protection
Clean your spoon handle
Give your spoon handle a light polishing. I find that leaving some of the natural patina in the grooves of the pattern can really make the design stand out while giving the rest of the handle a thorough cleaning.

Wright's Silver Cream and Never-Dull wadding polish have been two things I've used and been very happy with when it comes to silver.
Remove the bowl from the handle
When I began researching how to make spoon rings years ago, many places suggested removing the bowl with a jewelers saw. The blades were so tiny and I grew impatient sawing each bowl off so I began using bolt cutters as a way to quickly speed up this process.

Go ahead and remove the bowl from your spoon. You can hang onto it for a future project!

Next we'll begin preparing the handle before ring formation.
Prepare the handle before ring formation
After removing the bowl from the spoon, there's a sharp end left that needs to be addressed beforer we begin forming the spoon ring.

Using the bench grinder, it's fairly simple to remove the sharp edges left from the bowl removal. The grinding wheel makes shaping the silver fairly simple. I try to taper the end that was closest to the bowl kind of like a doorstop wedge (see photo below). This makes the final ring shape turn out so much better than a lot of my earliest work. The metal fiber wheel takes the rough surface left behind by the grinding wheel and smoothes everything out into a comfortable silver finish.

Spoon Ring Formation

Forming the spoon ring
Spoon ring making is a learning process. My first few rings didn't have a perfect circle shape and were definitely not that comfortable to wear! By following the steps until now, you are ready to begin forming that silver spoon handle into a ring. Using the jaws of the vice, lined by scrap leather, you're going to pinch the tapered end of the spoon handle together with the ring mandrel (see video for visual refrence). With the pattern facing away from you, you can begin tapping the handle backwards towards you. By loosening the vise, rotaing the handle forwards and re-tightening the vise a few times you will be able to witness your spoon ring taking shape!
Sizing
Once the spoon ring has it's shape, you can remove it from the vise and inspect it's size by letting it drop naturally on the ring mandrel. Double check to make sure your circular shape is there and that the ring is able to silde on and off easily. The ring mandrel is an excellent way to accurately size your spoon ring.

If you need to adjust the ring to be a little bigger. Just slide it down the mandrel until you reach your desired size. You may have to do this a few times and open the ring a little larger than it's desired size before it will hit the sweet spot and stay where you want it.

If you want the ring to be a little smaller, just go back to the vise and use the jaws to put pressure on the ring where you need it to close. *Always keep the mandrel in place with the size you're aiming for to maintain the ring shape.

Spoon Ring Inspection & History

Cleaning & polishing
The final cleaning and polishing of your ring will wipe away anything that built up during the creation process. You'll be so impressed to see what a solid 60 seconds of love and attention can do to a silver spoon ring!
Learning spoon ring history
Where do spoon rings come from?

The origins of the spoon ring are actually unknown, though many claim they originated in England during the early 17th century and were used as alternative wedding bands. Popular opinion further explains that servants who could not afford precious metals resorted to stealing silverware from their employers and crafted them into wedding rings. Those caught were prosecuted for theft, which is why spoon rings are said to have been used during this time.
Share your spoon ring in the student gallery
Share your brand new spoon ring creation with the rest of your classmates. I'm really excited to see what you guys come up with!

Additional Resources

Understanding silver-plate & sterling silver

Explanation of the difference between silver-plated and sterling silver flatware and working with those two kinda of metals. Tips on where I’ve had luck finding silver spoons over the years.
Printable Ring Size Finder

This easy to use ring size finder is as simple as printing out a sheet of paper. It also includes tips and other fun facts about ring sizes.

Meaghan Hendricks

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