carving wedding rings

[Finchy]

Hello everyone!
I'm getting ready to carve wedding rings for my fiance and myself, and after several hours of browsing many interesting threads on here, I have just a few questions. First of all, I'm in Colorado, and considering using Spruce for his ring and Aspen for my own. I checked out several threads on drying wood, but no one mentioned using branches (that I saw). One idea I was toying around with was simply using dry branches that are somewhat thicker than our fingers and hollowing them out from there. So...

Question #1: In the case of branches, does the standard 1 year to dry per 1" stand? Or should I work with newer wood? Any additional recommendations for these particular woods? I should add that we live in the forested mountains outside of Fraser, CO, so no lack of woods at all stages here.

Question #2: Many people mention using epoxy for filling in cracks in the wood. Should I do this before I carve my rings? After?

Question #3: What is a good non-skin-irritating sealant? Is there such a thing?

Per my gleaned knowledge, I'll try to make them thick enough not to break too easily. And if they do, I'll just have to carve new ones! Thanks in advance for the help!

[Claude]

There was a previous thread on here about this - it may have some of your answers. Special & Demanding Project

Claude

[Ron T]

Hello and welcome, Finchy. It's nice to have you here with us. Sorry that I can't help you with your questions.

[Dan S]

Wood. Oh the thousands I could have saved...
The woods tyou are thinking about using are rather soft. have you looked into the exotics? If you do remember to wear respiratory protection. Some are toxic.

Dan

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

wood isn't very practical for rings...too much contact with water etc...might be nice to do and put back as a keepsake. I carved one out of purpleheart...trouble is they don't keep their color..and the wood has to be a little too thick to be comfortable to wear in order to give it a bit of strength...just my opinion...

[susieq]

Hi Finchy,
Your idea is a nice one, but as stated earlier in this thread, might not work in actual practice for several reasons. Carving a ring or circular shape in wood means that the wood grain will be running the wrong way on the ring, no matter how hard you try to lay it out for strength..... it is likely to break in half on you....about the only way around this is to use a knot from the wood instead of the regular part that we normally carve from.

If you did choose a tropical or exotic wood, and succeeded in carving the rings, you would run the risk of an alergic reaction to it if you actually wear them. Tagua nut (otherwise known as vegetable ivory) is the seed of an exotic palm tree and is often made into pendants and small figures. It is VERY hard. But really nice when finished. It holds fine detail wonderfully. It is still an exotic but might be less toxic to wear against your skin....I am just guessing. A light antique solution would bring out the carving on it. But as stated earlier, you might have to carve them too large to be comfortable. Still, tagua nut is not terribly expensive. $2-$4 each. You should get several chances out of each nut. They do have a hollow part in the center so keep that in mind when cutting them on the bandsaw.

It is a really nice idea, even if it turns out to be purely symbolic......good luck.

[Claude]

One way to counter the fragile aspect because of the grain direction is to make very thin veneers of your wood, then glue them together with the grain at an angle between the layers - make plywood out of the veneers, in other words.

Claude

[Finchy]

Thank you everyone for the advice! I'm now thinking we will make them symbolically, and just use them for the ceremony, before replacing them with mokume gane bands (metal that looks like wood grain, check it out) that won't have the problems many of you mentioned. That being said, we would undoubtedly wear the ones I make from time to time.

I appreciate the suggestions for exotic woods, but I was looking into aspen and spruce because both grow on our property (which we love) and we wanted our rings to be tied to the land. We also have lots of beetle-killed lodgepole pine, but I'm not sure how well that would hold up in the carving.

Can anyone recommend a good sealant for the rings?

[CarverFromNoWhere]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't make them out of aspen and spruce if you take and soak them with either a canoe epoxy or ca glue. I use ca glue on my pens often for a build up finish you just keep adding layers to it but with a ring I think you could just dip it so it fills the wood grain and then let it cure. It would basically turn the wood into a plastic much like stabilized wood. The CA glue doesn't seem to be a skin irritant when cured because I use a pen I made that has a really thick coating of ca glue it almost looks like the pen is covered in glass that is near perfectly smooth.

As for drying branches it is rather hard to dry them without them cracking apart, at least with the few I have tried drying in branch form.

I made a pen from a piece of a goliath rose stalk and anyone who has or knows about rose gardening knows what these are, this stem in particular was extremely large nearly 3" in diameter. I dried very carefully and then sawed it on the bandsaw removing the pith after that I soaked it in ca glue and rose stems are very soft much like styrofoam, the pen has been holding up very nicely with the ca glue finish without it, it would have crumbled apart.

Carl

[Claude]

Finchy:

I've been doing some more thinking on this...

Here's one way you could do it: make (or buy) some veneer - about 1/16 inch thick of the Aspen, along with some veneer from a darker colored wood that grows in Colorado - maybe mesquite? Or just use the spruce as the other veneer. If you can't buy veneers of the woods, you could saw thin slices and then sand them down to the 1/16th inch thickness. I think kiln-dried wood would be best as it won't immediately begin to shrink and crack on you.

Glue together, using waterproof glue or epoxy, five layers. For yours, use aspen, spruce, aspen, spruce, aspen; for his use spruce, aspen, spruce, aspen, spruce. Turn the layers so the grain is 90 degrees for each successive layer. Clamp tight and let set, preferably overnight. To cut the hole in the middle of the piece of wood (where your finger will go) I'd suggest clamping the wood to a backing board, then using a forstner bit to get close to the correct size hole. For the outside, and the final sizing on the inside, even with a very sharp knife you're likely to have tearout because no matter where you cut, you'll be going against the grain on a couple of the layers at least. One way around this is to use something such as a fine burr in a power carver (Dremel, Fordom, WeCheer, etc.) or just a sanding drum to get to final dimensions. After you get it to the dimensions you want, then soak it in the CA glue, as Carl suggests. The greater strength of the "plywood" you've made, plus the CA glue, should give you a ring that you could wear occasionally without too much worry of breaking.

Hope this gives you some new ideas.
Claude