A DIY Proposal

Two days, plenty of propane, and a lot of patience yields a one-of-a-kind engagement ring

By Mike Haney Posted 01.23.2009 at 12:08 pm 7 Comments

The Finished Product: Sam Abbay

At the end of the first day, we had a ring with a basket setting attached on the top. Most of the 13-hour second day was spent on the little bridges and cross-bar details. To my surprise, there were few secret tips for making this stuff: it's just a lot of precision work with very small saws and very small files, and a lot of patience. Each bar had to be mitered on a couple of edges to sit flush, then set delicately in place and soldered to the other pieces and to the ring. I wish I could tell you it came out flawless, but there's definitely some off-center stuff going on, and I could have used about another eight hours with a file set and polishing cloths to work out all the little nicks and bits.

By 9 pm, the ring was together and polished; all that was left was to set the stone -- and screw up big one more time. Once the rock is in the setting, you have to bend the prongs to hold it in place, then trim and file them. Sam demonstrated on one prong and handed me the wire cutter and jeweler's loupe to do the other three. Apparently about that same time, I was having a bout of the DTs, because I immediately cut off way too much. This is where Sam really shone as a teacher -- even though my screwup cost him an evening with his girlfriend, he was entirely patient and moved quickly through the fix. We had to bend them all back, remove the stone, solder on a new length of wire, cut it and file it until it matched the other prongs and re-set the sapphire. I finally walked out of there around 11 pm, exhausted and fighting the urge to just walk in the door, throw my creation at Lisa, and get it the hell over with.

Fortunately I fought that urge, and waited until we were on vacation on an island in Mexico a couple of weeks later. She's not a hard gal to please, but she loved the ring, and on a subsequent trip to her hometown, it was a huge hit with the future in-laws. Now if only the rest of the wedding were so easily solved with a little metal and a blowtorch.

Mission Accomplished: Mike Haney

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7 Comments

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taylorhengen

from New York, New York

01/23/09 at 12:33 pm

Great piece. Congratulations Haney!

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Neuuubeh

01/23/09 at 1:02 pm

Good work there :).
I love sapphires myself :)

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irishrovr

01/23/09 at 2:28 pm

A beautiful ring and a beautiful gesture to begin your life together! I love it that more people are moving away from the "traditional" wedding diamonds that were actually ushered into tradition by mass advertising on the part of the diamond industry. I don't know too many people whose grandmother actually had a diamond engagement ring - most of them were made from beautiful colored gems. Thanks for sharing the details of the process!

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TrinaTrina

01/24/09 at 10:34 pm

Very nice ring - and cool that this option was available to do something both creative and personal. I'm not the hugest fan of diamonds myself - they have their place, but there are so many wonderful colored stones. Anyway, this story makes me want to go take a class in jewelry-making!

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Neuuubeh

01/25/09 at 3:23 am

Actually there are colored diamonds as well - synthetically "colored" as well as naturally. The colors result from small atoms penetrating the crystal lattice - nitrogen for example gives the colorless diamond a yellow (up to brown) color. These are the most common ones (thats why the normal colorless diamonds very often have a slight yellow hue, and the coloring grade starts at pure white and ends at light yellow).
There are other elements that can penetrate the lattice as well, for example boron which give the diamond a blueish-grayish color. The crystals can also be colored by some physical dislocations, resulting in red and pink.
The rarest natural color however is green - resulting by irradiating with alpha particles.

Naturally colored diamonds in a decent quality are quite rare and hence extremely expensive

The diamond industry (De Beers mostly I believe :P) are really trying to force on people the idea that diamonds are extremely rare (especially colorless), but that isnt precisely true - hence them stockpiling diamonds in secret vaults as to not drive prices down..

Oh well, felt like typing a bit of useless info :D.

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Phoenix17

03/05/09 at 11:22 pm

Wow, good job. I make knives once in a while as a hobby, so I can appreciate the fine, tedious work you put in. I also understand the desire for something unique- she's worth it, and you want to show it.

She is a very pretty girl, too. Congratulations on your fine work, it is beautiful!

Your article mentioned you were interested in making things- knives are a similar thing, kind of their own zen. If you're interested message me.

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MarkFoster

07/15/09 at 12:49 pm

Brilliant idea! I love the personal touch - a custom ring with a good story to go with it.

Mark Foster, Editor | www.onewhitewedding.com