Wood Ring Using Bentwood Technique

This instructable is my method of making the very durable, very comfortable wood rings that I sell on my Etsy.

Step 1: Gathering Materials

Bare minimum:
• Wood veneer
• Superglue
• Sandpaper
• Tape
• Dowel
• Razor blade

To make them good:
• Wood veneer
• Paper slicer
• Superglue
• Socket set
• Mandrel and ring sizing kit
• Tape
• Vice
• Sandpaper ranging from 80 to 2000 grit
• Polishing Wax/ Compund

To make them faster:
• All to make them good materials
• Mini Screwdrivers
• Drill Press
• Belt Sander

Might add inlays later, inquire if it's not here yet.

Step 2: Cutting the Wood

• Decide the width you want for your ring
• Mark a line on the wood 2 or 3 mm more than you need
• Use either the paper cutter or a razor blade and a straight edge to lightly cut
• Repeat light cuts until you are all the way through.

Step 3: Boiling the Wood

Same for all styles

• Put a strip in a glass container filled with water
• Boil the water in the microwave until the wood is bendable
• Wrap the wood carefully around the finger you want (or mandrel)
• Put tape around it to hold it in place
• Let the wood dry completely

Or if you're lazy you can just wrap it in a circular position then tape it together. It's up to you.

Step 4: Making a Ring Blank

Bare minimum:
• Wrap dowel in tape inside out till its a little smaller than your finger
• Take the cut veneer blank and sand the inside as thin a second possible (thickness)
• Wrap wood around the dowel, until you have one full loop
• Put a single dot of glue and wait for it to hold ( you want this to be as tight as possible)
• After the glue takes hold slowly spread the glue over every part of the wood section by section wrapping it tightly
• You should have a section that isn't glued, and you can cut that off with a razor blade

To make them good:
• size the finger you want a ring for and find the full size under it
• use the one size smaller to find a socket that is the right size
• wrap the socket in one inside out later of tape
• put the socket in a vice
• sand the edge of the wood so the thickness is as small as possible
• wrap the wood around the socket as tight as possible
• do the rest of the steps above.

Step 5: Sanding the Inside

Bare minimum:
• take a dowel and tape on sandpaper
• hand sand the Inside till it fits you

To make them better:
• same as above, just check size with a mandrel

To make them faster:
• tape sandpaper onto small screwdriver
• put screwdriver into drill press
• sand to size and check with mandrel

Step 6: Sanding the Outside

Bare minimum:
• carefully sand the outside to cylindrical
• clean up edges by sanding at an angle

To make them good:
• sand 60- 2000 grit

To make them fast:
• wrap tape around the screwdriver until it is the exact size of the inside of the ring
• put one layer of tape inside out so that the ring doesn't spin
• place screwdriver into drill press and sand everything to the shape you want
• clean up edges with a belt sander

Step 7: Adding a Finish

Bare minimum: nothing

To make them good:
• carefully coat the ring in either super glue, beeswax, or oil.

Superglue:
• completely cover the ring in superglueand wait to dry
• sand with 320 then 600 then 1000 then 2000 (I wet sand)

Beeswax:
• sand with the highest grit you have
• wipe on beeswax
• wipe off beeswax
• buff it

Oil:
• same concept as beeswax

*Oil and beeswax need to be re-applied about every month or so*

Make them fast:
Put ring back on drill press, and use it to buff.

Step 8: Superglue Shine

For my rings I:
• coat the ring in superglue
• sand according to last step
• put on polishing wax
• buff off
• put on turtle wax polishing compund
• buff off
Repeat until it is shining as if it was made of glass

Step 9: Bask in the Glory of Your Ring!

If you feel like this is a little too complicated for you, or if you don't want to spend hours perfecting the technique, I can make you a custom order!

Just head to my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Lasrig