This is the 5 Best Tips for Making a Wooden Rings. In this post, you’ll learn several great ideas that can help you make excellent looking wooden rings in your shop.

Making Wooden Rings

Making wooden rings is a wonderful hobby for any new woodworker, and it can also can offer challenges for experienced woodworkers as well. The secret is making it fun while also learning this new project.

While a wooden ring is a pretty straightforward thing to make, there are definitely a few different things that you can do to make the process even better.

These tips are what can take you from a complete beginner to having much more experience, much more quickly.

These are essential tips for making wooden rings, and they can be applied to nearly any style of ring that you make. I’ll show you everything you need to know to start making great looking rings right away.

See Also: Top 10 Wooden Ring Making Posts

Start With the Best Wood

Since a wooden ring is a very small item, the type of wood that you use and what it looks like it matters quite a bit. If you start off with the best wood, you set the foundation to have the best looking wooden ring.

If you don’t know very much about wood at this point, you will be pleasantly surprised to know that wood comes in so many different colors and looks that you can build rings for the rest of your life and never use all of them.

The sheer amount of natural beauty in a piece of wood is just outstanding, and there is so much more than what you are used to seeing in the hardware store. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to head over to a hardwood store or a woodworking store.

If you absolutely have to see some things right now, you can do a quick Google search and find many amazing options for ring making blanks.

See Also: 25 Gorgeous Wood Species for Making Wooden Rings

Choose a Classic Design

After you pick the best piece of wood, the next best tip for making wooden rings as a beginner is to pick out a classic design. There are already so many great looking designs out there that you don’t even need to waste any time coming up with something original.

While originality is awesome, and you can do that down the road, right now focus on classic designs that can make your work look professional almost immediately.

Of all of these types of designs, the three-piece lamination is probably the most well-known, and synonymous with wooden rings. This is a lamination of three different pieces of wood, to create a certain style.

There are many more different classic designs than this, but if you start out with a simple laminated ring, made from some beautiful looking wood species that you hand pick, you pretty much can’t go wrong.

See Also: 6 Classic Wooden Ring Designs

Get the Size Perfect

After figuring out your wood and your style, you need to move on to the fit of the ring. After all, even the best looking ring in the world will end up in the bottom of a jewelry box if it doesn’t fit well.

Focusing on your fit as one of the smartest things you can do as a new ring maker, and thankfully it’s just a matter of buying the right drill bits for drilling the finger openings.

It may take you a while to get bits that can do every single size, but start with the main sizes that you use the most frequently, and you can always sand out the interior to be larger if you need to.

Whatever you do, focus on making the fit exceptional. If you do, you can be sure that a beautiful ring will be worn all the time, and that a simple drilling issue doesn’t prevent it from seeing daylight.

See Also: Sizing A Wooden Ring

Sand the Ring Until It’s Blemish Free

A wooden ring is such a small project, but you would be surprised how many of them I see that have scratches and dings under the finish. It’s a shame, because the ring could’ve been so much more, all for a few more minutes of work.

It’s important that you take the time you need to fully sand out and remove any and all scratches and blemishes that are on the surface. Again, this piece of wood is so tiny, all it takes is usually about an hour more in total to make a huge difference.

If you can commit right now to spending a solid hour on your ring just doing the sanding, then you can almost be assured that you will have a great looking ring when it comes time to finish.

People will spend time talking about how beautiful the ring is, instead of pointing out all the scratches and defects. That’s the last thing you want, so just do the work instead.

See Also: The Last 10% Principle for Woodworking

Apply the Perfect Finish

Once your ring is perfect, and scratch free, it’s time to apply a finish that will not only make the wood look more beautiful, but also protect the ring. Wooden rings are not meant to be handled like metal jewelry but still a little protection matters.

One of the easiest things to do is just a natural oil finish. This will bring out the natural look of the wood, and create a very subtle sheen that is pleasing in a natural product.

If you want something more glossy, then consider doing a film finish from CA, or epoxy, which you will then sand and polish.

The easiest method of all for finishing your wooden rings is to buff the surface with a buffing wheel and compounds. If you haven’t use the Beall buffing system before, you’re definitely in for a treat. This is the fastest way to apply the smoothest finish you’ve ever touched.

If you are planning on making a lot of rings, especially making and selling a lot of rings, then you definitely need to invest in a buffing system. Thankfully the investment is less than $100, so just go ahead and get it when you know you need it.

See Also: How to Buff Wood to a High Sheen

Your Action Assignment

Now that you know these five best tips for making wooden rings, it’s time to get out into your shop and take action. Find yourself some wood to start with, and then pick out some classic designs that you want to make.

Pick up some Forstner bits that way you can get the finger openings correct, and drill carefully through each one of your creations. Saw off the excess, and then start sanding until your ring is perfect.

After that, apply a simple oil finish until you have the resources necessary to pick up a buffing set up for the shop. It’s a small investment, but it’s something that you’ll end up using all the time.

If you have any questions about these ring making tips, please post a question I’ll be glad to answer them. Happy building.

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