5 Best Tips for Picking Wood for Your Wooden Rings

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This is the 5 Best Tips for Picking Wood For Your Wooden Rings. In this post, you’ll learn all about the best woods to use, some to avoid, and how to pick great looking pieces for your wooden rings.

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Picking Wood for Rings

5-Best-Tips-for-Picking-Wood-for-Your-Wooden-RingsThe wood that you choose, as well as the way you glue together the different pieces is going to be the focal point of any wooden ring that you make. It’s such a small item, and the wood is definitely the star of the show.

Even though just about any type of wood can be made into a wooden ring, there are definitely a few tips when it comes to picking out specific pieces that can help you make better rings.

In the end, you want to look for pieces of wood that are eye-catching, beautiful, and that are durable enough to create an excellent, and long lasting ring. I’ll show you everything you need to know.

See Also: 25 Gorgeous Wood Species for Making Wooden Rings

Look for Durability and Strength

One of the first things to look for when evaluating a piece of wood is to assess the durability compared to other species of wood.

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Most pieces of wood can be used to make a ring, and even the softer stuff can be used in a lamination with harder woods to make up the strength. However, using pieces that are more dense and durable right from the start is always a good idea.

Thankfully, most of the hardwoods that you find in wood stores and woodworking stores meet this criteria very well. You can be assured that you are picking out something that is strong enough to make an excellent ring, but that also looks really good.

There is really only one thing that you need to avoid, and you need to check all of your pieces before you buy them.

See Also: 6 Classic Wooden Ring Designs

Avoid Damaged Wood

The biggest thing you need to avoid is damaged pieces of wood. Damage is a very broad term, and it encompasses many different types of defects that can be found in a piece of wood.

For example, definitely avoid pieces of wood that are bent, warped, or shaped poorly. Unless you have the tools and the ability to flatten these pieces out, you’ll have a very difficult time gluing them together into different blanks.

Also, avoid pieces of wood that have large abscesses, voids, or knots. Unless these are aesthetically pleasing to you, and you’re able to work with them or around them, they will cause problems down the road.

Also, pieces of wood that are overly wet, and have not been dried to match the area you are working can also cause problems. As they dry very rapidly, it’s very easy for them to crack and sometimes your rings can simply fall apart.

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When in doubt, just ask the person at the wood store how long the pieces have been in stock. Most wood that is not waxed or coated in any way, that has been in the shop for several weeks, is typically acclimated well enough.

See Also: 10 Incredible Ways Teekri Wood is Better Than Natural Wood

Pick Complimentary Color Schemes

When you pick your different species for making wooden rings, keep in mind the different laminations that you plan on creating when you get back into the shop. These are going to determine what color pieces of wood you need.

When creating different laminations, it’s important to think about color in your design. After all, the look of one piece of wood versus another is the main differentiating factor between the two.

Choose a good set of colors that enhance each other by being next to each other. Then, choose pieces of wood that match these colors and see what they look like in the store.

If you like the look, then you can feel safe picking up the pieces you need to make your rings.

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See Also: How to Use Wood Veneer in Your Ring Designs

Buy a Large Piece

There are a couple of different methods for making wooden ring blanks that are important to cover here. One is just byying the bare minimum amount of wood to make a few rings, and that’s it.

The other is to buy a larger pieces, which would be enough to make a very large blank, getting you many rings, sometimes several dozen.

The benefit to buying a larger pieces is that you can get far more rings for your money. However, you do need to spend the initial money up front to get all that extra wood.

If you plan on making a lot of rings, buying more wood like this and making large ring making blanks is definitely the way to go. This way, if you need to make a certain style again, you’ll probably have the blank for a long time.

This means all you need to do is cut off a piece that’s large enough to make whatever ring design you’re planning on making, and it saves you all of the time in gluing and laminating the pieces.

See Also: Laminated Wood Ring

The Cost is Low Per Piece

Finally, one of the best parts about making wooden rings is that the cost of the individual pieces of wood is very low. This is simply because the amount of wood that you need to make a ring is also very small.

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Even the most expensive pieces of wood in the world come down into the realm of reality when you only need to buy a piece that’s a couple inches long. Though the piece itself may cost more than others, it will be rare that you are priced out of any particular species.

That being said, if you’re the type of person that doesn’t often by exotic hardwoods because of the price, let yourself have a little fun when you make wooden rings. It will give you an opportunity to work with woods that you have not before, and it won’t break your budget.

You’ll have a lot of fun working with materials that you haven’t worked with before, and you’ll get some experience working with different wood species. That’s a double win, and again you won’t have to spend a ton of money to get it.

See Also: How to be a Modern Renaissance Woodworker

Your Action Assignment

Now that you know all about choosing the best types of wood for making wooden rings, it’s time to get out into your shop and take action. You must be excited about making a wooden ring, so why don’t you just get started.

Head on over to a hardwood store, or simply jump on Amazon and start looking for some excellent ring making blanks. The sheer amount of amazing materials available in the world is just tremendous, so spend some time looking and dreaming.

Pick out a few good pieces, and get them into your shop. Create some gorgeous laminations, and then turn them into amazing looking rings.

If you have any questions about these tips on choosing wood for your wooden ring, please post a question and I’ll be glad to answer them. Happy building.

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  • More than 20 Years Woodworking Experience
  • 7 Woodworking Books Available on Amazon
  • Over 1 Million Words Published About Woodworking
  • Bachelor of Arts Degree from Arizona State University
Buy My Books on Amazon

I receive Commissions for Purchases Made Through the Links in This Post.

Come See What I'm Making on Etsy!

Check Out My Shop!

 

You Can Find My Books on Amazon!

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