One summer season, between college and university I worked with an independent jeweller making silver rings by hand for sale in National Trust centres and tiny gift shops. Now I thought each ring would take a long time to produce, and you'd start and completely finish one ring before commencing another, how wrong I was. The silver ring making procedure was a great deal more ordered than that to make sure output was profitable and the stocks were kept high enough for unforeseen demand.
The first part of the procedure is turning the basic silver wire obtained in big rolls of different weights into ring shapes. This is achieved using a special steel rod shaped like quite a long taper. The raw silver wire is secured tightly at both ends and then utilizing a twisting handle on the other end of the vice it is turned and wrapped tightly into a spiral until each turn of the spiral is as close to a ring shape as you possibly can. The tapering is usually to ensure you end up having several rings of numerous dimensions to cater for various finger sizes.
Once the spiral of silver is cut down the middle leaving quite a few un-joined silver circles you next need to understand how you can hold a jeweller's solder safely, and the ways to use the silver flux. Wearing an apron in order to safeguard your clothes, you lay out the raw silver rings onto a heat proof board in rows of ten and add the flux to the join of each and every ring. Moving carefully along each ring, you heat the silver ring up by using a circular motion until its molten hot but not melting, once you see a silver flash the flux has melted and bonded with the silver. After the two ends are fused together, using tongs you drop the ring into boric acid to pickle and clean away the flux. Rinse them in water after.
Next thing with your group of sterling silver ring is to try to reshape them using a soft hammer and mandrel, sand away any abrasive edges then polish them up in barrels packed with ball bearings overnight.