Make a Chunky Wooden Ring

I have a sort of crazy obsession for ring making, and I thought it would be a good idea to make a tutorial to show others how to make wooden rings too.

Things you'll need:

• Wood
• Drill Press or Hand Drill
• Band Saw
• Sanding tools (Foredom or dremmel, Belt sander, sand paper)
• Forstner Bit
• Cutting board oil

The first step is picking out what kind of wood you want to use. For this ring I used Birdseye Maple.

Now it's time to drill the hole. I used a 5/8 Forstner bit. If you don't have a drill press you can use a hand drill.

Note: A 5/8" bit cuts a hole that's about a size 5 in US ring sizes. This size bit works best for me ( I wear a size 7) but you can use whatever bit is closest to your ring size.

All I did here was cut the "ring" into a smaller more manageable chunk. I used a band saw but if you don't have one of those you can try using a scroll saw.

You'll see here that I drilled two holes, just disregard that! (It's for a separate project. )

Next, you can start cutting out the shape of the ring. See those white lines? That's where you cut! This creates the "bottom" of the ring. Eventually you will round it out a bit more but for now it can be a bit rough.

At this point, the ring is pretty wide so it's time to cut it down. See those white lines again? That's where you cut!

Hint: I use another piece of wood to guide/push my ring through the saw. This is just a safety measure that will (hopefully) prevent me from slicing my fingers!

To size up the ring, I use a sanding barrel (150 grit) attached to my foredom (you could also use a dremmel.) To ensure a more even hole, flip the ring over every few seconds and sand from either side.

Hint: A 5/8 hole is about exactly the same size as a standard dremmel brand sanding barrel, so use caution when you start sanding out the inside of the hole. I have had the foredom grab the wood and rip it out of my hand on multiple occasions.

It's time to head back over to the band saw and make a few more cuts. To give this ring a really chunky and geometric feel, I cut off the corners of the top of the ring until I achieved the look I wanted.

For this step I used a belt sander because it allows for a lot of control when shaping the ring. Sanding where the white lines are will smooth out the cut you made earlier and make it more uniform.

This step is optional, but I added a few cut marks to give this ring a rustic feel.

I wanted to keep the rustic feel of this ring so I used 400 grit sandpaper just to smooth out the sharp edges.

Hint: Rolling sandpaper into a tube makes it easy to sand the inside of the ring.

I finish up my rings with a nice mixture of beeswax and flax oil.

You're done! Enjoy your one of a kind ring.

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