How gold rings are made
Pure gold is so soft that a wedding band is mixed with copper or silver before it is made.
- stations
- 8
- things upstream
- 22
- raw sources
- 12
- steps from the ground
- 4
The short version
Most gold rings are lost-wax cast. Wax is injected into a rubber mold of a master ring, and the waxes join on a tree inside a cylinder, which is filled with fine plaster and vacuumed free of air. A kiln melts the wax out. Molten gold fills the ring-shaped cavity, and the hot cylinder is quenched to wash the plaster away.
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Alloy the gold
Pure gold is too soft, so it is melted with other metals to the chosen karat. The mix of gold with copper or silver sets the color and hardness.
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Inject the wax
Rubber layers cured around a master model make a mold. Wax is injected into it, hardens and comes out as a ring form, ready to be inspected for flaws.
Goes in -
Build a wax tree
Wax rings attach to a sprue, which later becomes the channel for metal, and several can share one tree so a batch casts at once. The tree stands in a cylinder.
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Pour the investment
A very high grade casting plaster, called investment, fills the cylinder and covers the wax. A vacuum takes out the air, since any bubble would spoil the casting.
Goes in -
Burn out the wax
Over several hours in a kiln, the plaster hardens and wax melts away. What remains is a ring-shaped cavity.
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Cast the metal
The hard mold goes in a casting machine and fills with molten alloy. Once set, the hot cylinder is plunged into water, and the plaster washes out.
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Fix any setting
The rough ring is cut from its tree and cleaned up, and stones or settings are added where the design has them.
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Polish and hallmark
The ring is polished until smooth, inspected by a goldsmith and hallmarked.
Worth repeating
- Gold is the most malleable metal, and it can be drawn into a wire one atom wide.
- Rose gold of 18 karats gets its color from added copper.
- As of 2020 around 201,296 tonnes of gold existed above ground, enough to make a cube about 21.7 meters on each side.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and gold ring starts as these 12 raw sources.
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Sources
- Market Square Jewelers: The jewelry casting process, lost-wax casting
- F.Hinds: Plain gold fitted wedding ring
- Ring (jewellery)
- Gold
- Lost-wax casting
Cite this page: "How gold rings are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/gold-ring