Wedding Bands

Christmas 2013.  Betty and I got new wedding bands.  We got our first ones almost 50 years ago.  Betty’s band wore through a few years ago and I lost mine in the vicinity of Yellowstone Falls about 40 years ago.  It sounded like a good plan when she thought that we could get new ones for our Christmas gifts to each other.  We picked out ones with a hammered finish so it goes with the blacksmith life.

I won’t wear the ring when I’m working because I’ve seen  too many serious injuries associated with that but it will be nice for social occasions.  I had stopped wearing the ring on my finger when I was in the army and had been wearing it on a gold chain around my neck.  Apparently the chain broke on a hike back from Yellowstone Falls. Our youngest son’s little legs couldn’t go any more so I carried him on my shoulders straddling my neck.  After we were back at our motel I realized the ring and chain had gone missing.

Busy schedule and the expense kept us from getting a replacement.  Once we visited with a local jewelry artist about making new rings but the price of gold had really gone through the roof and other things seemed more pressing.  The next time the subject really crossed my mind was a few years ago when a young couple contacted me and later came to the studio to contract the forging of iron wedding bands.  It was an unusual request but they seemed very serious so I did some test pieces and they guided me and eventually they picked up their two bands.

Betty and I are happy with our new ones.  In a strange way it may be even more fitting this year with Papaw Phil Robertson of the very popular Duck Dynasty, not a show I regularly follow, giving his wife a new ring after 50 years of marriage.

Blocky texture test

Line texture test

One finished test ring

My new ring