Signet ring with family crest in 925 silver

The history of signet rings has always been linked to that of family coats of arms, since it is precisely the weapons of these coats of arms that are reproduced engraved on the plaque of signet rings.

If in the past it was necessary to be born noble in order to wear the family coat of arms on your finger, today this is no longer the case.

Likewise, regarding the production method, techniques have evolved.

The historically traditional method of reproducing family crests on signet rings is hand engraving performed on a forged gold signet ring. Historically this method was used to make signet rings for both the women and men of the family.

This technique is the most beautiful and rich in meaning, performed by a master engraver, it allows the reproduction of particularly fine and complex details on multiple levels of depth.

Obviously the cost is commensurate with the difficulty and this technique is most of the time far too expensive for a simple engraving on a silver signet ring, as in the case of our project presented here.

Here we will detail our method for making a men’s silver signet ring engraved with a family crest.

Ring with personalized coat of arms made in our laboratory

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The signet ring design

The project begins with the study of the ring design.

The shape and dimensions of the tray, as well as the design of the abgue quantities, are chosen by the customer who can thus completely customize the style of their signet ring.

The coat of arms to be reproduced engraved

Our project is based on our client’s coat of arms which is as follows:

Family coat of arms to be engraved on the ring, featuring two horses and the initial of the surname

The digital model of the ring

The design of the coat of arms is then retouched to simplify some elements that would not be visible or difficult to reproduce on the scale of the ring.

For example, the incision recesses are at least 0.4 mm wide and the tops are at least 0.15 millimeters wide for the tops.

Following retouching and choosing the characteristics of the signet ring, we can produce a computer simulation of the design.

Computer modeling view of the signet ring engraved with the coat of arms

View of the photographic rendering of this modeling

At the current state of the project, the customer can validate or modify the design parameters:

• signet ring shape (square, round, oval, barrel, personalized or other…)
• the dimensions of the plate and the ring body
• engraving details

Make the ring

Once the digital model design is validated, we can begin producing the wax ring using a 3D printer that will print several hundred layers of wax 50 microns thick to shape our signet ring design.

3D print in wax of the digital model previously developed from the digital CAD file of the ring

With this wax master we then create a refractory plaster mold, a mold into which the molten silver will then be poured to obtain our metal ring.

Solid silver casting tree showing the raw silver ring from the foundry and details of the family crest engraving

It therefore remains to cut the ring, polish it and then blacken the recesses by oxidizing the silver before polishing it to obtain the final result visible below:

Side and front views of the engraved and blackened signet ring coat of arms

Silver crest ring worn on the ring finger

More examples of family signet rings

Here are more examples of coat of arms signet rings made in our jewelry workshop using the same design process using coats of arms, seals or family symbols, then 3D printing followed by the lost wax casting process.

To go further: