Stone details in rings or anything else really can really make a spectacular piece of jewelry or tool. Is a knife handle or a stainless steel or a wooden ring in itself a little too modest? Here is a way to give almost every project a little more passas without looking cheap and without a lot of expense or work.

There are commerecial produkts like “trustone” that do basically the same thing. I will show how to make it in place (in situ) so that you can carve a grove and make it inside there, so I think it's more versatile.

You mostly just need abrasive paper in diffrent grits and CA glue depending on what you want some other minor things.

Step 1: Stone Powder

Real stone is rarely one color and a lot of inclusions so you need to make or have differently colored stone powder/ crushed stone. There are several ways to get crushed stone and powder. You will need maybe 2-4 different colors in powder and sand like crushed stone.

- you can buy some on etsy and eby you can find several minerals in different grits.

- you can by some stones and crush them yourself (wear eye protection) in an old mortar or by grinding them between two bigger stones. This is probably more cost effective since you don’t need that much material and you get different grits automatically (powder, finder sand and rough sand)

- you can also just find some nice stones and crush them (wear eye protection) you might not get very vibrant colors, but it's very cheap and you get a nice throwback to your youth, probably.

If the stone is a mineral that doesn’t crush well into powder you can also use another stone, or use a diamond tool to grind it into powder. a old diamond fine for finger nails will do the job like a cheap diamond dremel burr.

For a Ring you only need … maybe 2 teaspoons, so crushing it yourself isn’t that big of a deal.

Step 2: Substrate

If you want to make a ring like me you will need a substrate. Here are some possibilities:

Turn some stainless tube on your lathe (picture 3)

Drill a hole in some Brass and shape the outside with a hacksaw and files (picture 2)

Buy a ring blank for woodturners/ jewelers

Make the whole thing from stone with some reinforcement in the middle (picture 1)

Step 3: Preparing the Substrate

If you want to glue on metal you should scuff it up a little and I also heat it to about 400°C to burn of any other oils for example… in steel you can wait until it gets a blue tarnishing.
In other metals you have to go by feel… don’t let it glow… it will oxidize…

If you want to do the whole thing from stone, you need some metal wire reinforcements.

Wood as a substrate just needs to be dry and clean.

Plastics I don’t know about, if you try out, write it in the comments.

Step 4: Only If You Gone the Steel Reinforcement Route

Get a rod that is about 2mm wider in diameter then you would need for your ring, or buff it up with some tape. then wrap some baking paper around it and then the wire reinforcements. Fix the whole thing up with a drop of superglue and then cut any excess wire of. the wire should lay a little less wide then the later ring should be. You need to Stonify the inside later also.

Step 5: Stonify

Now cover the substrate in CA glue/ superglue and sprinkle the powder over it or dunk it in the powder. Repeatedly. Until you build up a 2mm layer of stone and glue all around the ring. try to get a natural look by using different grits and colors in a natural fashion.. that said… maybe an unnatural fashion would look good as well…

Step 6: Grind It Of

No not everything you just did! Sand down the stone to an even Surface or until it meets the other material. If you have any low spots, you can just repeat Step 5 in those and sand everything down evenly afterwards.
If the surface is dimensionally correct you can polish it with lower and lower grits of abrasive ….

A final coat of Ca glue can be applied and looks good but robes the Stone of its natural feel a little but… you decide!

(I didn't coat it!)