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Description
Finished versions of the previous WIP pic . Tossed the two flat-ended ones that were ugly and lame, replaced them with sheperd's-crook scrolls that weren't based _exactly_ off period designs but both the scrolls were found in the 10th century or so.

These have been treated twice with beeswax. First, they were sanded down until they were shiny, "new" looking steel, without soot or anything on them. Then I heated them and dripped beeswax on them. Wax, being plentiful in carbon, will case-harden steel if you keep it hot enough to smoke but not flame). It'll carburize, turning the surface of the steel a very nice black, so that's not "burned wax" on the surface so much as it's "carbonized steel" in the surface. Since I was using mild (very low-carbon) steel, this surface treatment was fairly useful, not to keep it from bending, but to keep the surface from readily getting dinged up. The case hardening was done by hand, and obviously incomplete and imperfect, but I was fairly satisfied with a first attempt.

Once the case hardening was finished, I let the steel cool just a bit, then melted more wax on it to seal it. With these rings, metal-on-metal contact is assured; a wax finish without regular reapplication is probably insufficiently tough, but I didn't have any other period materials to finish with readily on hand. Nevertheless, the wax finish gave it a nice shine that complimented the black surface well.

There are obvious things I could improve in this work- the pins are too long, the carburization is less than perfect, the final finish isn't ideal- but I'm satisfied that they are functional, and the effort I put it to making them look better paid off. I wouldn't be ashamed to see these worn by my friends, though I'll probably make some in the future I'd want to replace them with.

Description
Finished versions of the previous WIP pic . Tossed the two flat-ended ones that were ugly and lame, replaced them with sheperd's-crook scrolls that weren't based _exactly_ off period designs but both the scrolls were found in the 10th century or so.

These have been treated twice with beeswax. First, they were sanded down until they were shiny, "new" looking steel, without soot or anything on them. Then I heated them and dripped beeswax on them. Wax, being plentiful in carbon, will case-harden steel if you keep it hot enough to smoke but not flame). It'll carburize, turning the surface of the steel a very nice black, so that's not "burned wax" on the surface so much as it's "carbonized steel" in the surface. Since I was using mild (very low-carbon) steel, this surface treatment was fairly useful, not to keep it from bending, but to keep the surface from readily getting dinged up. The case hardening was done by hand, and obviously incomplete and imperfect, but I was fairly satisfied with a first attempt.

Once the case hardening was finished, I let the steel cool just a bit, then melted more wax on it to seal it. With these rings, metal-on-metal contact is assured; a wax finish without regular reapplication is probably insufficiently tough, but I didn't have any other period materials to finish with readily on hand. Nevertheless, the wax finish gave it a nice shine that complimented the black surface well.

There are obvious things I could improve in this work- the pins are too long, the carburization is less than perfect, the final finish isn't ideal- but I'm satisfied that they are functional, and the effort I put it to making them look better paid off. I wouldn't be ashamed to see these worn by my friends, though I'll probably make some in the future I'd want to replace them with.