Handcrafted gold, platinum, tantalum and mixed metal rings with exquisite natural Diamond textures

At Steven Jacob we are obsessed with exploring unique and creative ways to use jewelry materials. We often find inspiration in nature, ancient metalwork, or at the bench working with the materials themselves. Our Diamond Hammered Rings are a classic example of such a journey and our constant quest for innovation. Back in 2002 Steven had the honor of being invited to teach his techniques for making Mokume Gane at the University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo Japan. It was there that he became acquainted with the Japanese practice of using textured hammers to imprint the surface of the metal that was being worked to achieve a rich and natural looking finish. He returned home and immediately began experimenting with these hammers. (photo of award winning Melon Vase) A few years later Steven became aware of a community of coppersmiths in Mexico who re-melted copper wires and used stone anvils to forge these rough ingots to sheet metal that could then be hammered into hollowware such as bowls, vases and urns. Their finished pieces took on the unique soft, matte finish from the surface of the anvil stones. (photo of stone anvil which I have and Mexican vase if we can find a good example) Fast forward to 2020 when we decide to launch a line of precious metal and tantalum wedding bands and wanted a really beautiful and unique finish to fully highlight the depth of color of these metals in a way that a reflective high polish never can. Enter our first stone hammer, (photo) one that was created from a piece of gravel from our NC mountain studio driveway and quickly fitted with a makeshift handle. Then came a series of prototype stone texturing hammers which included granite, basalt, quartz, and lava. It quickly became apparent that each stone had its unique material qualities and imprint. The problem turned out to be that none of these stones could stand up to the hammering process and slowly eroded away during use. This surface erosion in turn wore the texture of the stone into a sort of bland beach pebble finish. More importantly, the softer the stone, the more of it actually broke off and became embedded in the surface of the ring. We decided to go for something much harder, a large ruby crystal (a 9 on the Moh’s hardness scale) from one of the local gem shops near our NC studio. Our prototypes had convinced us that we were on to something, so we bought a small variable speed scroll saw that we turned into a reciprocating hammer (photo) with a natural ruby crystal tip. It worked well and made a very nice matte finish on the metal. But alas, the ruby was still too soft! And again miniscule pieces of the ruby broke off and became imbedded in the surface and actually gave a pink color to the metal. Not only that, the large stone made it difficult to see exactly where it was making contact with the ring, so while it hammered well, it was harder to control precisely. It was now apparent that the only stones that might be able to hold up to the process would be diamonds. Pricy, but much harder and tougher, diamonds proved to be above and beyond anything else we’d tried. Diamonds are a 10 on the Mohs ( non-linear) scale and are actually almost 4 times harder than rubies. (This is a big reason why diamonds are usually the best choice for engagement rings and wedding bands that are worn everyday for decades, but that’s another story ;-) An unexpected but very welcome bonus for going with diamond hammer stones is the HUGE variety of crystal formations and surface textures that rough diamonds possess. They can grow in the shape of cubes, octahedrons, triangular macles, spheres, dodecahedrons rhombododecahedrons and complex cluster diamonds depending on their local environment deep in the earth. (photos of diamond shapes including green 6 pointed star diamond). And because they are the hardest objects in the earth, most have little or no wear, so the pristine, natural facets of the crystals are as clear and varied as frost on your windshield. Then began the search for diamonds with a variety of unique textures with which to imprint the surface of our rings, and a period of time to refine the process for building hammers from them. After trying many diamonds we now offer 5 different textures for our Diamond Hammered Rings and have found the that using high quality rough is best because even something as hard as a diamond can fracture if it has large natural inclusions or fractures. And if it doesn’t? Well… we’re still hammering away and the stones look as good as when they were first formed a billion years ago. So grab a piece of history and make an impression with your Diamond Hammered Wedding Bands, another in a long line of unique and innovative techniques and designs available exclusively from Steven Jacob.

At Steven Jacob we are obsessed with exploring unique and creative ways of utilizing jewelry materials. Within this pursuit of thinking differently, we laid the groundwork for a new line of textured wedding bands. Everyone is familiar with the diamond engagement ring, and then of course there is the classic gold wedding band, but somewhere in the intersection of these two definitive staples was an opportunity to create something new. Not only would this concept reflect an interesting twist on a classic jewelry item, it would have an intriguing story billions of years in the making.

Not all diamonds are perfect, faceted and shiny. In fact those are the minority. Many natural diamonds straight out the ground are highly included, rough in texture and of assorted coloring. Even though they might not be what most people think when they think about diamonds, they are one in the same. It’s believed natural diamonds were formed deep within the Earth's mantle under extreeme conditions of high pressure and high temperature. They are made of pure carbon atoms arranged in a unique crystal structure. As the Earth's tectonic plates shifted, volcanic activity brought the diamonds closer to the surface, where they were eventually discovered and mined. Most diamonds are between 1 and 3.2 billion years old. Beyond a diamonds raw beauty, its physical properties are just as impressive. They have exceptional hardness, a high refractive index, and excellent thermal conductivity. A diamonds hardness is a result of the strong covalent bonds between carbon atoms in the crystal lattice, making it the hardest naturally occurring material known to man.

Now why is this important? Well for starters it’s just really cool! The creation story of a diamond sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings. The surface of a raw diamond is often textured in a unique repetitive crystalline design and the thought of imprinting that texture on the surface of metal pushed all the right buttons. The result was delightful. Natural organic crystal facets were imprinted into the softer metal by these raw diamonds. The tactile feel of the metal was transformed into the feel of the diamond that made it. The facets themselves took on the diamonds characteristics becoming polished and reflective in some cases and in others more muted. As you spin one of these bands on your finger, the individual diamonds personality is revealed.

After sampling many potential diamonds for textures we settled on four of our favorites.