This has nothing to do with bikes, sorry. But I thought a few of you would appreciate this and might want to have a go.

Take an old silver coin - in the UK the old shilling is perfect, 1947 has a higher silver content so is the perfect candidate but I always search for my year of birth. Best coins are ones with writing round the outside as it ends up on the inside. What's in the middle doesn't matter because you lose it.

You need a medium weight hammer and an anvil or some similar metal plinth to hit against, I've used a vice in the past but make sure the surface is polished with no scratches or imperfections.

Hold the coin between your thumb and index finger and place the edge of the coin against the anvil surface and hit/tap the top edge of the coin - with a slight bias towards one side. Then turn the coin, maybe a few degrees and hit again the same way. Keep going until you have made a complete revolution and then turn the coin round and do the same again to the other side. You will see that the metal has splayed outwards very slightly and that the thickness of the coin appears increased when looking at it edge on. There will be a very slight ridge in the center with the two sides sloping away towards the edge of the coin.

Now do another revolution of tapping right down this center line. Don't worry at this stage about making hammer marks or small flats, the key at this stage is to keep the deformation of the coin true so that it doesn't warp. Hitting too hard will cause problems, keep the taps light and focus on uniformity. Keep on hitting one side for a revolution, then another revolution on the other side, then another down the center. It is not a fast process.

The amazing thing to see is that as you progress the two faces of the coin begin to roll over and, without destroying their detailing and intricacy, start to face inwards. They will eventually be transposed to the inside of the ring band. It takes a lot of time and patience and I can't stress how much you have to work at keeping the ring band true and uniform. But eventually you will get a feel for it and at a certain point you need to really start to concentrate on the outer surface and get that curve which makes the ring look great from the outside.

Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Hours go by

Next thing is to gradually file all the external surfaces smooth and go through the ranges of wet and dry and polishing which I needn't bore you with because it's pretty self evident.

Job done!

It's the closest thing you will come to feeling like you are a dwarf from Lord of the Rings making something magic. I kid you not.

Bic that is neat.
Not sure I quite follow the technique but the result is really nice. Def hint of Lord of the Rings about it. Video of the process could tempt me to have a go.

Very nice. But, I'm more like the wise old owl trying to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop - three whacks with a hammer and I'd be done. It does appear though that we have the same year of birth.