Author: John Peacock
Date: 2017-03-21 13:55
Whether you like them or not, I've always been a bit puzzled by how bell rings are achieved. Buffet's are unplated nickel silver with a clear weld line; Selmer and Howarth (at least) have them plated. The unplated rings suggest that they are created in situ, but I can't see how this can be done without damaging the wood: you need silver solder, and the bits of the ring being soldered would need to be heated red hot, which would burn the wood. Although possibly the damaged bits are removed? The video of the Buffet factory shows a bell with fitted ring on a lathe, and both the bell and ring are shaped by a single pass of a cutting tool. But surely it wouldn't have been done like this in the old days.
Alternatively, it's possible that Buffet's rings are soldered before being fitted, as the plated rings clearly must be (or could they be plated while attached to the wood?). But it's not obvious how you could make a pre-existing ring be compressed uniformly to fit a piece of wood - the ring needs to lose circumference somehow.
Some of you must have actually seen this done, either by visiting factories or by working in the trade; I'd be fascinated to get informed answers to the above practical puzzles, as well as the aesthetic issue of why Buffet always kept their rings unplated when other makers managed to avoid this.
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