White Copper Nine Deities Ring

A ring band only takes so many characters around its circumference. A finger ring measures five or six centimetres around; take off the blank at both ends and four and a bit remain, and at three millimetres a character that is a dozen or so. To fit nine groups of deity names, the characters have to be squeezed down until the strokes merge and at a distance look like a band of fine lines. This ring takes that route: characters up close, pattern at a distance. The inside of the band has to be polished smooth; characters outside and a rough inside, and the finger is red within a day.

In folk counting, nine often means many and often means complete. The nine deities are not necessarily nine specific ones and may be a collective name for a group. Nine groups run around the band, one to a segment, with a fine line between segments so that the reader knows where to break. Text rings of this kind existed in the old days too, mostly in copper or silver, engraved with scripture, spell names or the family hall name. One wrong character ruins the whole ring: it cannot be corrected in copper, only ground flat and started again.

Small characters need a sharp graver. Dense lettering like this is cut with a skew-edge tool; one cut takes only half a stroke, and the tool is lifted at the turn rather than dragged. Cut too shallow and it will not read; too deep and it cuts through, and no plate is thick enough for that. So on a text ring most of the cost lies in the engraving, and the blank itself is not expensive. Laser engraving can do the work too, with fine even lines, but it lacks the hesitation of the blade, and after long looking the two are easy to tell apart. Reading runs left to right; at the end of the circuit there is a small knot in the joint, which is where the tool started.

Dense lettering is where dirt collects worst: soap and hand cream both fill it. Clean with warm water to soften the grime, then a soft brush along the direction of the strokes, not across them. When the copper dulls, wipe only the blank areas without characters and leave the strokes dark, so that they stay legible. For people whose fingers sweat, a green ring appears on the inside first; that is the reaction of copper and sweat and can simply be wiped off, not a fault. The strokes are shallow, so soap fills them and goes white; rinse after washing your hands.

Wear it with the text outward, which hardly needs saying. The band should fit closely; too loose and it turns, and once it turns the text sits at the palm. A wide-faced ring presses at the base of the finger and catches when writing or typing, though a few days is enough to adjust. With nine groups around, there is always one place at the joint where they do not line up; that is unavoidable in a ring carving, and when choosing you can pick one where the joint sits at the side.