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I wanted to try my hand at a more complex center strand, one made with two stages of twisted wire. The wire was drawn down to 0.007" (seven thousandths of an inch, or about 33g) and laid up in a left-handed triple twist, resulting in a strand that is about 0.016" (26g). That strand was then laid up in a right-hand twist to form a cable that is about 0.032" (20g), slightly larger than the 0.030" wire that I normally use in tying my rings. That makes it ideal as a center strand, as it contrasts nicely with the solid strands to either side by bulging almost indetectably larger as well as having a completely different texture. I've included a section of the twisted wire in the picture below.
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The picture was taken before the ring has experienced any finishing other than being sized, so the colors stand out well -- after polishing, the brilliant reflections make it difficult to see such details clearly. The solid strand is made of 24K micro-alloy and the twisted strand is 18K green gold.
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You can see that it's a lot shinier now -- I moved the detail to an inset because I still wanted to include information about the center strand in the picture.
Here's a shot of my old ring, which is now too large for me; check out the triple strand and compare it with the nine-strand cable, above. Note that the older ring was made in September of 2004, so it has been worn constantly for four years -- looks like it has held up pretty well.
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