I wanted to document a cool restoration project I did recently. There’s something incredibly satisfying about fixing a ring that has seemingly been destroyed.

The damaged ring

This sterling silver dolphin ring got ran over by a car! It got super smushed and also suffered many scratches and dings in the the process.

These dolphins used to be so happy, so shiny. Let’s see if we can’t do something about that.

Step 1: Bend the dolphins back into place

When the ring got ran over it was smashed in the process and the dolphins turned on their sides. I used pliers to gently bend them towards the top, or back into place.

Step 2: Removing the dings and scratches

Using a soft sanding disc and a flex shaft, I sanded over much of the ring. You want to make sure to keep a nice fluid motion as to not create “flat spots” on the ring from over-sanding.

Sanding complete! You can see how I did not sand over the dolphins eyes and mouth, thus preserving those carvings in the ring.

Step 3: Use ring bending pliers to reshape the ring

This dolphin ring was originally designed to have a “bypass” look to it, meaning that the dolphins kind of overlapped each other. These pliers do the trick in bending the shank of the ring, thus changing the look at the top.

Step 5: Polishing

At this point I used a small bristled wheel to polish the ring. A wheel like this works great in getting in all the hard to reach areas.

After using the small bristled brush, a larger soft polishing wheel is used to give the ring a bright finish.

The Final Result

Restoration complete! It’s really shiny! Sterling silver has a very bright appearance when brought to a high polish. You can see how reflective it is.