Years ago, a buddy of mine exiled himself to the Russia Far East to write. While there, he met and married a lovely Russian woman who had four gold front teeth. These weren’t all diamond encrusted, nope, straight yellow gold. Nothing bling about them. Just for chewing.

Well, my friend had her fixed up by an American dentist and she kept her gold teeth in a small envelope which she added a couple of single gold earrings and a small gold bracelet. I know this because, they came into my little shop one day to show off her new smile. And then she dumped the contents of her envelope onto my counter.

She asked (in broken English) if I could make her a wedding band out of this small pile of assorted gold. Sure, why not, I said. I took her ring finger measurement and asked what kind of style she’d like. She wanted a plain kind of flat-topped band about 6 mm wide.

I had some charcoal ring molds handy. I wired a pair together, melted the metal in a crucible, fluxed it, and in one quick pour, got all the metal into the crude mold. I let it cool a minute before opening it up.

At this point, it didn’t look like gold as the alloy had turned black. But it was about 14K. I cut the sprue off and got to filing and polishing the ring. A few taps on the mandrel and it was the perfect size. She wears it to this day.

The gold was hers, the labor was my wedding gift.

Bob Adams has been in Somerville 27 years but was a frequent visitor prior to moving here. He worked as a jeweler in a few shops in his younger years, owned his own shop for a bit, sold real estate for 10 years and is always hunting for his next treasure. He has been an antique and collectibles dealer for 30 years. He can be reached at 27winter@gmail.com. Visit his website at www.Somerville.com.