In this tutorial, the creator demonstrates how to craft a solid 9‑karat yellow‑gold cap for an antique coral charm, turning the coral into a wearable pendant. The workflow begins with designing a 1:1 pattern in Illustrator, printing it, and transferring it onto a gold sheet that is then cut with a jeweler’s saw. The flat sheet is rolled into a tube, the ends are soldered closed, and a bail and jump ring are added. Decorative parallel lines are hand‑engraved using a carbide graver, with the tube held in the maker’s fingers for better access. Hole alignment is tackled by drilling from the inside out: a pin marks the inner wall, a small drill creates a pilot hole, and a ball‑burr enlarges it to match the coral’s existing hole. A stainless‑steel pin is then laser‑welded to lock the coral in place, and excess pin material is trimmed with a flush cutter. The cap is polished, any surface marks are removed with fine sandpaper, and the engraved pattern is re‑applied after polishing. Throughout, the presenter references related videos for tube forming, handpiece selection, divider choice, graver polishing, and laser pinning, and provides practical tips such as re‑using broken drill bits, using marker guides removable with nail polish remover, and drilling from small to larger sizes to allow error correction. The video concludes with a final view of the completed charm and a call to like and subscribe.
Chapters
In this video, I'm making a cap in solid 9-karat yellow gold for an antique coral, so it can be worn as a charm. Here's the antique coral. It belongs to a friend of mine. This is how it looked when it arrived. A hole had been drilled through it toward the rounded end. The other side of this coral has a pointed end. My friend wants a particular look for the cap, so I drew that pattern using Illustrator and printed out at 1:1 proportion on a piece of paper, put a double-sided tape on the back, and cut the pattern out. I stuck it on a piece of 9-karat yellow gold, but I forgot to turn on my camera when doing it. However, this is how the gold looks after the pattern has been cut out using my jeweler's saw. I have showed the cutting process many times before. There is no hidden secret, so I won't go and repeat that process here. After that, I roll the pattern to a tube shape, have both ends meet, and solder them both closed to form a tube. Solder an end panel on the flat side. Add a bail and jump ring. This is how it looks after that. If you want to see how I form a tube from a flat piece of metal, I have another video showing that in detail. The link is in the description below. This is how it looks when I put the cap on the rounded end of the coral. After forming the tube, I use hard solder to attach the cap. The solder I use comes as a thin panel. I just use standard metal shears to cut it out. This exact one was bought in 2003, and I'm still using it today after more than 2 decades later. For both the bail and jump ring, I use Easy Solder. You can see I have marked a dot. I'm going to drill a hole here. It doesn't go in. I think I have chosen a broken drill bit. I don't normally throw broken ones away because I can polish it and make it work again. I have to change for a shorter one. This one has been polished, so it will work. I'm using a quick-change handpiece here. If you're new to jewelry making and not sure which handpiece to choose, I have a video on my channel comparing different types of handpiece. You can check out the link in the description below if you're interested. A small piece of yellow gold came out of the hole and stuck on the inner wall, so the coral doesn't want to fit inside. This fits much better. I want this hole on the cap to meet exactly the one on the coral once the rounded end is pushed inside of the cap. If you look into the hole from this angle, It's solid black. This means both holes meet perfectly as I planned earlier. If I put a pin through the hole in the coral, you can see my pin is tilted at an angle. In an ideal world, it should be like this, but instead it's like this. So I can't drill the other hole on the cap, assuming it's exactly in the opposite place. To make the other hole meet the one on the coral, I have to put a sharp wire through one side, scratch a mark on the other side of the wall from inside, then drill it from inside out. At the moment, my pin can go through the hole in the coral, but not the one on the yellow gold cap. For now, I am going to engrave all the details on and deal with the holes later, because I want to put all the decorative patterns on first, before fixing the coral into the cap. If you like this video, please click the like button. This is totally free for you and will encourage me to make more videos like this to share with you. Subscribing will be even better if you haven't. There are two parallel lines on the cap. I first space them out with a marker pen and then scratch them on with a divider. In this way, if I make a mistake with the marker, I can always remove them with some nail polish remover, but if I make a mistake with the divider, I will have to remove it with sandpaper. This will take away a thin layer of gold on the surface. By the way, this is my favourite divider. I have another video on my channel explaining why I choose this one. and also comparing different types of dividers. The link is also in the description below. For the short lines on the bottom, I simply draw them on with my scriber. They will be used as a guide when I engrave later. When engraving, the standard practice is to fix the object onto the vise. But this is a small tube. If I fix it into my ball vise, I can only engrave a very small section at a time. It will take forever to finish the entire surface. That's why I have decided to hold it with my fingers. In this case. Because the bottom has some pointy tips and I have to hold it tight, I must admit my thumb does not feel very comfortable in this process. You see, I need to keep turning the tube when engraving the straight line on the surface. It won't be practical to fix it onto the ball vise with anything. This tube is made in solid 9-karat yellow gold. It's quite hard, so I'm using a carbide graver here to engrave the line. This graver was not polished when I got it from the shop. I have a video on my channel showing how to polish a graver like this from scratch. Check it out if you're interested. These two straight lines take a few minutes to engrave. The ball vise is set on a fixed position. I keep rotating the tube as I go around with my graver in this entire process. After the two lines are engraved on, I move on to engrave the straight lines on the bottom section. These lines are shorter and not connected. I just keep turning the tube as I go around. What I need to be careful of here is I try to not press my graver too hard. Otherwise, I could risk bending the edges and the coral won't fit inside later. But engraving the lines like these are quite simple. Everyone can do it with a little bit of practice. If you are a beginner learning hand engraving, I also have a video showing how to engrave straight lines. The link is in the description as well if you want to have a look. When first try engraving, you might want to fix the object onto a ball vise, but once you are confident, You can hold the object just with your fingers like this when the surface you need to engrave is not flat and the object is very small. It's much quicker and very flexible. This is how the little cap looks once it's done. To make sure I haven't changed the shape of the cap, I put it on the rounded end of the coral just to double-check. Still fits and looking good. Now I notice there is a very light mark on the top of the cap. That was scratched on with the other side of the divider when I drew the two parallel lines on the surface of the tube. I know the polishing process might remove it, but just in case. Before polishing the cap, I want to remove it with a very fine sandpaper. Also some light marks on the tube. There is some uneven colors on the surface at the moment. That will be removed during the polishing process. I am not worried. To make a mark on the inner wall of the tube, I am using a stainless steel sewing pin here because it has a pointy tip. Obviously, the hole is also too small for the pin. Previously, I used a 0.7mm drill bit to drill the hole in the cap. The next size up I have here is 1mm, but the pin is only 0.8mm. I don't want to make the hole bigger than I need it, so I am using a 0.8mm round ball burr here to enlarge the hole. Once the pin fits, I put it through to reach the other side of the cap. When I feel it reach the inner wall, give it a wiggle to make a mark. From this angle, you can see there is a very tiny dot in white. I am pointing with the tip of my scriber. That's the mark I made using the sewing pin. That's where I need to drill. Because the mark is on the inner wall, I have to drill from inside. Here I am using a 0.7mm drill bit. If I make a small mistake, when I make the bigger hole, I can shift the hole a little bit. So this will allow me a little room for error if I make any. That's why I always drill the hole from small to big. Now my hole is through, but it's at an angle. I correct it with my round ball burr from outside of the tube at a right angle, so when the pin is pushed through later, it will fit perfectly. Now is the moment of truth. In theory, the size of the pin should match the size of both the holes on the caps and the hole in the carriage. It should fit. I can see the pin from the other side of the hole, but as it's going to be a tight fit, I think it needs a push from one side of the pin. Clearly, my finger can't give it a strong enough push. It needs a hard surface. Now the coil is locked inside of the cap with no movement at all. It works. You can see the pin is tilted from this angle, but this won't matter. It will be completely hidden once it's done. The main thing is the cap covers the rounded end properly. Because the coral is attached to the cap, I can't fix the pin using the traditional soldering technique. Instead, I laser the pin in place. I have another video showing how I do a similar job, so I'm not going to repeat that here. This is how it looks after the pin is lasered in place. To have the pin flush with the surface of the cap, I cut the extra part on both sides with the flush cutter. You can find the one I use here in the description below. The other way to fix the coral in the cap is by glue, but I prefer locking it in using a pin in solid 9-karat yellow gold to match the cap. After polishing the surface to level, I engrave the pattern back onto the cap. Because coral is an organic gemstone, it is very sensitive to heat. There is no way I can fix this into the ball vise when engraving, so holding it by hand is my only option here. This is how it looks after everything is finished. Hopefully my friend will like her new antique coral charm. If you like this video, you might also like the one showing on your screen at the moment. I will see you in the next video.
