The F-Ring for Falsetto

Many of us are lucky enough to a have a friend or two from the old skool that we grew up with that we still keep in touch with. There's nothing like getting together with an old friend and reminiscing of the days before worries and cares, that camping trip and the time you both in got in trouble. I'm lucky to have a couple of those friends, one of them is Mike. We go way back.
About a year about Mike came to be and told me he was getting married, awesome! To top it off, he asked me if I'd make him his wedding ring. Wow. Of all the things I've made, getting to make a best friend's wedding ring blew my mind so I got right on it. What an honour.
I started thinking about what a ring should symbolize. Should the materials reflect the importance of the engagement? Should they be expensive, shiny, classic? It occured to me that the materials chosen to make most weddings rings didn't embody the qualities that I wanted to include in this ring. It seemed to make sense that the materials should endure the test of time and be both strong and hard - much like a marriage.
Gold doesn't oxidize which is one of the reasons it's such a precious material. I like that but it's too soft, too malleable and NEEDS to be taken to the jewellers to be repolished from time to time. It's like expecting you're going to have to go to therapy with your partner - not a good intention to start out with. White gold is even worse, it's surface is penetrated by something that makes it look lighter so it's got to be touched up to stay white.
Silver oxidizes and is soft so it's out. Diamonds kill people and they're a big scam so they were out too.
Tungsten was on the top of the list but it's so dense that you can't even work it. It's got one of the highest metling temperatures of all the non-alloyed metals.

In the end I decided on sandwiching a layer of Titanium in between two pieces of 316 Stainless Steel. Titanium is a little exotic, it's an element ( so it's pure ), it's strong, hard and light. Having it in the center of the ring helped represent the unchanging core values of the groom that had brought him to this wife and would be with him the rest of his life. Stainless Steel on the other hard is a little more maleable, like his surface, it will change and develop some character without compromising any structural integrity.
I machined the inner ring of titanium and the two outer rings of stainless. To put them together I chose to use a press fit so the materials would forever be held together by their own strength (much like a marriage). A press fit it made by creating a male piece that inserts into a femal piece that is slightly smaller than it. To put them together, the male piece is frozen so it contracts in size and the female piece is heated so it expands to accept the male piece. Once they're both reached room temperature there is a material interference and the two pieces will hold each other together. How appropriate is that for a wedding symbolism.
I shaped the exterior of the ring by hand on a lath using files. The Titium was so hard that I destroyed all the files I'd used but it was worth it. Ammmmaaazzzing!

Santropol Roulant's super Terrance

If you like in Montreal, you probably know the building at the corner of Collonial and Roy St., just across from Else's and the old Waldmans fish store. The building used to be a an artist workshop of some kind but has been vacant for quite a while. Most who have seen building have wanted to buy it at one time or another. I was no exception.
The previous owner had been resisting to sell as he didn't want the building to be taken down and turned into condos. When Santropol Roulant came along it was just the type of buy he'd been waiting for - a local charity focusing on community, food and bicycles. What could be better.
Santropol Roulant does a lot of things but their main focus is food. They grow, cook and deliver amazing food to people who have trouble getting out and about. It is mostly fueled by local community volunteers who help grow, cook and and deliver the food to those in need. When I first moved to montreal in 2002 I volunteered with Santropol delivering food. It was a lot of fun and I met great people.
For years they've also been strengthening the community buy housing a volunteer run bike coop. For a couple of bucks you can use use their shop and fix up you bike. They've got new and used parts, bike stands and all the fixings you need to keep your velo on route. You can even store your project bike their while you rebuild it.
So, anyways, they bought this sweet building and had it fixed up to suit there needs. They recently moved into the new location and are even more equipped to expand their operation. They decided to keep a lot of the original graphiti on the walls so the place looks great.
So, earlier this year was walking by the original santropol location, having the urge to build to cool stuff for cool people, and thought I'd pop my head in to see if I could help them out building something. I had a quick chat with patrick, the volunteer coordinator there and explained that I love building stuff, I was an engineer and wanted to help out. Right then the executive director Rayna walked in and said, "Oh, you're the guy the built the Igloo Sauna!". (We'd met before at a friends cottage party where I'd made a sauna out of snow and how rocks from the fire). So, I headed off to the their Mcgill growing facility with Tim. My first task was to build some portable greenhouses to help young plants get used to the great outdoors. That went well and was a lot of fun.In the new location, Santropol was going to need a couple things made and I was all over it. First off, I hooked up with the Richard who was the summer guardian of the bike shop. We worked together to design the new bike shop, trying to make the most of the new space. The previous shop had been in a basement and the new space was a lot larger so it was pretty exiting. We decided on making several mini work station to get the most out of the space. We spent a couple of days working on it together and it all turned out well. I've since been in the shop several times to work on my bike and take advantage of the great space.

The bike shop worked out well but it was just a warm up. Next up, the roof top terrace! There are two roof tops on the new facility. One of them is to become a green roof, some time in 2011, and the other is perfect for a multi-purpose terrace. 1600 sqr ft of area was available to grow foot and house charity events. I took reigns on the project and planned out the construction and a small group of pro volunteers showed up to make it all happen. The weather was great so we got to work on our tan and spend two weeks working off all of that summer beer.
A special thanks to Roni, Nicki, Doug and Marie-Eve for making it all happen. Reuven was kind enough to lend us his power-saw as well.
Over the next year they'll be growing food up there and eventually putting up a green house.
If you're in the Montreal area and you're looking to meet some great people while helping out the community I strongly suggest swinging by Santropol Roulant, tell them Jesse sent you.

A grooms men gift that makes sense.

I love weddings. I've never had one myself but been to enough to know that they're fun. I've had the privilege of being in the wedding party a couple of times and that's always a blast. The last wedding I was in was my brother Luc's, that was awesome. As a thank you for taking part he gave us all knives with our nick names engraved in them. I'm still using the knife and love it. If you've been a grooms men before you'll know that you usually get a flask for your time. I don't drink that much hard alcohol and I certainly don't carry it around with me so I've never used a flask. There got to be a lot of great gift ideas for your grooms men as a thank you.

I woke up one day thinking how much I'd love to make some grooms men suspenders for a wedding. What a great gift from the groom. So naturally I did some recruiting on facebook.
"Jesse Herbert: I want to make some suspenders for the grooms men in a wedding"
later that day I got a comment from mike "Mike M: I'm in".
Mike always loves to wear fun clothes and he wanted to introduce a little of that into the wedding. He had picked up a classic old suit in Texas and thought some suspenders would add to it nicely.

Mike and I talked a little about the style and fit and decided on using some hardware from the breast of a horse. The whole posse of groomsmen came by the studio one day to get their suspenders sized. I'd prepared all of the pieces so we could just focus on the custom fit.

It was fun to hang out with the posse a little and everyone was pretty stoked to be getting custom suspend. I swung by the wedding reception at the Montreal Curling Club to see how things were getting along. The dance floor was packed and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
The suspenders were a huge hit. Susan Moss was taking control of the wedding photography so I ended up getting some sweet pics, thanks Susan.

What are you going to give to your boyz?