I see what you did there!
Awesome, find - both are beautiful (I remember seeing #1 in person), but I think number 2 might be even more spectacular! Nice hunting!
And thanks for that detail about gently reshaping them with dowels - that knowledge will surely come in handy for me at some point.
That same technique I had used on rings that were bent up. Many moons ago when I was in high school I lived in Arizona and used to hang out on my lunches at a place that made custom jewelry. He would use a sizing rod which is a tapered metal rod. If I remember right he would heat the silver up place it on the metal rod and work it down to get it to the proper size. The heating of the metal would cause it to expand so it did not split. Hopefully this will help you when you find a bent thimble not crushed or a ring so you can try to straighten it out some. I had not heated my rings I worked it slow and had no splits Thanks again for your time.
