This is what my ring looked like at the beginning of class on Wednesday. I have completed the sawing of the metal pieces and filing, then sweat soldered them unto the band, then shaped the band and the process I am doing at this step is soldering the ends together. If you look closely at the joint you should notice the small pieces of solder on it. The charcoal block it is resting on is what you use when you solder, it helps absorb copper released during the heating process and keep firescale from building up. Though I should also note that the ring is not actually red with heat, that is firescale already built up from previous parts of the process.