antique whistle rings

I don’t know about you, but whistles without rings are a plague to me. I understand that those split rings break eventually ( high tensile strength ), but where to get a replacement ??  Perhaps it is just rusted TOO much and cries out for replacement ?? The newer ones just don’t look right on an old whistle. First of all they are bulky, then shiny.

Plus, those old steel split rings are terrifically slim and the part that touches at the end of each side is really tapered. You just don’t see that work anymore do you ???!!! Not to mention ( well I never understood this phrase because I do mention ) the DARK gray patina is a beautiful charcoal color look to it on the old ones prior to say 1920.

Then there are those nickel silver rings with no splits at all that sometimes are damaged or missing and now what to do ?? Especially difficult to replace if the ends were soldered together and then ground down smooth, so you can’t see the seam where they connect…you know, one solid looking ring. Even if they had a split and met for a single ring, they are hard to impossible to find. In fact try making one of nickel silver stock !!

Oh, of course brass ‘jump’ rings also present a problem. AND they had at one time terrific patina equally difficult to replace. Can’t replace a brass ring with a new very shiny, electroplated or even solid brass ring.

There is the constant problem of what SIZE ring to boot. The type of ring to match to the whistle?? >>>> was it steel or brass or nickel silver ??

Who knew there would be sooooo many decisions about whistle rings ???

—– what to do ?? just what to do ??????

good question….