A suggestion or two:

Flattening the bowl for those without a press:
– Use a bench metal vise, with (like new) vice jaw protectors guards. (Note: the
guards have to fit the vise you are using) These guards are need to protect your
bowl metal from the jaws of the vice. Almost all bench metal vise jaws will
destroy the bowl to where it cannot be used if use without the guards.

– Use a helper to operate the torch or the vice, but stress the need to watch
for metal cracking around the edges of the bowl while flattening down the bowl
using the vice.

– Without heating the vise, you can try heating the bowl with the torch while
applying pressure with the vise. But, the bowl should be anneal first, see
below.

– Flattening the bowl runs the risk of cracking the metal unless it is dead
soft. So, the metal needs to be annealed. I suggestion it be annealed two times
just to make sure.

My method to anneal the spoon bowl would be to place it on a piece of metal
plate 2″ to 3″ square approximately, can be larger or smaller. Larger is better.
A metal plate thats at least 5/16″ to 1/4″ thick.

Heat the metal plate until it is very hot, “before”, “before” placing the spoon
bowl on the heated plate. Then heat the spoon bowl to red hot color.

Have someone turn out the lights at this step so you can see the actual metal
color. Actual heated metal colors cannot be determined in day light or under
lighting, it should be very dark in the room to see the colors properly.

Leave the spoon bowl to cool down to room temperature until the metal plate is
completely cooled, do not rush this step. Cooling very slowly is what makes it
soft. Do this two time and it should be soft enough, able to flatten without
cracking. If you see a crack forming while flattening, stop! Anneal it a third
time using a second metal plate similar to the first plate, but this second one
is placed over the top of the bowl, then reheat the spoon bowl between the
plates this time to red hot again.

The bracelet can be re-harden after the inscribing or engraving is complete and
before the chain is attached if you think it needs to be harden. To re-harden,
heat bracelet to red hot color and dropped in a gallon bucket of cold tap water.
You wont need to heat the metal plate this time because you only want to heat
the bracelet. It will probably require one last polishing after re-harding it.

Two reasons to re-harden the bracelet: it bends easily and easy to scratch the
surface. Re-hardening will help prevent these two problems.

Just my two cents, speaking from a life time of metal works.

I will say this though, I have been looking how to do spoon rings for some time
now, and you are only the second person our over many websites that did
something with the spoon bowl! So, thank you for sharing with us nubees!

Caution when heating metal. Wear safety goggles and leather gloves. Place the
metal plate or bowl on a fire brick to heat up. Have a fire extinguisher close
by in case of fire.

But I’m a little surprised- no safety information? You didn’t really torch this on your placemat, did you? Use your head, folks, is all I’m saying… 🙂