Is it normal to second-guess your last big piece before retiring?

Thirty-one years at the bench and you allready know the real answer, but here it is anyway: an asymmetric torque collar will keep drifting. Any collar with uneven mass will always rotate toward the heavy side when worn, that part you can't fix with metal alone. The question is wheather the roundness itself holds, and that depends on whether it's fully work-hardened or still springy. If you formed it and never stress-relieved it, the metal has internal tension and every time the wearer flexes it on and off, it creeps. Won't be fast, but six months in it'll be visibly egg-shaped and sitting wrong. If you annealed, formed, then hardened it properly, either by a light finishing pass, tumbling, or a controlled heat treatment depending on your alloy, it'll hold shape for years. Given that it's a one-off and you've still got the torch out, I'd adjust now. But don't do a full re-anneal on the whole collar just to nudge one side. That risks distorting the curve you already like and you'd be reforming everything. Better options: work the low side cold in small increments against a mandrel or arbor that matches your target oval, or if the metal really needs it, anneal only the section that's off and re-form just that. Gold 18kt moves nicely cold if you're patient. Chasing the correction a little at a time beats one dramatic bend. Also worth considering: build the asymmetry into the fit. If the carved piece hangs low, you can compensate by making the curve slightly tighter under the light end so the collar's natural rotation settles it balanced rather than fighting it. Some old collar makers planned for the lean deliberately. And one thing to check first, put a gram scale under that carved chalcedony. If it's heavy for its size, you might rebalance by thinning the arm on the diamond side a touch rather than touching the curve at all. One last afternoon of fussing on your own terms sounds like a fine way to finish.

I've seen this issue before, expecially with heavily worked gold that gets high internal tension. My shop tends to lean towards cold working that side down by about 0.5mm increments if it's leaning more than that. If the piece is causing noticeable drift, the metal needs more structural integrity, so I'd work the curve slightly tighter on the inner diameter side. For that kind of subtle correction, I usually just run a light piece over the grain only three times to avoid overworking the alloy completely.

The drift idea is absolutely right, especially with pieces that have heavy focal points like the blue chalcedony drop. I saw a similar issue on an asymmetric gold piece I finished a couple of years ago, and the problem wasn't just the shape but how the weight distributed when worn. I ended up subtly reducing the metal mass right under the hanging stones. That really helped keep the tension from pulling the collar forward instead of just trying to bend the metal itself.