Herb Knudsen always tries to locate the owner of the little lost things he finds.

He puts notices in the free "lost and found" service in the newspaper, particularly when he has something like "glasses, goggles, prescription lenses — Worthless type stuff to anybody but the owner."

Despite his efforts, he's left with closets full of swim fins, buckets of dive masks and a trove of unclaimed jewelry from his hobby of taking a metal detector to the beach. He has rings, gold chains, even a Rolex watch. "A lot of the time, I never get a call about something I put in the lost and found," he said. "If my friends need a ring or something, I haul out my collection," he says laughing.

But he is determined to locate the owner of the ring he found three weeks ago and reunite her with the little lost and sea-battered treasure. He's sure she'd like it back. It requires a bit more detective work than usual, though. Knudsen has made some calls, but so far no luck.

"It's a Kamehameha Schools class of 1991 girl's ring," he says. "And by the looks of it, it's probably been in the water from the time she graduated."

Knudsen, a retired Honolulu Fire Department captain, found the ring at Sandy Beach during the last big swell a few weeks ago.

"It was in water on the low part of the beach, on a slope that is eroding," he said.

The ring is in bad shape. Much of the enamel is worn away. "It's 14 karat but by the color it is now, it looks more like brass," he said. Knudsen considered polishing up the ring, making it look a little nicer, but then decided against it. "I thought it would be neater if she got to see what it really looked like when I found it," he said.

From what he can make out from the script of the engraving, the name on the ring is something like Kristl H Agpara. He called the Kamehameha Schools alumni office but they weren't able to connect him with anyone with that name. Google searches don't bring up any hits. Neither did a search on Facebook or in The Advertiser's archives.

Of course, a woman's name can be hard to trace if she takes a married name or goes by a nickname. And with the ring so beaten up after years in the ocean, it's hard to be certain of the little letters that spell out the name. It might be harder to find the girl than it was to find the ring. But whoever and wherever she is, a retired HFD captain wants her to have her ring back.

"I'm hoping she'll see this or one of her friends will contact her," he said. "Somebody knows her."

She can call Herb Knudsen at 395-3854.